Favourite wild animal

Without doubt, this - a super-intelligent apex predator (they even eat Great White Sharks), capable of strategic thinking, risk assessment and educating their young, and supremely well-organised along matriarchal lines. I'm not a big animal rights guy but I think that people who keep these magnificent creatures in small pools to perform tricks for idiot humans should be utterly ashamed.

Did you know that apparently the female killer whale is the only mammal, apart from human females, which menstruates?

My other (smaller favourite) is the chameleon - another fantastic adaption, and available in a huge variety of sizes and colours

My favourite wild animals are women.

I didn't but I'm not sure I now feel all that much better equipped to deal with the world.

Does she do all that at "that" time of the month as well ???

ahem...

well, it has to be the Pangolin. It's a favourite of David Attenborough's as well, so I count myself in good company.  I have long been fascinated by them and am alarmed at the speed and rate at which they are being annihilated.  For anyone who wants to know why, there was a recent piece on radio 4 as well as an article in this Saturday's Telegraph magazine.  My fan-hood goes as far as having a pair of silver Pangolin cuff-links that I invariably choose in favour of all others in a gesture of support.

The daft thing is, I've yet to see one in the wild.  I just hope that I get a chance to do so.  If the current situation continues, they'll be extinct in Asia within a few years and then in Africa not long after that.  Why do we wage war on such a wonderful creature?

I do know that they get very wild if you forget their birthday

The common british Hare, see my avatar!

We have the pleasure of these brilliant animals around our home in significant numbers and can watch them all times of year. Strong, beautiful and impressive creatures, seeing them spar and fight in March (which actually arrives in Yorkshire in April) is a particular treat. We see the young too-gangly youths that tend to run down the middle of the lane rather than scooting into the hedges like bunnies.

Second place to the Kingfisher; same reason really of seeing them at home. When we see one it feels like a lucky spell. We just occasionally get more than the iridescent fly-past and see one settle on a branch for a while to fish. Lovely things.

Bruce

But when you are 79 that's like 'every' birthday!

My fave is the Cicada, because I like prime numbers.

There is life in the old dog yet.

There are 8 sub-species of pangolin.  Although not exactly common, the African ones are not so endangered.

I had the pleasure of having one living under the platform deck of my tent in Kruger.  Got to see him/her just the once in 5 days, came out from under the deck & did some cleaning of the important bits on the track just a few meters away as we sat on the deck having a sun-downer & not daring to move & get the camera. Later around the braai one of the rangers said they are normally fearless & I could have got the camera OK -  oh well.

Mike, thanks for sharing a lovely scene.  It would appear that Pangolins in Africa are "at risk" - mainly thanks to demand from China and SE Asia for their meat and the medicinal "value" of their scales (Keratin), which is shorthand for saying that if nothing is done quickly they will soon be a rare sight there as well.  

If only they were more timid around people.   I'm informed that they have a habit of curling up in a ball when threatened.  A ball of scales makes for a fantastic defence against just about any predator...  except for man, who just picks him up and carries him away.

Kingfishers robins blue tits all these small birds don't migrate see they get water and fat.A chicken carcass hung on the clothes line will help them survive in the winter and if we can stop noble animals being killed just for their body parts but that is another subject .

Except, of course, when you encounter a killer whale in the wild - if she's a female receiving a visit from her Aunt Flo, you'll know to avoid her - she might be a bit tetchy and aggressive.

I've always been intrigued by the sea and would have become a marine biologist rather than a doctor if not for a diving accident when I was 16. The Octopus is an incredible creature that never ceases to amaze. Some may have seen the recent David Attenborough programme showing the octopus using two halves of a coconut shell, not only for protection, but to use as a method of escape by rolling away from prey. These creatures are so intelligent and adaptable in their environment. They can even predict football scores. 

Wolves. Amazing creatures.

The cruel, stupid, ignorant, cowardly, selfish, sad, pathetic little people who demand the sort of quackery that results in the extermination of species like this should themselves be rendered extinct.

My favourite animals is very rare warm blooded it is a tiparary and are mountain dwellers as any body got one.

Unfortunately winkyincanada, that means rendering a huge percentage of the population of the Far East extinct. With luck it will not miss exterminating the gangsters, drug dealers & multi-millionaire stalwarts of society business executives that finance this huge obscene trade.

In 2014 South Africa (alone) lost 1215 rhino's to poachers. The add the other countries & it amounts to >10 per day. Then add the elephants & & etc.

+1 Not only quackery but also killing indiscriminately for food like the devastation of the shark population for shark fin soup. The fins are cut off and the rest of the carcass is thrown back into the sea, usually with the shark still alive.

Yep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas%27s_cat

Nope, the people who make the money are the problem. The people who believe in the folk tales and 'quackery' are in a large part also victims.

I don't count the egotists who demand rare items as trophies of their wealth in this of course.

Bruce

Bruce, it's simpler than that; Money is the problem.  You should count the egoists because they are the ones with the money who drive the demand - It is as much those who are willing to spend it as those who make it.

All down the line, there's money being made.  From the kids who go out and pick these things up from the wild for pennies, which may just feed their family for another week, to the illegal market trader, to the restaurant owner, to the pharmacist; however none of this is worth a damn without demand. Demand from the wealthy who wish to show off and display their prestige. Manage to enlighten these people and you will start to solve the problem.  And the first thing you have to do to tackle that is to try to tackle the root problem caused by money; corruption.