A week ago we asked you-- our very attractive, highly intelligent and unbelievably nerdy readers --to tell us what your favoritest animal in the world is. We received a flood of responses, and we wanted to show some pictures of the highlights.
Adam likes the Ai, a maned three-toed sloth that lives in the jungles of South America because they are "stupid-looking"
Meg has a fondness for...
...saiga antelopes
Jonathan, yawn, likes killer whales
J-Dog believes lobe-finned fish to be "dizz-own" in his "hizz-ouse"
Who knew? Jenbug likes sloths and hyenas!
Anne-Marie Hodge, fittingly, likes the long-beaked echidna.
Meirav goes gaga for cookie cutter or cigar sharks. Great picture, I found, isn't it?
HP would like to give an hj to a jaguarundi
In a stunning turn of events, another antelope made the list, coming from Bovi, who loves nyalas
Christopher Taylor, a card-carrying weirdo, things embioptera are "cute"
Gerry L. voted for a chimpanzee. Thanks a lot for that, Ger, it's worked out so great.
Eugen and milkshake completely broke the rules and voted for the non-existent Mongolian death worm or Olgoi Khorkhoi
Our boy, Will Goring, came out swinging with the Stomatopod or mantis shrimp
Myles first picked puffins...
Then llamas...
Then hedgehogs...
Make up your freaking mind.
Finally, Dior went with the alligator. When he grows up he wants to be a fireman!
We want to thank everyone who responded and encourage more. Who's got the weirdest favorite animal? Betcha no matter what yours is, Andrew and I got you beat!
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
Ok, Bleiman boys, why is it "fitting" that I like the echidna? I have no prickly spines...at least not since that cream was approved for over the counter use... =P
Posted by: Anne-Marie | December 5, 2007 5:16 PM
Hahaha,
Yeah, I was wondering if you would react to that! The answer is.... No reason. Just made it up.
Benny
Posted by: Benny | December 5, 2007 5:34 PM
hmm. so many to choose from! Tardigrades? Deep-sea goose barnacles? The Scale-mail Snail? Box Jellyfish (24 eyes, no brain, kill you horribly anyway)? Phorid flies? I can't limit it down!
Posted by: Drhoz! | December 6, 2007 2:07 AM
Polypterus! I loved both my Polypterus endlicheri and my Polypterus sp. "Koliba" quite a bit.
And pretty much every cephalopod.
Posted by: Ryan | December 6, 2007 3:44 AM
OH MY GOD I FORGOT NEOCERTODUS FORSTERI
Posted by: Ryan | December 6, 2007 3:47 AM
I was going to say tardigrades, but Drhoz! already mentioned them. So I'll have to go for my other favourite, Melibe leonina. Although hermit crabs are cool, too.
Posted by: Susannah | December 6, 2007 4:18 AM
Olgoi Khorkhoi is a completely legit submission - we were instructed to nominate our favorite animal "just like that cute little zombie that likes turtless." A bloodcurdling apparition from Gobi desert qualifies IMHO.
(It would break rules if I nominated Yeti. Because Yeti is not actualy evil - even if its parenting methods seem severe to many)
Posted by: milkshake | December 6, 2007 8:54 AM
Olgoi Khorkhoi is a completely legit submission - we were instructed to nominate our favorite animal "just like that cute little zombie that likes turtless." A bloodcurdling apparition from Gobi desert qualifies IMHO.
(It would break rules if I nominated Yeti. Because Yeti is not actualy evil - even if its parenting methods seem severe to many)
Posted by: milkshake | December 6, 2007 8:55 AM
I'm not sure just what "an hj" is, but HP stands for "hand pob."
The North American jaguarundi subspecies are currently endangered by habitat loss, so I'm not sure an artificial insemination program would help. Still, if it will advance The Course of Science....
That's a beautiful portrait you found. Such a handsome cat. I was looking for a photo that would show its dachsund-like body plan, but I couldn't find one online.
Posted by: HP | December 6, 2007 9:36 AM
Oh man, I can't believe I totally forgot babyrusa!
They're so WEIRD-looking! Or at least to me, with my very provincial upbringing on North American and African animals.
Posted by: Jenbug | December 6, 2007 10:24 AM
I have an unreasonable fondness for the common North American woodchuck, simply because a few of them live in the ravine behind my house. But my very favorite animal has to be vampyroteuthis infernalis, the adorable and aptly-named Vampire Squid (from Hell).
Posted by: G Felis | December 6, 2007 1:04 PM
Bathynomus giganteus is probably my favorite invertebrate. On account of half-meter rolypoly!
Posted by: Greg Morrow | December 6, 2007 1:58 PM
My daughter loves okapis. No one in her first-grade class has any idea what they are. But she dragged all of her buddies to the pen to see them on the last field trip. "Is that some type of zebra?!?" And at the Houston Zoo, where there was only one, she insisted on trying to give the poor thing her stuffed animal okapi so that it wouldn't be lonely.
Great post... thanks for the pics!
Posted by: auswoman | December 6, 2007 2:19 PM
I am a cat lover! All the way from the tiny little kitten to the biggest tigers and lions! Since it makes for more pleasant dreams about petting them I guess the kitten wins since getting my hand and arm back in one piece is a real priority!
Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | December 6, 2007 4:03 PM
Much as one may think our President is a liar, a failure, a jerk, a dummy, whatever, posting his picture herein under the 'chimpanzee' demeans the country, the OFFICE of the President of the US, and this website. Stick to animals - leave the political commentary to the mainstream, left-leaning, Bush-hating press.
Posted by: Bob | December 6, 2007 10:48 PM
I do love nearly all animals, each of which plays an interesting role in some ecosystem or another. But I have to admit, there are some critters that just make themselves so unlikeable that I can't abide them. Mosquitoes, for example, I would gladly do without. The same goes for the ubiquitous and universally unpleasant Common Rightwing Troll (tedious microcephalous), a rather pathetic creature with no redeeming qualities that I've ever been able to discern...
Posted by: G | December 7, 2007 12:53 AM
Oh I in no way was dismissing the fascinating fauna of the grand old US and A, but since most of the second-hand textbooks I had as a child focused on North America I felt that my knowledge of animals was just more provincial that way. When I'd read about numbats and lemurs in Ranger Rick I would dream of a place where I could walk outside my house and view a wealth of non-placental mammals and monotremes.
Posted by: Jenbug | December 7, 2007 9:50 AM
Oh, Bob! You're so cute when you're angry.
Posted by: Benny | December 7, 2007 10:36 AM
jenbug, i think we may have grown up in the same gharial exhibit. do you have a rich uncle who'll buy the zoobooks franchise for us and allow us to revitalize the brand?
Posted by: andrew | December 7, 2007 11:03 AM
I used to wish that our mother was a monotreme....
Posted by: Benny | December 7, 2007 12:27 PM
lol@Bob. XD
Aww, you shoulda shown the saiga's crazy nose-tubes. =3 Those things are so weirdly awesome.
Also, you should check out yellow-footed rock wallabies. They're another of my favorite species, and they have the most beautiful coloring of all the macropods.
Posted by: Meg | December 7, 2007 2:04 PM
My favorite is the Coconut Crab. ;) Being from MD, I've gotta show some love to flesh-eating monster crabs.
Posted by: Ash | December 7, 2007 2:18 PM
Well I have an uncle who drives a big white cadillac with gold trim, but I think his preferred method of earth revitilization is spitting his 'chaw' on the neighbor's lawn. He's more of the Teddy Roosevelt kind of naturalist: 'I want to save the land so I have somewhere to hunt.'
I only had that one free issue of Zoobooks about elephants, which I would get every four months or so. But I LOVED it.
Early European explorers discovering an elephant skull and giving birth to the Cylops legend = love!
Posted by: Jenbug | December 10, 2007 4:15 PM
No love for the slender-horned gazelle? Story of my life!
Posted by: Kristin | December 13, 2007 11:52 PM
The jaguarundi is so cool!!!!!
Posted by: kelsi | May 20, 2008 7:48 PM
BOO!BOO!BOO!BOO!!!!!!
Posted by: Conor | May 20, 2008 7:51 PM