From Pär Svensson of Kurtz, this fine portrait of a red river hog, Potamochoerus porcus, in Berlin's zoo. These cool-looking omnivores make their home in sub-Saharan Africa.
From the same recent zoo visit, our cerebal rock guitarist provides us with a peek at the nocturnal fellows who give this blog part of its name.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
tags: Male Von der Decken's Hornbill, Tockus deckeni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Von der Decken's Hornbill, Tockus deckeni, endemic to savanna and woodland of sub-Saharan Africa. Photographed in the African Bird Safari at London Zoo. [I will identify this bird for you…
A red river hog (Potamochoerus porcus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
You might not normally think of them as artodactyls, but suids (i.e. pigs and their relatives) are another major family grouping within the order. Pictured above is one representative from Africa, the Red River Hog (Potamochoerus porcus), which lives in large groups of between 4 and 20 or so as…
A red river hog (Potamochoerus porcus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
[Like what you see here? Then vote for me in the 3rd Annual Blogging Scholarship contest!]
RRHs are indeed really cool, as are aardvarks, but the king of them all has to be the Honey Badger (or Ratel). This fearsome beast can take on pretty much anything - snakes, hyenas, bees - you name it. Its most eye-wateringly crazy mode of attack is to go straight for the scrotum, and castrate its victim.
It would make a remarkably good theriomorphic deity; the Church of the Honey Badger (no website yet) seeks to follow the ways of the HB in all things (particularly theological argument with other faiths). Ratelian philosophy suggests that attack is the best form of defence, and ripping your opponent's scrotum off (metaphorically, of course) is the best form of attack. If they have a scrotum. Otherwise it's not.
Great! When I move to a remote island and seed it with genetically enhanced, intelligent animals, I'll have a Honey Badger as bodyguard and a posse of RRHs as my excavation crew.
Arty, smarty name, I first thought when I saw your blog:
'Aardvark' is probably the first word in all dictionaries, so you've made sure to be on top of most link lists.
But after some consideration one realizes, that 'a ' (a + space) comes before 'aa'....
('A Blog' comes before 'Aardvarchaeology')
So you're only topping 95% of the blogrolls ;)
Well, you know, ABATC isn't on all the blog rolls I'm on, and unlike that name mine gives an immediate idea of what the blog's about. Still, ABATC is highly recommended if you're into chronobiology and science democratisation.