Animals that you have suddenly gained interest in.

CheeseChameleon1945

CheeseChameleon1945

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
This thread is pretty self explanatory. Animals that you used to think that weren't interesting, or animals that you simply haven't heard about. I recently have gained a large sudden interest in isopods, as I think they are a fascinating and diverse little group of crustaceans. From Giant isopods, to parasitic tongue-eating louses isopods are a very varied group of animals.

Is their any animal that suddenly has enthralled you, or has peeked your interest?
 
Yes, there has indeed. Everyday I challenge myself to do a bit of reading of papers on the conservation of an EDGE species.

Over the past few weeks for me there has been quite a few but in particular these would be:

The tarsiers because I am interested in their ecology and general natural history and the conservation challenges that aspects of these species pose in terms of conserving them in-situ. Reading about them has given me an appreciation for how delicate these little primates are (something that has parallels to the work I'm involved in) and convinced me that they should only be conserved in-situ and not ex-situ.

The Malagasy giant jumping rat because I am interested in their ecology, biology and their conservation. The more I learn about these species the more affection I feel for them and I think they are a fascinating creature. For example, a couple of days ago I read a paper that stated that the mortality of the male giant jumping rat is around 50% from predation due to their protective urge towards their offspring which they acompany when foraging at night.

The woylie and the potoroos. I am trying to familiarise myself with the more obscure marsupials like the rat kangaroos and started with the Potoroidae. Their ecology is fascinating, their conservation plight and their natural history and apart from that I just find them very endearing.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, there has indeed. Everyday I challenge myself to do a bit of reading of papers on the conservation of an EDGE species.

Over the past few weeks for me there has been quite a few but in particular these would be:

The tarsiers because I am interested in their ecology and general natural history and the conservation challenges that aspects of these species pose in terms of conserving them in-situ. Reading about them has given me an appreciation for how delicate these little primates are (something that has parallels to the work I'm involved in) and convinced me that they should only be conserved in-situ and not ex-situ.

The Malagasy giant jumping rat because I am interested in their ecology, biology and their conservation. The more I learn about these species the more affection I feel for them and I think they are a fascinating creature. For example, a couple of days ago I read a paper that stated that the mortality of the male giant jumping rat is around 50% from predation due to their protective urge towards their offspring which they acompany when foraging at night.

The woylie and the potoroos. I am trying to familiarise myself with the more obscure marsupials like the rat kangaroos and started with the Potoroidae. Their ecology is fascinating, their conservation plight and their natural history and apart from that I just find them very endearing.
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Very nice choices! I love tarsiers as well, but just like you I learned how delicate they are, and how much conservation is needed for these little guys. Rodents have never been my favorite thing, but I enjoy porcupines and bamboo rats. Malagasy giant jumping rats I find pretty interesting looking because they almost look like a marsupial.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
Very nice choices! I love tarsiers as well, but just like you I learned how delicate they are, and how much conservation is needed for these little guys. Rodents have never been my favorite thing, but I enjoy porcupines and bamboo rats. Malagasy giant jumping rats I find pretty interesting looking because they almost look like a marsupial.
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Yes, I find them very interesting little mammals and I think what I've concluded after reading quite a bit about them is that ex-situ management (unless it is within the Phillipines / South-East Asia) really shouldn't be attempted with these primates at all.

They do look like a marsupial don't they ? I think that they have a faint resemblance to a bilby and both species have a "rabbity" sort of look to them too.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, I find them very interesting little mammals and I think what I've concluded after reading quite a bit about them is that ex-situ management (unless it is within the Philippines / South-East Asia) really shouldn't be attempted with these primates at all.

They do look like a marsupial don't they? I think that they have a faint resemblance to a bilby and both species have a "rabbity" sort of look to them too.
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Yeah, sort of like a chubbier bilby but with bigger noses! :D
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, there has indeed. Everyday I challenge myself to do a bit of reading of papers on the conservation of an EDGE species.

Over the past few weeks for me there has been quite a few but in particular these would be:

The tarsiers because I am interested in their ecology and general natural history and the conservation challenges that aspects of these species pose in terms of conserving them in-situ. Reading about them has given me an appreciation for how delicate these little primates are (something that has parallels to the work I'm involved in) and convinced me that they should only be conserved in-situ and not ex-situ.

The Malagasy giant jumping rat because I am interested in their ecology, biology and their conservation. The more I learn about these species the more affection I feel for them and I think they are a fascinating creature. For example, a couple of days ago I read a paper that stated that the mortality of the male giant jumping rat is around 50% from predation due to their protective urge towards their offspring which they acompany when foraging at night.

The woylie and the potoroos. I am trying to familiarise myself with the more obscure marsupials like the rat kangaroos and started with the Potoroidae. Their ecology is fascinating, their conservation plight and their natural history and apart from that I just find them very endearing.
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Could you perhaps elaborate a little bit on where you find those papers? Do you find them on the EDGE website or via other sources? This all sounds quite interesting and I think reading animal studies stuff could be useful to mentally help me get through the current Covid-19 situation in my country.

With regards to the question, lately my interests have been especially peaked by Sirenians (Manatees and dugongs), Australian mammals and birds and ibis, stork and heron type waterbirds. These are definitely not new interests for me, but just species that I am a bit extra interested in right now.
 
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KevinB said:
Could you perhaps elaborate a little bit on where you find those papers? Do you find them on the EDGE website or via other sources? This all sounds quite interesting and I think reading animal studies stuff could be useful to mentally help me get through the current Covid-19 situation in my country.

With regards to the question, lately my interests have been especially peaked by Sirenians (Manatees and dugongs), Australian mammals and birds and ibis, stork and heron type waterbirds. These are definitely not new interests for me, but just species that I am a bit extra interested in right now.
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Yes, of course I can.:)

I do think it is a good / constructive way to deal with or take your mind off the frustrations of the pandemic. It certainly helps me with this.

There really is no exact method to the way I read other than I go through the list of mammals on the EDGE species site and find a mammal species that interests me. The site did used to have a bibliography I think but no longer does so I just use it for selecting a species that interests me and that I do not feel I know enough about.

Species | EDGE of Existence

I set myself the challenge of reading at least one interesting paper on the species in question a day or every two days whether it be regarding its morphology, ecology or conservation (or something relating to ethno-zoology / anthropology and how cultures from the country relate to it).

I look up on google scholar a list of articles and if I find something that peaks my interest I just click on it, download it and begin reading. If there is a paywall to the paper then I just go to trusty old Scihub.com (Sci-Hub) and enter the name of the paper in the search bar and typically find it to read for free there.

For example, the paper that I mention regarding the survivorship of male giant jumping rats in regards to predation (due to their protective behaviour towards offspring) is this one:

Sci-Hub | Sex-specific predation on a monogamous rat, Hypogeomys antimena (Muridae: Nesomyinae). Animal Behaviour, 59(6), 1087–1094 | 10.1006/anbe.2000.1381

I work remotely and administratively at this point in time because of the pandemic so have a lot of flexibility and free time so I just pick a moment and do the reading then.

I find that doing this reading helps to give me a great appreciation for these animals, the reading enriches my knowledge and there are often intriguing parallels / crossovers / lessons that I can see in terms of the work that I am doing in conservation.

Hope that helps ;)
 
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I’m currently really interested in jumping spiders, especially many Australian genera particularly, Hypobleum, Jotus, Saltis, Saratus and most intriguing of them all the peacock spiders of Maratus.

Peacock spiders are amazing, so cool that I changed my profile picture to M.constellatus.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
I’m currently really interested in jumping spiders, especially many Australian genera particularly, Hypobleum, Jotus, Saltis, Saratus and most intriguing of them all the peacock spiders of Maratus.

Peacock spiders are amazing, so cool that I changed my profile picture to M.constellatus.
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I've noticed your sudden interest in the jumping spiders ;)

Fascinating little beasties.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
I’m currently really interested in jumping spiders, especially many Australian genera particularly, Hypobleum, Jotus, Saltis, Saratus and most intriguing of them all the peacock spiders of Maratus.

Peacock spiders are amazing, so cool that I changed my profile picture to M.constellatus.
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I have also noticed your interest. They are so fascinating aren't they, and we just keep finding more of them!
 
On the topic of invertebrates, I have definitely gained an interest in sea cucumbers. I had always known about them, but embarrassingly I never took notice of them that often. That was a mistake for sure, and I love them a lot. They are diverse, and have so many different patterns and colors unique to each species. They also are found as high up as tide pools, but live all the way down in the cracks of the sea floor!
 
I've become very much interested in deep sea creatures after seeing some excellent displays of them at Tokyo Sea Life Park and Osaka Aquarium (and having a peek at Okinawa Chuarumi Aquarium's species list for their 3(!) deep sea exhibits). Perhaps one of my favourites would have to be the Bathynomus isopods, especially giganteus, but the flapjack octopuses, vampire squids and the deep sea Psychrolutidae sculpins.
 
DaLilFishie said:
I've become very much interested in deep-sea creatures after seeing some excellent displays of them at Tokyo Sea Life Park and Osaka Aquarium (and having a peek at Okinawa Chuarumi Aquarium's species list for their 3(!) deep-sea exhibits). Perhaps one of my favourites would have to be the Bathynomus isopods, especially gigantic, but the flapjack octopuses, vampire squids, and the deep sea Psychrolutidae sculpins.
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Agreed! I was so surprised by the level of deep-sea species at Okinawa,
viewing their website.
Deep-sea creatures, I have always loved deeply, so that's not a new fondness of mine. Glad you like them, there are many more waiting to be discovered :D
 
For me it's birds from the family Columbidae (pigeons and doves). I started having interest in them a few years ago. To be honest, I have no idea how it started but I can tell you why I like them, and to sum it all up, it's because I appreciate how they are so much more adaptable and intelligent compared to many other species of birds. I also like how some species like fruit doves have such colorful plumage. Although they are not my #1 favorite birds (being the Indian Peafowl), they come very close to it, with the Rock Dove being my 3rd favorite bird, right behind the Indian Peafowl and Caribbean Flamingo.
 
EternalPigeon said:
For me it's birds from the family Columbidae (pigeons and doves). I started having interest in them a few years ago. To be honest, I have no idea how it started but I can tell you why I like them, and to sum it all up, it's because I appreciate how they are so much more adaptable and intelligent compared to many other species of birds. I also like how some species like fruit doves have such colorful plumage. Although they are not my #1 favorite birds (being the Indian Peafowl), they come very close to it, with the Rock Dove being my 3rd favorite bird, right behind the Indian Peafowl and Caribbean Flamingo.
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My fascination with pigeons and doves happened a while ago, but it was mainly learning about Nicobar pigeons, and their closest relations to the dodo. Dodo birds are just plain epic, and Nicobar pigeons are beautiful! That's partly why I like pigeons and doves, because of their feather patterns and their colors. Also, pigeons are very intelligent, and learning about them (and crows) solving problems is pretty cool! Pigeons producing milk is pretty unique as well.
 
Was never enthusiastic of birds but did like them before. But when I’ve gone into the many aviaries in San Diego Zoo including Woodland Aviary in Africa Rocks, photographing them made me a huge fan. Seeing the many bee eaters catching bees, violet backed starlings shining in the sun, and the exclamatory paradise whydah dragging around the long tail feather in the air like a ballet routine.
 
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