May Day Lockdown Puzzle

gentle lemur

gentle lemur

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15+ year member
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May Day Lockdown Puzzle

May Day Lockdown Puzzle

24 animals to identify

Your challenge is to find the Odd One Out.

The photos show 24 lumpy, bumpy or curvy bits. You need to identify the species and work out what they have in common, so you can spot the Odd One Out.
I hope that you will find that some of the animals are quite easy to recognise, but some are harder and I expect that one or two will really be quite hard - but of course you can do some research. I know that many ZooChatters find fishes hard to identify, so I have put a photo of a whole fish in the puzzle, as it's a very small species and its whole shape is very curvy too.
I will give one clue: the photos are in order. If you can work out what that order is, you may find that it helps to narrow down the possibilities when you try to identify the more difficult species. Although finding the order will not solve the puzzle, it should help you to find the answer.
There is of course an obvious answer: one of the photos was clearly not taken in a zoo. But actually only 20 of the photos were taken in zoos - so that isn't the Odd One Out you are looking for. It's got to be harder than that :).
There is also a secret answer, which is a second Odd One Out that only I can verify. I will let anyone who finds the proper answer have a guess at it - it might even be a tie-breaker if we need one.
Please post your answers in this thread in a week's time, lets say after noon UST/GMT (1 pm BST) on Friday 8th May. If you have a question you can post it here, or send me a PM.
Good luck!
 
Less than a day to go!

How many species have you identified? Have you made progress with the puzzle?
 
I've got some of them but I doubt I'll be getting even half :(

You've made it really quite hard this time :)
 
I'm really close! I think I need one bird and one fish, but don't have a clear idea on the theme/odd one out ... I just haven't had time to sit and work those out. I'll make time tonight!
 
@Mo Hassan has just pointed out a mistake in this puzzle in a PM. I have carelessly put numbers 12 and 13 in the wrong order. I apologise if that has confused anyone (but I don't apologise for any other confusion ;)).
 
1) Ambystoma mexicanum
2) Bucorvus abyssinicus
3) Caloenas nicobarica (really unsure about this one!)
4) Choeropsis liberiensis
5) Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae
6) Dolichotis patagonus
7) Dracaena guianensis
8) Gambusia sp.??
9) Grus japonensis (toss-up between this and G. americanus but japonensis is more likely)
10) Helarctos malayanus
11) ??? (I thought it must be some kind of flycatcher but can't think of any that fit the order)
12a) Megaptera novaeangliae
13a) Mellivora capensis
14) Morus bassanus
15) Oreamnos americanus
16) Phoenicoparrus andinus
17) Physignathus cocincinus
18) Pteronura brasiliensis
19) Pteropus mariannus (unsure, but it's the most likely geographically named candidate - P. poliocephalus is more likely but not geographically named, unless that's the odd one out!)
20) Pygoscelis papua (My candidate for odd-one-out, as it's not actually from the place referred to in the specific name)
21) Saimiri boliviensis
22) Strix uralensis
23) Tapirus indicus
24) Zalophus californianus

Theme: species named after geographical locations.
Odd one out: 20, or 19, but I'll go with 20 as I'm more confident with the penguin's identification.
 
This is the best I could do:

1 - Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum)

2 - Abyssinian Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus)

3 - Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica)

4 - Pygmy Hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis) ?

5 - Red-Crowned Parakeet or Kakariki (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae)

6 - Patagonian Cavy or Mara (Dolichotis patagonum)

7 - Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) ? or some other crocodile

8 - ?

9 - Whooping Crane (Grus americana)

10 - Sun Bear (Helarctus malayanus)

11 - ?

12 - Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis)

13 - Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)

14 - Irrawady Dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)

15 - Rocky Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)

16 - Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)

17 - Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)

18 - Hawaiian Monk Seal (Monachus schauinslandi)

19 - Grey-Headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus) ? or some other fruit bat

20 - some sort of owl?

21 - Prevost’s Squirrel (Calloscirus prevostii)

22 - some owl?

23 - Malayan Tapir (Acrocodia indica)

24 - some seal or sea lion?

I think there was some correlation in the first few species in an alphabetical genus order or so?
 
1. Axolotl
2. Abyssian Ground-Hornbill
3. Nicobar Pigeon
4. Common Hippopotamus
5. Kakariki
6. Patagonian Cavy
7. Chinese Crocodile Lizard
8. I have no idea
9. Common Crane
10. Sun Bear
11. Snowy-crowned Robin-Chat
12. Honey Badger
13. Humpback Whale
14. Northern Gannet
15. Mountain Goat
16. Lesser Flamingo
17. Chinese Water Dragon
18. Giant Otter
19. Golden-mantled Flying Fox
20. ?
21. Black-headed Squirrel Monkey
22. Ural Owl
23. ?
24. California Sea Lion

Not sure what the pattern or odd one out is.
 
@ZooBinh started well, and realised that the genus order was important, but of course that makes 7 and 8 start with D, E, F or G (between Dolichotis and Grus) so it is unlikely that 7 could be a crocodile* (or indeed a caiman). Nearly half of the identifications are perfect and there are a several more near misses.
* As I was setting the puzzle I decided not to use crocodilians, day geckos, monitor lizards or Amazon parrots as there are too many species which are confusingly similar.
 
@birdsandbats has done a good job of identification with 14 perfect answers and some very near misses too (for example, there is more than one species of kakariki). But you need a devious brain to get through the second and third layers of the puzzle. You have to tick the boxes and then think out of the box :)
 
@Mo Hassan Hassan is nearly perfect. 21 correct answers and a near miss. Well done!
I'm not going to worry about the fruit bat species and I'm not surprised that 8 and 11 caused the problems (I'll put a couple of clues below). The point is that you don't need to be 100% perfect to spot the Odd One Out which is the gentoo penguin, Pygoscelis papua, which doesn't come from Papua (of course). It was collected on Captain Cook's second voyage, but things got mixed up somehow, perhaps in the hold of HMS Resolution.
I declare that @Mo Hassan Hassan has officially solved the puzzle. Congratulations!
 
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There is still a little bit of clearing up to do.
I knew 8 would give everyone problems. It's a very small freshwater fish from a very small family of very small freshwater fishes. ZTL lists it in just 2 collections and it is occasionally seen in the aquarium trade. I chose it because it is very beautiful and because of its curved head and fins.
11 is a very common zoo species, but its genus name has been revised recently and I chose a photo of a female bird, rather than the male which would have been much more familiar.

Would anyone like to guess at my secret Odd One Out?
 
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gentle lemur said:
There is still a little bit of clearing up to do.
I knew 7 would give everyone problems. It's a very small freshwater fish from a very small family of very small freshwater fishes. ZTL lists it in just 2 collections and it is occasionally seen in the aquarium trade. I chose it because it is very beautiful and because of its curved head and fins.
11 is a very common zoo species, but its genus name has been revised recently and I chose a photo of a female bird, rather than the male which would have been much more familiar.

Would anyone like to guess at my secret Odd One Out?
Click to expand...
For 7, don't you mean 8?
 
gentle lemur said:
There is still a little bit of clearing up to do.
I knew 8 would give everyone problems. It's a very small freshwater fish from a very small family of very small freshwater fishes. ZTL lists it in just 2 collections and it is occasionally seen in the aquarium trade. I chose it because it is very beautiful and because of its curved head and fins.
Click to expand...

This one actually didn't give me any trouble, this is Elassoma evergladei, Everglades Pygmy Sunfish. :)

I did ok, 18 out of 24, and I had the genus right on an additional 2.
 
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