I am including only the species that I have seen in zoos (z), private collections (p) and the wild (w)
Mammal species: eastern lowland gorilla (
graueri) (z), Hispaniolan solenodon (z), bottle-nosed dolphin (z & w)
Bird species: common swift (w)*, long-tailed duck (w & z), chestnut wattle-eyed flycatcher (w)
Reptile species: Boelen's python (z), pig-nosed turtle (Fly River turtle) (z), Komodo dragon (z)
Amphibian Species: Blomberg's toad (z), natterjack (w), strawberry poison frog (z)
Invertebrates: African beak butterfly (
Libythea labdaca) (w)**, little cuttle (
Sepiola atlantica) (z), emperor dragonfly (w)
Fish:
Neolamrologus furcifer (p), '
Lamprologus'
ocellatus (p), African freshwater pipefish (
Enneacampus ansorgii) (p)
Zoos: Basle, Chester, Jersey
Exhibits: Reptile House at Regent's Park, Bison Hill at Whipsnade (but only when it had a herd of bison), the otter enclosures at the former Otter Trust collection at Bungay (vey natural enclosures on a side channel of the river Waveney).
Guilty pleasure animals (Ones most zoochatters find boring/too common that you quite enjoy): amazon parrots, capuchins, Indin rhinos
Proudest Lifeticks: peregrine falcon (in the early 1960s, when they were very rare birds), a flock of European hobbies (in Africa), thick-billed cuckoo.
Notes
* always a favourite species, but a few weeks ago I saw something that I had been hoping to see for more than 40 years - a pair of swifts mating on the wing (fancy that
).
** a migratory species, imagine a cloud of butterflies flying east past your house that takes 2 days to pass by
)
