Your Favorite or Animals that You are Most Interested in

Nikola Chavkosk

Well-Known Member
I have read different posts of how some zoochatters declaring themselves that have some particular groups or related taxa of animals that are their favorite, or would want to work with, eg. small carnivores and tea :p, invertebrates, ant-eating mammals (aardvark250), felids (Arizona Docent), venomous snakes (Batto?), apes (ShonenJake13), small herptiles (jayjds2, Gulo gulo), various others or their zoochat name implies on particular animal (eg. lowland anoa, Loxodonta,Cobra).

I will start with myself, I would definitively be most interested in:
-Arboreal mammals (koala, sloths, tree kangaroos, cuscus, etc.)
-Monkeys, apes, lemurs
-Spotted felids and clouded leopard, some other small cats like goldens, Malayan tiger, spotted hyena (Feloidea)
-Giraffes, okapi, black rhino, elephants, hippos
-Psittacines (all)
-Rhamphastidae, hornbills, great blue turaco
-Old World vultures, King vulture, African fish eagle
-Snakes (Viperinae, Crotalinae, Elapidae, Boidae)
-Smaller islands lizards (iguanas-various, excluding green and sea iguanas, skinks, giant geckos)
-Australasian monitor lizards

What are yours? :)

Hope so I am not borring, I have plenty of time.
In part I have been inspired by a thread - What kind of zookeeper are you?
 
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Insect eating mammal such as aardvarks(will see them in Sunday),armadillo,anteater

Invertebrates like scorpion,antlion,beetle(but not cockroach)

Marsupial(not kangaroo and koala) such as Tasmanian devil or quoll

Color variats animal such as albino and king cheetah

Whales or dolphins
 
1. Elephants (hence the screen name)
2. Ungulates, especially antelope
3. Felines
4. Canines
5. Pheasants

Not that there's really animal I don't like.
 
I am most interested in apes, particularly chimpanzees. Other favourite animals include hyena, big cats (not so much tigers for some reason, but all the other big cats), rhino, okapi, and pretty much all primates.
 
big cats (not so much tigers for some reason, but all the other big cats)

Me not so much lions, but all other big cats :) I guess because lions are very common in zoos... contrary some tiger subspecies are so intriguing and rare in zoos (Malayan, Indochinese, Bengal (outside India)..
 
As you can tell by my username, my #1 favorite animal in the whole wide world is the okapi.

In all seriousness, orcas are my most favorite, ha ha. Cetaceans in general are pretty great, though nearing the top of the list are spinner dolphins, pygmy killer whales, vaquitas, and South Asian river dolphins.

I've always been a cat lover too. You can't go wrong with tigers! I have a hard time choosing a favorite subspecies, they're all pretty great, but if I had to choose I'd probably lean toward the Sumatran tiger. My other favorite cats are cheetahs, ocelots, and fishing cats.

Lately I've been really into birds. I live in Texas, you can do quite a bit of bird watching around here, especially on the coast. The osprey is my favorite bird. I'm also really into parrots.

I have a fascination with non-primate animals that have lots of "human" traits despite not being closely related to us. So things like cetaceans, elephants, and parrots. I'm developing an interest in octopus as well. The funny thing is, I've never been big on primates.

Pangolins are also cool. They look like mythical creatures. For the same reason, I'm a fan of the frilled shark, ha ha.
 
My Top 5

1. Felines, especially Cheetahs
2. Ungulates, especially Giraffes
3. Frogs
4. Primates
5. Birds
 
The wild counterparts to everyday domestic animals.
Horses and Asses
Cattle and other Bovids
Cats
Dogs
Fowl, Grouse, Pheasants
Swine
"Cavy" type rodents
 
I am already listed in the opening post as being a cat (felid) fanatic. This is followed by mammalian carnivores in general.
 
Gorillas
and gentle lemurs, of course
and Demidoff's galagos
and tree pangolins
and golden lion tamarins, golden-headed lion tamarins and pied tamarins
and grey seals
and bottle-nosed dolphins
and fairy blue flycatchers and wattle-eyed flycatchers
and pygmy kingfishers and giant kingfishers
and lories
and peregrine falcons
and Bewick's swans and whooper swans and long-tailed ducks
and New Caledonian crows
and tuataras
and African freshwater pipefish Enneacampus ansorgii
and all the different cichlids from Lake Tanganyika

And perhaps a few more :)

Alan
 
I really do like frogs, though my favorite would be the Panamanian golden frog, which is a toad. :p I like most toads too. I'd make a big list but you could put just about any in front of me and I'd be happy.

I'm a lot more familiar with bird taxa, so it's easier to list those which I am partial to:
Anseriformes, except for the magpie goose. They're a bit weird looking (though they have adorable babies!)
Quetzals, especially the resplendent quetzal.
Cocks-of-the-rock (both species)
Mesoamerican Eagles (I've seen 4 out of the 5 species)
Storks
Pond-herons
Shoebills
Secretary birds
Quails
Large African eagles (African fish eagle, crowned eagle, martial eagle, a few others)
African Vultures, King vultures, California condors
I'll stop there with the birds ;)

My tastes in mammals are a bit obscure:
Prosimians (pottos, bushbabies, lorises, and lemurs. I like most lemurs so I won't bother listing them)
Elephant shrews
Flying foxes
Guenons
Squirrels
Three-toed sloths
White-handed gibbons
Deer
Takin
Snow leopards
Pandas
Otters
White-bellied tree pangolins
Tamanduas
As you can see, there's not really one category I can fit any of that into.
 
I chose the name "zygodactyl" because a lot of the birds I find really interesting have zygodactyl feet. I love birds, with a preference for birds which like to climb around the trees rather than fly, and zygodactyly seems like it might have evolved to make that easier in parrots, mousebirds, and piciiforms.

In order, my favorite groups of birds probably are:
  1. Parrots
  2. New Zealand wattlebirds (especially kokakos)
  3. Corvids
  4. Penguins
  5. Bucerotiformes (hornbills, ground hornbills, hoopoes, wood hoopoes)
  6. Ramphastides (barbets and toucans)
  7. Mousebirds
  8. Non-brood-parasitic cuckoos
  9. Turacos
  10. Apostlebirds/white-winged choughs
  11. Lyrebirds
  12. Cuckoo-rollers
  13. Ground rollers
  14. New Zealand wrens
  15. Vangas
  16. Auks
  17. Owls (well, I find most owls boring, but there's about half a dozen species I really like)
  18. Woodpeckers
  19. Pigeons
  20. Ducks
  21. Cypselomorphae (oilbirds, owlet-nightjars, swifts, hummingbirds, etc.)
  22. Coraciiformes (except ground-rollers)
  23. Hawks (including eagles)
Regarding mammals, I have a strong fondness for:
  1. Bats (in fairness, I'm biased towards certain groups of bats, but I like almost all bats)
  2. Hyraxes (I just find them absolutely adorable, like a prairie dog designed by Dr. Seuss)
  3. Primates (hardly surprising)
  4. Bilby
  5. Sloths
  6. Social mongoose species (especially the banded mongoose)
  7. Quolls
  8. Opossums
  9. Armadillos
  10. Pangolins
  11. Possums
  12. Tenrecs
  13. Bandicoots
  14. Red pandas
  15. Raccoon family
  16. Springhares
  17. Bettongs
  18. Koalas
  19. Ground squirrels (esp prairie dogs)
  20. Platypodes
  21. Desmans
  22. Flying squirrels
In terms of all other animals I have a fondness for:
  1. Crocodillians
  2. Members of the seahorse family
  3. Jellyfish
  4. Mantis shrimp
  5. Butterflies, skippers, and hawk-moths
  6. Dragonflies and damselflies
  7. Praying mantises
  8. Treehoppers
In other words, I'm biased stronlgy towards warm-blooded animals of about the right size for cuddling, whether they're actually cuddly or not. I also really like taxonomic distinctiveness and/or distinctive behaviors.
 
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