A Fish That Eats....Birds?

We see birds everywhere, eating seeds and worms.

Maybe you’ve even seen birds dive for fish...like ospreys do!

But have you ever seen a fish eat a bird?

The Giant Trevally fish does!

And Giant is a good word for this fish. It’s the size of a kangaroo
and it weighs as much as a grown man!

But how can a fish, even a giant one, eat birds?

Take a look at its mouth:

Source: Nat Geo

Yikes!

But despite the scary mouth, Trevallys are quite beautiful
and silvery.

Source: Wikipedia

So how do they eat birds? When they see a bird swimming on
the water or even flying over the water, they open those huge mouths and gulp them right down!

Source: Nat Geo

And Trevallys don't even have teeth!

Question: What’s the largest bird they can eat?

Answer: Whatever they can fit in their mouth! Ha ha

And did you know that Giant Trevallys can kill reef sharks?

These are some amazing fish.

But don’t worry. If you swim in a lagoon where the
Giant Trevally lives, it won’t bother you at all.

As long as your swimwear doesn’t have feathers. :)

Creatures Perfect for Halloween

Hard to believe there's a bat actually perfectly colored for Halloween? Yep, there is.
Above is the Painted bat from Thailand. Amazing.

Orange and black,

or scary, 

or both...

the following creatures look designed for Halloween!

Check out what I mean...

Awwww, a black and orange kitty. It's easy to see that this cat is just cute and Halloween colored.

A werewolf?  

Nah, just a Brown Hyena. 

He's spooky-looking all puffed up like that,

This next creature lives in caves; it's the Spotted Tail Cave salamander. It's a little slimy, but safe. So feel free to get close next time you're deep underground.  :)

This is a pretty little frog, but don't touch him.

He's a Poison Dart frog!

His venom makes him one of the most deadly creatures in the world. So he's halloween colored, but also scary...

Not another werewolf?

Nope, though he looks scary, the Maned wolf is so shy that even other Maned wolves make him uneasy!  

You can learn more about the Maned wolf here; When You Look Like a Werewolf




And this is one of my favorite reptiles, a large desert lizard with a very cool name...the Gila Monster! 

Why monster? 

Well, he's poisonous. But so slow that he's little danger to humans.

So the Gila Monster is...

Beautiful and strikingly orange and black! This is the Scarlett-Headed Blackbird.

Completely outlined in bright orange, this Pinnate batfish is hard to believe! Perfect for Halloween!

Nudibranchs! I love these guys! Check out my previous post on the amazing varieties and colors of these little 'sea slugs'; Eye Candy Brought to You By God

BUT, though amazing-looking, this sea slug, Cyerce Nigrican, can cast off his "petals" and poison the water around him!

Photography by Dino Sassi-Marcel Fayton


And then, there are the squirrels, who happen to LOVE to eat pumpkins and will even steal them! 

So here are three Halloween photos that make me laugh!

Happy Halloween!!

Creatures Perfect for Halloween

Hard to believe there's a bat actually perfectly colored for Halloween? Yep, there is.
Above is the Painted bat from Thailand. Amazing.

Orange and black,

or scary, 

or both...

the following creatures look designed for Halloween!

Check out what I mean...

Zebra as Jumper? It Can Happen...

Anyone know what type of zebra this is?

If not, check out my zebra posts on identifying zebras!

The Only Mammal Painted like a Racecar

Patterned like a race car.  Spots. Splashes. Stripes. Stipples. 

Of all the mammals on earth, only one is painted like this...

The Plight of the Snow Giraffe

The critically endangered Snow Giraffe can only be found in one spot on earth; at the snowy center of Mount Kilimanjaro, an extinct volcano in Africa. 

But their numbers are deteriorating so quickly that finding one to photograph is rare.



These giraffes live at snow level because they feed on ice lichens, found growing under the snow on the Eastern Kilimanjaro Ridge.  

During deep snowfalls, however, they must dig for long hours to find enough lichens to live on.

Though living at high altitude protects them from poachers, who can get $500,000 for a Snow giraffe hide and even more for their horns, their feeding grounds are fast disappearing due to the rapid ice melt in Kilimanjaro's crater. Without snow, the ice lichens die.

As ice lichens becomes more scarce, Snow giraffes have resorted to eating the birds that keep their hides free of ticks and parasites; 
Red-billed Oxpeckers.

 And while this new food source has staved off the complete extinction of the Snow giraffe, their teeth and digestive system have not yet adapted well to eating meat. This causes the population to continue to decline.

Look closely at the right side of the crater in the photo below; you're looking at one of the last remaining herds of Snow giraffes in existence.  

What can you do? 

First, never buy ice lichen at the grocery store, and certainly stop drinking the green 'organic' smoothies that contain this nutritious plant.

Second, donate to the Save the Snow Giraffe Fund now to help save them from extinction.

And third, have a happy April Fool's Day!  

Up next - The Sad Plight of the Red-billed Oxpecker    :)

The Plight of the Snow Giraffe

The critically endangered Snow Giraffe can only be found in one spot on earth; at the snowy center of Mount Kilimanjaro, an extinct volcano in Africa. 

But their numbers are deteriorating so quickly that finding one to photograph is rare.