Playing Opossum in Dallas: Saving Our Wildlife
September 16, 2009 by Kimberly · Leave a Comment
Opossum
It’s 12:45 amмаси и столове in Dallas, Texas right now…
I just took our kitchen garbage out to the trash can and noticed one of our neighborhood stray dogs laying in the middle of the street.
As I focused in and started approaching, I noticed that it was sitting next to another animal, also in the middle of the street…I thought it could have been a run over cat or something like that…
…As I came upon the dog, I took a look at what kind of animal was laying there and lo and behold, it was the opossum I’ve been noticing walking through the neighborhood some nights, playing dead – completely still, eyes open and all.
The dog, who’s usually quite skiddish when you come near him, wanted to hold his ground even though I was very close and clapping him away to go home. He even growled at me.
I’m sure he was deciding whether he wanted to eat his catch or play with it for a while before eating it, but he finally took off down the way to his house – I don’t know what’s up with his owners.
Anyway, now I’m outside in my pajamas waiting on our street corner for this opossum to “wake” back up and get off the road to disappear into the night again.
I’m telling you, I had to wait
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Cassowary of the Great Barrier Reef
February 20, 2009 by Kimberly · Leave a Comment
A Cassowary is a flightless Australian bird, and is native to the tropical forests of New Guinea.
It’s funny because Australia has another flightless bird, the emu, making it and the cassowary the 2nd and 3rd largest flightless birds in the world, behind Africa’s ostrich.
Females are larger than males and are more vividly colored, and may reach up to 2 meters tall! That’s a big bird!
Known to be a timid bird, it can inflict serious injury to human adults, and fatal injury to dogs and children. They have 3 toes and extremely sharp talons/claws.
Check out this great, but short, video showing a wild Cassowary on an island of the Great Barrier Reef:
They are omnivorous, but mostly eat fruits, shoots, grass seeds, as well as fungi. However, it will also make a quick meal of invertebrates and small vertebrates alike.
2 of the species produce a very low Read more
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What in the World is a Kinkajou?
January 23, 2009 by Kimberly · Leave a Comment
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammal
Order: Carnivora
Family: Procyonidae
Genus: Potos
Species: P. flavus
* There are also 7 subspecies of kinkajou.
The Kinkajou is also known as the Honey Bear and is an arboreal animal native to Central and South America.
They are not monkeys or ferrets…In fact, they are related to the raccoon, coati and ringtail to name a few.
Kinkajous only weight between 4-7 lbs and have a long, curled tail, which is prehensile. This means that it can use it as a “limb” or 5th hand of sorts and can hang on to branches, etc with it.
Although they have a Read more
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You Say Bearcat – I Say Binturong
November 24, 2008 by Kimberly · Leave a Comment
The Binturong is also called the Palawan Bearcat, Asian Bearcat, Bearcat.
However, it’s neither a bear nor a cat! LOL…It just resembles both of those animals. To me, it looks like a large raccoon species.
It, too, is an arboreal species that is nocturnal – instead of sleeping in a nest of sorts, it simply sleeps on branches of rainforests in Asia, India & Indonesia.
Although it is classified as a carnivore, it is omnivorous! It eats mostly fruit, but has been known to dabble in eating eggs, small animals like rodents and birds, shoots and leaves.
Binturong are known for their happy chuckling sounds and high-pitched wails when annoyed. It also communicates using it’s tail and scent gland.
It has a prehensile tail, meaning it works as a 5th limb or hand. Bearcats are the size of a small dog and has a coat that is thick, coarse and black.
Conservation Status:
The Binturong is considered to be a Read more
Popularity: 9% [?]
Orangutan May Be Extinct by 2012!
November 17, 2008 by Kimberly · 3 Comments
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Ponginae
Genus: Pongo
Species: P. pygmaeus, P. abelii
As stated above, there are 2 species of orangutan. They are considered primates or apes.
They differ from other apes in that they have longer arms than other species, twice as long as their legs, and have reddish hair, instead of the characteristically black hair other apes possess.
Adult males can be up to 5′9″ tall – taller than me, and weigh up to 260 lbs…Females are typically half as heavy and reach 4′2″ tall.
Orangutans are especially known for their great intelligence.
These apes live in trees, making them an arboreal species, living in rainforests natively in Malaysia and Indonesia.
However, they are only found in Borneo and Sumatra, where everyday, they make themselves a new nest to sleep in made of branches and leaves.
They are often “hermits” of sorts, coming together mainly only to mate…But, mothers stay with their babies until they are 6 or 7 yrs old.
Only “flanged” Read more
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Help Save the Moon Bear!
November 4, 2008 by Kimberly · 2 Comments
The moon bear can also be called the Asian black bear, Tibetan black bear or Himalayan black bear.
The reason for it’s nickname is that it is a black bear with a cream or white colored “V” on it’s chest in the shape of a crescent moon facing up.
They are a medium sized bear and a close relative to the American black bear.
Adult females are typically half the size of the adult male, the latter weighing in at 220-480 lbs. Their lifespan is about 25 years.
They inhabit high elevations and lowlands alike, often sharing habitat with the larger and stronger brown bear, and the giant panda.
Although this bear is considered to be carnivorous, meat is only a very small part of it’s diverse diet of nuts, berries, grasses, fruit and other plants. They are actually omnivorous animals that eat both meat and plant-life alike.
This particular bear has been known to be quite aggressive towards humans with documentation of attacks and deaths, but although they have very few enemies in nature, the Siberian tiger has been known to target them as prey.
Conservation Status:
The moon bear is currently listed a vulnerable species. Deforestation and loss of habitat is the main aggressors in the endangerment of the moon bear.
However, the moon bear is also known as the “bile bear”, where they are held in captivity so that their bile can be extracted over and over again and sold as traditional Chinese medicine in Vietnam and China. It’s terribly painful for the bear and a terrible existence for them, as they can live up to 25 years and be kept in a cage where they can’t even move to acquire the bile. Terrible!!!
Methods of Extracting Bile: (as taken from Wikipedia.com)
“Latex catheter
In a crude surgical procedure, a latex catheter is Read more
Popularity: 6% [?]
Watch Out For Animal Thieves In The Night…
June 9, 2008 by Kimberly · Leave a Comment
This is one hilarious video that I had to share with you…
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Great video…such funny, little animals!
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia???????? ????? ????????
Order: Carnivora
Family: Procyonidae
Genus: Procyon
Species: P. lotor
Conservation Status:
The raccoon is considered a species of least concern.
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I hope you enjoyed this North American Animal post on Exotic Animal Lover! Until next time…
Live Exotically,
Kimberly Edwards 
P.S. Check out this adorable Raccoon poster:
Technorati Tags: raccoon, raccoon thief, animal video, animal humor, animal thief, mammals, North American animals, European animals, omnivore
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Out of Hedgehog Food at the Pet Stores
May 29, 2008 by Kimberly · 2 Comments
This is a first…Anytime I have ever gone for hedgie food at the store, my hedgehog’s staple food, I have never ever had a problem finding it.
No word of a lie…I went to 5 pet stores in our area, and every single one of them was out of hedgehog food. A conspiracy? Maybe…LOL…
Not really…but now what?
Well, I went online immediately and thought I’d try a new shopping search engine for pets, ShopWiki.com/wiki/Pets, that I’ve been wanting to use for a while.
It worked out very well…I figured it would since it’s a wiki site.
I looked up hedgehog food and it spit out 59 results of different products, but it also shows you everywhere it’s available online, and for what price…Really neat!
I’ve been limited to 2 different brands of hedgie food, Sun Seed and Brown’s, when shopping locally, but online I saw brands I used to buy for my previous hedgehog years ago that I, and she, was especially fond of.
So, now I have ordered the Vitakraft Hedgehog Food to spice up Kokonut’s diet! I remembered, it looks like human trail mix, it even has little dried shrimp in it from what I remember. You can just tell it is healthier, more fresh and natural than the little pellets you can get for them.
What I thought was the coolest thing on the search engine was:
You know when you go to the store, and forget the brand name of the product you want to buy, but remember it was in a blue box or a pink bag? You can Read more
Popularity: 12% [?]
Picky Hedgehog? Not Mine…
April 28, 2008 by Kimberly · 7 Comments
I often hear that people have pet hedgehogs that are picky with what they eat…
NOT MINE! LOL
My hedgie will eat just about anything I feed her…I may not actually see her eat it, but it’s gone in the morning when I check on her…
I try to stay away from dairy, as it sometimes upsets her tummy, but other than that…she is a feeding champion!
She loves her meal worms, either freeze dried (my fave) or in a can (not live), any brand of hedgehog food I’ve tried, all vegetables and fruits that I’ve given her, seeds, nuts, coconut…
I try giving her different types of leaves from plants and berries from outside…She especially loves that…
Now, she may froth herself whenever she tries something new, but she is right at it immediately!
It makes my life easier!
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I hope you enjoyed this tip from Exotic Animal Lover! Until next time…
Live Exotically,
Kimberly Edwards
P.S. Kokonut especially liked this brand of hedgie food, in case your baby is a bit picky:
Technorati Tags: hedgehog food, hedgehog diet, hedgehog, exotic pet, exotic pet diet, meal worms
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Piglet Survives Toilet Roll Ordeal As A Stowaway
November 25, 2007 by Kimberly · Leave a Comment
Exotic Animal Newflash:
Did you see the news article about the stowaway piglet, nicknamed Andrex, that survived being stuck in a toilet roll delivery truck in Ilkestone, Derbyshire in the United Kingdom? He is too cute!
Check out the article here:
Stowaway piglet survives toilet roll ordeal
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Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Suidae
Genus: Sus
.
There are 14 species of pig:
1. Sus barbatus
2. Sus bucculentus
3. Read more
Popularity: 18% [?]
