Connochaetes gnou, the Black Wildebeest, male. (I knew it was a gnu, but it's a new gnu to me. Had to google to get the scientific name.)

I'll need the day to get a good one.

while Th is getting a good one, I have a question

how do you folks feel about posting part of an animal as the clue? I don't mean one hair from a beast, but more like a pic focused on a characteristic part. If no objections, I'll give this a shot next time I'm up ...if it's not liked I'll drop it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...nturong_00.jpg
I'm fine with partial animals. Sometimes the full body shot is less informative than a close up.

A Bearcat or Binturong

Next: The stuff of fairy-tales?

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70...ler/lalala.jpg

ahhh, one of my favorite cetaceans, the narwhal


Let me start with this "partial" and I'll add more if needed:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...0834-1_500.jpg

The Star Nosed Mole that is. Weird little thing.

...is this a case of cute gone crazy? lol

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70...dodedodedo.jpg

that looks sort of like a lama's nose but I'm not at all sure so I'll wait for confirmation or denial

It that an Angora Rabbit? (Looks like a vegetable Lamb)

Yes it's an Angora Rabbit. Just too funny not to post!

What about this...thing (makes my skin crawl blech)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70...ler/teehee.jpg

That's a blob fish. Psychrolutes marcidus

http://www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rain...tickInsect.jpg
(BTW - the name is in the filename, so if you want to cheat, well, go ahead, but it won't be as much fun.)

I keep thinking of stick bug as I look at the pic, but I can't figure out what's what ...it looks like the little skinny one on the bottom is grabbing/attacking the big green one on top. But to me the one on the bottom looks like stick bug and the one on top looks like some kind of mantis.

Funny, I didn't even notice the one on the bottom. The big green one is a spiny stick insect (sorry, didn't get a binomial). Over to you, BadNick

I'm going for another "cute but no so hard" one

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...amacallits.jpg

pygmy marmoset (albino) :)

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...nCAS/23734.jpg

Looks like some sort of gallinule, but that's the best I can do at this point.

I'll give it to ya since it's taking so long :P

Its a purple gallinule or purple swamphen

Hmm, for some reason, I thought that was too stocky for a Purple Gallinule. Would have been my first guess if I had to pick one.

Try this one out for size (name is in the filename if you want to go that route.)
http://academics.smcvt.edu/dfacey/Aq...llgrammite.jpg

yea i think thats just a fat one.. or it was caught in the back-swing of that little bird head bob they do when they walk.

that sure looks like some kind of centipede to me, but even if it is, I have no idea which one.

Not a centipede.

hellgrammite ...I struggled to come up with that word since yesterday; even while I said centipede I was trying to remember that word "hellgrammite" but just now I remembered enough of it to piece it together and get the correct spelling and then I found pics of it. In the back of my mind I knew it was some kind of lure I used for fishing even back when I was a kid, but back then I remember thinking "what kind of fish would eat that creepy thing!"

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...wiretapbug.jpg

That's a crab spider of some sort. Let me see if I can run down the binomial nomenclature on that one. I have definitely seen the like in person before.

Allrighty then. Wrong family and everything. That's a Gasteracantha cancriformis - Spinybacked Orbweaver. Now I can picture one sitting in the middle of its web in the mountain laurels outside my door when I was a kid.

http://bugguide.net/images/raw/VQ30N...O04QV0PQ10.jpg

This one's been in the news in the last couple of years.

right about the spinyback ...I edited my original picture since it had webs and I thought it would be too obvious. So I found a pic without webs but still couldn't stump Tophat.

Is that a cicada? Cicadas have been in the news but it just doesn't quite look like I'm remembering cicadas at any stage.

Not a cicada, but definitely the right order

It looks just like this ...it's not the Pioneer Zephyr bug, is it?

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ephyr20Box.jpg
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...erZephyr_2.jpg

I guess I still haven't figured out Tophat's bug, but I know this guy would eat it:
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...cs/23452_w.jpg

It's a glassy winger sharpshooter. Coming to a Vineyard near you.

Over to Nick again, since he at least got the right general type of critter with the Cicadas.

Tophat, we should change the title of this thread to the "Tophat665 & BadNick animal game thread" ...I'm hoping somebody else steps up to guess this one.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...s/notadodo.jpg

Oh oh! It's a BIRDIE!!!

Tophat is a dodo

Tophat is a conundrum wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a warm flour tortilla with guacamole and sour cream.

That's a hornbill of some sort.

damn, you got another one. It is a hornbill. So now it's to you again.

Let's give this one a try. No fair looking at the filename.
Whoops - name on the picture. Stand by.
http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/at...-oarfish93.jpg
and an illustration for clarity
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/pre...3/25203639.JPG

After hunting info on various eel, finned eel, eel fish, I'm thinking it's a conger eel.

It is completely unrelated to any eel that I know of. It's a really odd duck, and a leading cause of sea serpent stories. Let's see if that helps any.

This is a conger
http://www.gowerfishing.co.uk/assets...conger_eel.jpg

or it could be an ....oarfish :)

persistent googling usually pays off. This one took me longer than usual.

I had no idea these can get so large:

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...cs/oarfish.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...-marcos-se.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../weirdfish.jpg

Damn! Got it in one - Lump Fish.
Well, I was going to power throught fishbase and see if I could come up with the actual factual species, but I can't seem to find one in a reasonable amount of time that's even a whole foot long, whereas that guy is a big mother.

http://tinyurl.com/2hyenq

It's a hoatzin.
How about this guy:
Attachment 16856

Very good on the hoatzin.

I think I know what that is. Let's see if I can run it down before Badnick.

Moschus spp. - Musk Deer, I think M. fuscus - Black Musk deer, but it might be another species. The teeth are the clue. Vampire Bambi Away!!!

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...lectrolux1.jpg

Because it doesn't have a long, thin tail, that looks more like some type of Hypostomus plecostomus fishy than a sting ray of sorts. But I'm not sure which one. I'll go explore the Amazon and see what I find. I had a beautiful "Leopard pleco" for a few years, it grew from about 2" to over 10" and then died, so I would like to find another.

edit: I'm back from the Amazon, and since I've injested some mind expanding herbs, I'm starting to think this is some kind of loach. How about Hillstream Loach? a.k.a. Chinese Hillstream Loach, Borneo Sucker, and sometimes affectionately called Beaufortia kweichowensis

edit2: now that I'm sober again, after further explorations of loaches and rays, I found it is a ray from around South Africa. From PFK fishnews:
************************
South African scientists have discovered a new genus and species of an attractively patterned electric ray off the east coast of South Africa and they have named it after a vacuum cleaner company.

The new electric ray, named Electrolux addisoni, is described in the latest issue of the journal Smithiana Bulletin by Leonard Compagno and Phillip Heemstra. Electrolux addisoni is easily distinguished from other electric rays of the family Narkidae by its striking colour pattern consisting of a dark brown dorsal surface of the disc with numerous small pale yellow spots and a series of concentric black stripes.

Other distinguishing characters of the new genus include its prominent spiracular papillae, the unique morphologies of the nostrils, nasal curtain, mouth, jaws, chondrocranium, basibranchial skeleton, pectoral and pelvic girdles, and the presence of two dorsal fins.

Electrolux?
The genus name raises eyebrows, and its origin is best explained in the authors' own words:

"The name alludes to the well-developed electrogenic properties of this ray (collectors and photographers have experienced the shocking personality of this bold, active and brightly patterned electric ray first-hand), the discovery of which sheds light (Latin, lux) on the rich and poorly-known fish diversity of the Western Indian Ocean.

And the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray that was taken by Stephania and Peer Lamberti may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets, furniture, and other dust-gathering surfaces in modern homes...".

The species is named after Mark Addison, who collected the holotype.

Endemic to South Africa
Electrolux addisoni is endemic to the east coast of South Africa, and was first identified to the authors in 1984 by photographing divers. It was subsequently sighted, photographed and even videographed by divers, but it was not until 2003 that the authors were finally able to obtain specimens for study.

Electrolux addisoni is also apparently the largest member of the Narkidae, reaching up to 515 mm total length.

That's the one. Ran across mention of it in TFH (not to be confused with TFP) last month or the month before. An electric ray named after a vacuum cleaner. Over to you Bad Nick.