The Weekly Recap
Hello and welcome back to the weekly recap!
The week started off with a report from Tang Jun at China Mammal Tour covering – you guessed it – China (specifically Qinghai). The tour was a successful one, with many Pallas’ Cats as well as a Snow Leopard, Chinese Mountain Cat, a Lynx and some mountain top beers!
There is a second trip report of a China Mammal Tour, this time an epic 38 days in Qinghai and Sichuan. They saw the same mega cats as well as Red Pandas, Forest Musk Deer, Wild Yak and a Chinese Ferret Badger. The best part is a photo of a Woolly Hare looking far from gruntled and probably mumbling something about “mammalwatchers these days” under its breath. Don’t we all?
Speaking of mumbling about mammalwatchers, the next report is of my dad’s weekend spent rodenting around Santiago, Chile. Some species he saw were Chinchillas, Common Degu and Coruro, all equally fluffy. There is also a picture of a Chinchilla Rat defying gravity – that is, somehow balancing its festively plump body on the world’s tiniest twig.
Next is Alex Schouten from a Brazil WildWings cruise aptly titled “Primates and Parrots” on which he saw 31 species of primates such as Spix’s Red-handed Howler Monkey, Colombian Red Howler and Golden-faced Saki.
The final trip report of the week is of Bennett Gardner’s trip to Sulawesi, one of his lifelong dream trips! Despite the sad disappearance of the iconic Babirusa from the Nantu Forest Reserve, he still saw some great species such as Sulawesi Bear Cuscus, a family of Gursky’s Spectral Tarsier and Sulawesi Horseshoe Bat.
This post about American Mink at Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina gives the exact location of where they can be easily spotted and includes some great photos of it engaging in various Mink-like activities.
If you have any unfinished trip reports lying around and are looking for some motivation to finish them, then look no further: what better than the honourable chance of winning Best Report or Worst Mammalwatching Moment in the NUTTER awards! Any reports posted before the end of the year may be nominated. I think the time this summer when my dad made us drive several hours up a mountain on the worst road known to Australia looking for Long-footed Potoroo, only to realise that not only were we supposed to be meeting someone at the BOTTOM of the mountain, but also that there was a very well kempt road up the other side has a good chance for Worst Mammalwatching Moment… At least we had some beers with us and a sunset to watch or else I don’t think he’d have lived to tell the story.
After all the emotions brought up by the remembrance of that incident, I must say Ralf Bürglin’s post about “dolce vita” mammalwatching has definitely calmed me down. Instructions involve the consumption of multiple coffees and sweet treats, the one thing my dad and I can always agree on during a mammal trip.
Someone would like some help identifying an Arizonan cottontail here, and someone else travelling to Yucatán, Mexico would like some bat advice.
Mammalwatching seems to be catching on, and even becoming a teeny bit famous – check out this NYT article all about it! A bit more of this and we’ll finally overtake those dastardly birdwatchers…
Finally, check out this book review of Brad R. Blood’s new Guide to the Terrestrial Mammals of Southern California and the Eastern and Southern Sierra Nevada.
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Thanks for reading:)
Katy
Cover photo: Woolly Hare – Tang Jun
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