Don't you guys ever go to the zoo or the library? I have several bookcases mainly about animals and fish. Some are indeed strange, but I thought everyone knew about jaguarundis.
There are several of species of pangolins. I think Frank Buck mentioned them in his books. I found some of those in old libraries as a kid.
I'd be astonished to learn that bass change sex, as one poster asked about. But hyenas were long thought to be hermaphroditic, being BOTH sexes. The males just aren't very...evident...in their distinguishing characteristics. Hans Kruuk and others have done pretty complete research on them, and their books will be in many libraries. I believe that his studies involved only the usual African Spotted form (Crocuta crocuta, if memory serves.)
Does everyone know about the Archer fish? It spits water to hunt insects. Knocks them off leaves above the river.
Ever watch, River Monsters, with that guy Jeremy Something? I recently saw where he was in New Guinea, proving that the imported Pacu, a presumed vegetarian relative of the Piranha, grows especially large and aggressive there and is killing off local fish and vegetation and biting people. If they had the dentition of the real Red-Bellied Piranha, they'd be really formidable! The genus for the dangerous piranhas/caribes is Serasalmus, I believe. Dunno about the pacus, but you sometimes see them in aquariums, looking very like their more lethal relatives.
Do you guys know about the Dorado, a big golden salmonid fished for in rivers like the Plata, between Argentina and Brazil? They're supposedly one of the world's great sports fish.
f you read Jim Corbett's books about hunting man-eating cats in colonial India, you'll encounter the Mahseer. I looked it up, and it looks sort of like a big minnow that got bred with a tarpon. Corbett said that they're real fighters in the rivers in northern India. Doubt that their table quality is much, though.
Finally, both the chimpanzee and the okapi were thought to be mythical animals until early in the 20th Century.
I think the unicorn was desribed by someone who'd seen a one-horned oryx.
T-Star
