After discovering that Yowie figures were widely available in the United States me and my family went on a bit of a Yowie buying spree. Buying a few of the eggs just about every time we encountered them in the wild until we ended up getting more repeats than it was worth.
Brand: Cadbury/Yowie Group
Cuban Red Macaw (Yowies Forgotten Friends Series A by Cadbury)
3.3 (3 votes)
With their gorgeous plumage and startling intelligence, parrots are some of the most incredible birds alive today. While varied, they were once more so. One such place that did, and still does, have an array of parrots is Cuba, home to the species in this review: the Cuban Red Macaw. One of the smallest macaw species, it was brightly coloured and lived on Cuba (unsurprisingly) and the nearby Isla de la Juventud.
Dodo (Yowies Forgotten Friends Series A by Cadbury)
2 (3 votes)
The Dodo has quite the reputation among extinct animals, but the image has always been a bit skewed. Most portarits are based either on third or fourth hand accounts, and most European depictions are from obese specimens kept by gentry that didn’t know how to care for them properly. Modern skeletal analysis now shows it was sleek, brown and quite aggressive.
Falkland Islands Dog (Yowie Forgotten Friends Series A by Cadbury)
3.5 (2 votes)
The canid family has produced some incredible species, though many are no longer around. Here we have one such, the Falkland Islands Dog. Related to Maned Wolf, this canid was isolated to the Falkland islands (perhaps unsurprisingly) and was likely the apex predator, as it lacked fear. This could be seen when sailors could get them to eat out their hands… usually before hitting the animal and killing it.
Giant Clam (Yowies Series 4 by Cadbury)
5 (3 votes)
The genus Tridacna consists of large marine bivalves commonly known as giant clams. The largest, T. gigas, can be 120 cm across, weigh over 200 kg, and live for over 100 years. Today we will be looking at T. maxima, which is known as the maxima clam (although it also goes by the oxymoron ‘small giant clam’).
Giant Moa (Yowies Lost Kingdoms Series A by Cadbury)
3 (3 votes)
The largest bird today is the Ostrich, and this is owing to it’s flightlessness. The recent past, however, provided greater flightless giants. One such came from New Zealand, in the form of the South island Giant Moa, Diornis robustus, with females able to reach up to 11ft 10″ if they stretched up, being 6ft 6″ on a horizontal plane.
Giant River Otter (Wild Water Series by Yowie Group)
5 (6 votes)
Review and images by Sam; edited by bmathison1972
The giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) is the world’s largest otter species as well as the longest member of the Mustellidae family. It originates from South America, and is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with only 5,000 giant otters remaining in the wild.
Golden Ghost Crab (Colors of the Animal Kingdom by Yowie Group)
5 (3 votes)
I was debating on whether or not to post before Christmas, but I got a cool new figure in the mail today, so I said, let’s do it! So today I am reviewing another Yowie figure for the Blog. This time it is the golden ghost crab, Ocypode convexa, from the recently-released series, Colors of the Animal Kingdom.
Gooty Sapphire Ornamental Tarantula (Animals with Superpowers by Yowie Group)
3 (1 votes)
Poecilotheria metallica is a beautiful theraphosid spider from the forests of Andhra Pradesh in India. It goes by several common names, including the Gooty sapphire ornamental tarantula, blue ornamental tarantula, and peacock tarantula, among others. It is an arboreal species, and like many tropical tarantulas, has a very limited geographic distribution, making it prone to population decline.
Green Christmas Beetle (Yowies Series 1, UK and Australian releases by Cadbury)
4 (1 votes)
This week Christmas is celebrated throughout much of the world. In trying to keep with holiday themes, I have decided to review a pair of green Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus punctulatus) by Cadbury that were released in both the Australian and UK Yowies collections in 1997. Members the genus Anoplognathus are commonly called ‘Christmas beetles’ as they tend to be abundant during Christmas time in Australia.
Grey Fantail (Yowies Series 2 by Cadbury)
3.5 (2 votes)
The pygostyle is an amazing evolutionary adaptation. The fusion of several vertebrae allows for some amazing tail fans, allowing birds to perform incredible displays in mating displays. One group that exemplifies this are fantails, named for their large tail feathers, allowing the males to display elegantly to females. One such example is the Grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa), a small insectivore from Australia, along with the Solomon islands, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
Hawaiian ‘O’ o (Yowies Forgotten Friends Series A by Cadbury)
3 (1 votes)
As a volcanic island chain, Hawaii is not known for it’s ancient fossil fauna, but it has a selection of modern extinct species. The ‘O’ o (or Moho, based on the scientific name) were a group of birds that were native to Hawaii, now all extinct, the last being recent enough to have recordings of it’s mating call (worth hearing, though prepare to be moved to tears).