Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The quagga (†Equus quagga quagga) was a South African subspecies of zebra, immediately recognizable by its unique stripe pattern. During the 19th century, it was hunted relentlessly for its skin and meat, and to eliminate it as competition for domestic animals.
The African plains has some fantastic animals living across it. Gorillas, elephants, rhinos, and other magnificent large animals. But some of the smaller creatures also garner respect and attention. For me, the one that gains this are the meerkat (Suricata suricatta), small carnivores that live in packs across the savanna, eating small animals and dodging larger predators.
Here is a walk-around of the small Safari Ltd Wings of the World 2016 rainbow lorikeet, Trichoglossus moluccanus (Gmelin, 1788); item No. 150229. Total length is approx. 74 mm (if the head and neck would be fully stretched out) so the scale is approx. 1:4. This popular parrot species from eastern Australia has a specialised tongue with elongated papillae (Trichoglossus means “hairy tongue”) which are needed for their mostly liquid or pulpous diet (fruit pulp, nectar, and pollen).
The gluttony of humanity has had catastrophic effect on the flora and fauna of the world, resulting in destruction and extinction. The example here is a clear exhibition of this: the Steller’s Sea Cow, a sirenian colossus that once lived in the Bering straits, it was wiped out by Europeans within 27 years of it’s discovery, being easy to catch and full of tender meat.
Review and images by stemturtle; edited by bmathison1972
The potto, Perodicticus potto, may look like a little bear, but it is a strepsirrhine primate, commonly called a prosimian. The potto is nocturnal and arboreal, moving slowly through the canopy. Its distribution is the tropical rainforests of equatorial Africa, including the Congo region.
Images by Takama; additional text by bmathison1972
The alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is classified as a thoroughly domesticated animal. Even though it has its own species-level epithet, it is merely the domestic form of the vicuña (V. vicugna). The alpaca, along with its vicuña predecessor and the related llama and guanaco, is a South American camel species.
Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
An inevitable fact of life is that there are very few toys that can withstand rough play, especially from very small children. It was not long after the ATB posted my review of the Wild Safari American bison figure that my little boy dropped (or possibly threw) it against a bare wooden floor, causing one of the front legs to break right off.
Review and photos by OkapiBoy
High in the mountain woodlands of Ethiopia lives one of the most distinctive and endangered of Africa’s large antelope. Here and nowhere else lives the mountain nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni), a large and shy antelope that was first described in 1910. It is monotypic with no subspecies.
Walkaround of the Jackson’s chameleon, Trioceros jacksonii (Boulenger, 1869), by PNSO African Animals (2018). This has always been one of my favorite reptiles, and always surprised they were not more commonly made in toy/figure form due to the armature of the males. When I decided to build a synoptic collection, I was happy PNSO released one, and at a decent size for my tastes!
Across the globe, there are many amazing bird species. One of the few groups of vertebrates to develop powered flight, they now fill the skies with song and colour. Some are more colourful than others, with this review’s subject being a great example, the flamingo, a bird seen in America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Review and images by suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is by far the biggest of all living turtles and one of the world’s biggest reptiles, exceeded only by a few crocodilians. The largest scientifically verified specimen weighed in at 650 kg (1433 lbs), although it’s quite possible that even larger individuals exist somewhere out there in the deep blue sea.
Review and images by postsaurischian; edited by bmathison1972
Today we not only get the Blog’s first African elephant, specifically the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), but also the first figure by PNSO. This figure No. 04 in the Living Animal Models line, which figures large-scale models. Like other PNSO models, the figure comes with a name, and this figure is sold as ”Manman the African Elephant”.
There are few predators in the world as well equipped for the hunt as members of the cat family. With stealthy bodies, keen senses, and a powerful array of weapons at their disposal, it is no wonder they have spread across the globe, and are often the top predators of their regions.
I do not know why it took me so long to get the charismatic little Schleich warthogs. So here are the Schleich Wild Life common warthogs, Phacochoerus africanus (Gmelin, 1788). Item numbers are 14611 (boar) and 14613 (sow). The piglet has been featured in another blogpost by animaltoyforum and has the item number 14612.
Review and photos by Okapiboy
Its wildlife and wide-open spaces are one of the richest and most diverse in the world and may leave one with the impression that all is well. But like many places on earth, these wild landscapes are all under threat and tremendous pressure as human population continues to grow and expand.
