Spotlight On…
Check out this week’s featured specimen!
(Pictured below, really close up!)
Photo: N. Sincero 2011
Can you guess what it is?
Here are some hints:
- This animal has sharp backward-facing points on the roof of its mouth and tongue that help keep slippery fish headed in the right direction.
- A common threat to this animal is lead or mercury poisoning caused by pollution in its aquatic environment.
Leave us a comment with your answer! Then come see us outside the Project Lab on Friday, August 26th at 11:30 AM for Specimen Spotlight in order to find out if you’re right.
Hmm, eats fish eh?
Comment by Lessie — August 23, 2011 @ 6:27 pm
Gavia? Maybe G. immer?
Comment by neil — August 24, 2011 @ 8:17 am
It’s a brown pelican. DUH
Comment by Andrew Wolf — August 24, 2011 @ 8:29 am
My guess is the osprey!
TV
Comment by tim vogel — August 24, 2011 @ 8:35 am
Could it be a bald eagle? I don’t know about the mouth adaptations, but I know that mercury poisoning is a serious threat to bald eagles, and that bald eagles have brown feathers with white spots when they’re young.
Comment by Dani — August 24, 2011 @ 8:42 am
Tough one! I’m guessing it’s a sea otter. That looks like close up fur?
Comment by eileen — August 24, 2011 @ 8:57 am
Either a Bald Eagle or an Osprey?
Comment by Lorelei — August 24, 2011 @ 9:50 am
Red Shouldered Hawk
Comment by Brennan — August 24, 2011 @ 10:35 am
I am going to say – Clapper rail.
Comment by Craig Rosa — August 24, 2011 @ 1:49 pm
(specifically, the California Clapper rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus)
Comment by Craig Rosa — August 24, 2011 @ 4:24 pm
Great guesses! Congratulations to Neil who correctly guessed Gavia immer, the common loon. There’s a great entry for them on Cornell University’s All About Birds (a site we use frequently here at the Naturalist Center). I highly recommend playing the audio file of their call to startle your coworkers.
We’ll have a new guess the specimen game up on Tuesday, but in the meantime won’t you tell us Who Pooped?
Comment by nature — August 26, 2011 @ 9:44 am