Steller’s Sea Eagle

 

Siberia is a 5.1 million square mile region in Russia (the entire United States is only 3.8 million square miles). It has swamps, plains, forests, mountains, and tundra, and it holds the record for lowest temperature outside of Antarctica with -90° Fahrenheit (-68° Celsius).  In summary: Siberia is big and cold.

If you are a Steller’s Sea Eagle (SSE), Siberia is home. SSEs are considered to be the world’s largest, heaviest, most attractive eagle. They are also “Glacial Relics” because they live in such a remote habitat that sucks for everyone else and have survived several ice ages. Even though they have been around for a long time and are super big (i.e. easy to see), not much is known about beloplechii orlan, which is Russian for white-shouldered eagle. They are one of the rarest raptors in the world.

Each time I write “raptor” I feel like I’m writing “rapper.” And I don’t know, maybe these raptors are rappers. Then they can be the world’s rarest raptor rappers.

 

 

 

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Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat

Mediterranean horseshoe bats are a rare type of horseshoe bat. The ‘Mediterranean’ part of it’s name is because they are found near the Mediterranean and enjoy vacationing in the Riveria.

The ‘horseshoe’ part of their name is because they wear horseshoes on their feet. I’m totally kidding; they don’t wear horseshoes. That wouldn’t work because they weigh around 10 grams, so horseshoes would be too heavy to fly with, and they don’t walk well, so there you go. Horseshoe bats are really named so because of the shape of their noses. This shape helps them with echolocation of food (insects, preferably moths and beetles). They emit a noise through their nose, the noise bounces around the cave they are hanging around in (literally), and is then bounced back up to its large ears. It can then “see” its surroundings through the sound waves, pinpointing it’s prey. In flight, they flutter or hover and are excellent fliers.

They are also pretty cute:

 

Spotted Linsang

What is most amazing about the Spotted Linsang, is that not much is known about it. I mean, it’s 2014, how can we not know about everything? But deep in the remote, dense forests slender, tree-dwelling carnivores are hiding from everyone. Humans may try to snare or trap small mammals for food or game, but because the Spotted Linsang lives in the trees, it can’t be SNAGGED. Dogs or other large carnivores don’t hunt it, because the Spotted Linsang is generally active at night, while everyone is ASLEEP.

I get great satisfaction that this cat-like creature has eluded humans (scientist and hunters) and continues to be widely distributed, but rarely seen. Rock on, Spotted Linsang, and keep it covered.