The Bluestocking - holding the line and losing the thread

[lcakethereforeIam]

All women welcome, pull up a pygmy hog, the bargerbil will serve you a drink, the flying squirrels will bring you something to read and the goats will do...I'm not entirely sure.

There may be more than the usual amount of chaos as we transition to the new thread.

It's lovely that so many of us - even me, Irish -have childhood memories of singing 'Linden Lea' and how the words spoke to us about the beauty and bounty of nature -'to where for me, the apple tree do lean down low in Linden Lea' - and freedom, and home.
Universals

I always loved the "let other folk make money faster" bit- the idea of there being more to life than slaving for the dollar.

While I was at the zoo on Saturday I did keep an eye out for any beasts that might be a good fit for the Bluestocking. Really though no-one stood out. There were yellow mongoose but I think they were already ruled out because Pedants Corner would be nonstop over the plural. Some jewel wasps which were absolutely beautiful and could be useful if we had a vermin problem because they parasitise cockroaches, but we don't. Red river hogs have stunning ear tassels but I think the pygmy hogs would be upset. Rhinoceros hornbills are gorgeous but huge and very noisy. So yeah, nothing really stood out. Perhaps scarlet ibis could live in the trees by the river, they'd serve no useful purpose except to hang out looking stunning.

I saw a binturong. It looked like a moth-eaten fur coat. It had an air about it, like it would give you a disgusted look as it picked up the daily paper to take and read on the loo.

Also the Isle of Man has a population of red necked wallabies, well over a thousand of them. It's thought they're all descended from only ten individuals. They're causing havoc with native ground nesting birds because they're naturally clumsy and many have sight problems caused by inbreeding and toxoplasmosis.

I didn't see the lions at the zoo. I thought they might have popped out with a gift for @MyrtleLion.

Thank you for your service, Cake!

Perhaps scarlet ibis could live in the trees by the river, they'd serve no useful purpose except to hang out looking stunning.

I can't think of any better purpose in life than hanging out looking stunning.
Unfortunately I lacked the qualifications to follow that lifestyle myself😒so I'd be very happy to live vicariously through a flock [hello? Pedantry Corner?] of scarlet ibises

Scarlet Ibises - yes please! But well away from the building because they'd clash with the blue..

they probably want to be down by our bit of shore as (Wikipedia tells me) they get their colouration from crustaceans. But they’re also fond of beetles, not in a good way for the beetles.

Re other acquisitions, we always liked the look of the aardvarks. Oh, and lemurs.

I'd quite like a pangolin. Since covid they've had bad press.

The zoo was bigging up giant pangolin (I don't know ifvthere were any there). Because of poaching they're in a bad way. I think all the pangolin species are suffering similarly.

There was an aardvark. Splayed out enjoying the sun. They're nearly hairless, quite big and I loved the way its tail tapered. Briefly made me want to go round the zoo in alphabetical order but I'd already seen some zebras.

Scarlet ibises (what is the plural of ibis?) are even more gaudy than hoopoes. What's wrong with black and white, that's what I want to know. Distinguished-looking, that's what I am. Mutter mutter...

Oh, did I mention azure winged magpies? 😍

NOW you're talking!

You just need a bill like mine!

I haven't been to the zoo for years. I used to go whenever I was in Berlin.

The panda was a big draw, but pandas are a bit lazy and once you've seen them they don't do much.

I liked the wolves a lot - you could stand for ages and watch how the family group interact.

I think my favourites were the sand cats. They're titchy but fierce, and move so quickly it's hard to get a picture of them.

Oh yes, that's much better. I particularly like the fact that the scientific name is at pains to emphasise how blue it is!

There's a little zoo in France where there's a bird of prey display, and after they've done their thing, the red ibises and stork and parrots are let out of their enclosure and fly over to the display field.

It's definitely an "Ooh! Aah!" moment.

I'd have liked to look at the smaller monkeys, lemurs and parrots but we ran out of time. It doesn't have wolves but it does have African Hunting dogs. They're a completely different genus. Colourful, short haired, with big goofy ears.

Also warty pigs, which seemed a bit Sus 😁

No. Sorry. These azure-winged magpies are class traitors. If you want to be blue, be born a bluebird, don't LARP as one!
I think the scientific name is drawing attention to the incongruity of the blue.
#magpiepridemonth 😁

Sionnach, the photo of those sand cats is so aaaawwwww!!
I wonder what the photographer found to keep their interest for so long - something edible, I bet.
edited to say that the middle one is actually looking at the photographer, possibly wondering what they would taste like😄

Magpie Pride?!

I'm not sure - their staple diet in the desert is snakes and scorpions.

When I saw them up close they were just charging about like mad wee things 😀

The sand cats are very much adapted to their environment. The big ears mean they can hear prey at a distance, or rodents burrowing underground. And they have fur covering their foot pads so they don't get scorched, and they don't leave tracks in the sand.

And apparently, when they're in heat they bark like dogs!

And the zoo has quietly decolonised their giraffes 🦒. They're now Northern giraffes instead of Rothschild. Everywhere else seems to be calling that subspecies Nubian giraffes. So I think Northern in this context must be the North of England. If I visit again I'm going to check if they're wearing flat caps. Possibly, if I get the chance, ask a keeper if they're fed mushy peas.

Also check for the presence of whippets, Cake.

I bet they’d prefer something which wasn’t a snake or a scorpion! The one in the middle is thinking ‘yeah, are you actually going to give us those Dreamies or are you just pissing about?’.

(note - I don’t actually know what exactly a Dreamy is, but I sometimes glance at the Litter Tray threads if it’s a quiet night. I assume the feline equivalent of Schmackos)

👍