day one-hundred-and-fifty-one - golden perch

ooo another evocative scientific name - macquaria ambigua. although what is evokes is less yellow-ish fish and more mysterious dictionary

© jem barratt

let me sum this fish up for you:

- cowardly nickname
- good eating if not too fat
- aggressive to other fish
- razor sharp gill plates
- carnivorous

and

- quite enjoyable to draw

xj

day one-hundred-and-fifty - parasitic wasp

the book i drew from said this guy was a bee...

© jem barratt

hence my questioning. turns out it is a parasitic wasp of the braconidae family.

now i've done the hard yard of finding out what this species is you can do the easy part of learning about them. chop chop!

(please get back to me with the facts because i have better things to do)

xj

day one-hundred-and-forty-nine - herring gull

yeah yeah a gull. what's interesting about the most prevalent and well-known gull in europe?

this is...

© jem barratt

really, this happened. truly one of the most amusing and bestest animal photos i've seen. and i've seen millions.

xj

day one-hundred-and-forty-eight - red panda

why oh why did i wait 148 days to draw my favourite animal?

© jem barratt

but more importantly, why oh why oh why can't i draw my favourite animal!? how ludicrous

i should be able to draw them like the back of my hand... draws them. what?

even more importantly why oh why oh why oh why have you not yet seen the red panda strut? there was a period of my life, while studying in french canadia by myself, during which i spent most of my free time searching for red panda videos

i have so many favourites - if the one above does not sate your appetite feel free to ask me for more

in fact, let's have a RED PANDA PARTY!*

xj



* i bet you expected a red panda in a party hat or millions of them jumping out of a cake. wrong! this was the only guy that showed up - the saddest red panda in the world

day one-hundred-and-forty-seven - king vulture

raawr i'm a king vulture (sarcoramphus papa) and i'm gonna eat you!

© jem barratt

but only if you're already dead.*

xj



* so tell your ghost to watch out!

day one-hundred-and-forty-six - laughing kookaburra

we all know (and hopefully love) kookaburras but here are some things you may not have known about them:

- they are kingfishers that live inland (that's just plain odd for a mostly riverine family). and the largest kingfisher in the family too
- they all 'laugh' but the guy i drew is specifically a 'laughing kookaburra'
- they are mesmerised by hot chips (if my trip to the zoo today is anything to go by)
- they are (apparently) known as 'the bushman's clock'. i wouldn't mind using one as an alarm myself
- you'll often hear them as a part of the jungle ambience in old adventure films, no matter what the continent
- i drew one today...

© jem barratt

i quite like him - i tried to do a more simplistic and less realistic drawing - but not as much as i like this guy

in other news, a red-tailed black cockatoo had fun trying to eat my bag today. i was tempted to scoop him in my bag so i could keep him, but that's 'stealing' or 'animal cruelty' or something

xj

day one-hundred-and-forty-five - white-spotted frog

this australian froggy is so cute

© jem barratt

also his scientific name sounds like a magic spell: heleioporus albopunctatus!
(the equally syllabled words sure help with that)

frogs are in big trouble you guys - you should help if you can, by donating moneys of course but also by giving information on frog calls and where you found them (if you find them). i myself have given money to the ark but i would like to help them with frog distribution knowledge too

until then i hope my drawing is a nice reminder of how cool frogs are

xj

day one-hundred-and-forty-four - black rhinoceros

grrr, i accidentally deleted my blog post from yesterday and don't think i can get it back. here's a summary: yes i've drawn rhinos before but i THINK they were both white and this guy's black:

© jem barratt

plus rhinos are cute and lovely so i'll draw as many of them as i want! (hopefully i only want to draw three because four or more would be a bit much)

xj