Observed at over 3,100 meters above sea level
Around 7-8mm body length (legs not included). Eating mosquitoes in photos.
Update: After molting, the ant-like elongated chelicerae appeared. Including that, the body length is now roughly 1cm. Spider was released after.
Photo
On Hon Son. Possibly an insular record of cinereus or maybe a disjunct population of condaoensis. The specimen and a related paper are being reviewed.
This is the first record of an intermedius group Cyrtodactylus on Hon Son. The species is unclear, and we were unable to collect or find additional specimens. A paper (coauthored with Dr. Lee Grismer) will be published in Zootaxa in the near future.
Thank you @folkcanon
Photo by Nguyen Vu Manh
Moved away from school.
Eating a bone or something.
The Saola was only discovered to science in 1992. There are no Saola in captivity. No Saola have been seen by scientists in the wild. A few records on camera trap exist. In 2004, there were still reports of Saola deep in the Truong Son mountains. This individual was confiscated from hunters in A'Luoi district, in the western reaches of the province. The other pictures are from interviews with Ka Tu ethnic hunters in A'Luoi and A'Vuong districts (Minh Hoang). The last photo is James with rangers from Hue Forest Department examining Saola tracks in A'Luoi - and identifzing schistamoglottis plants, reportedly favoured food for the saola.
In 2013, its status is critical. See what is happening on http://www.savethesaola.org/
Location obscured as poachers are active in the area. The flock numbered at least 10.
Raised by Circle K staffs when it flew into the grocery store when it was young. It now can fly but refuse to leave.
Possibly female Cosmophasis Lami, wild caught and kept in captivity until presumedly matured, for observation purposes. Photos contains the 6 appearances after each moulting stage. After 2 months of keeping, spider grew from <2mm at the time of capture, to 5-6 mm at time of release (body length may vary due to feeding and positioning during measurement -> errors). It's unknown how many moulting stages the spider went through prior to stage 1, but was well-fed enough to begin molting from stage 1 to 2 without feeding after capture. The early stages seem to have green-ish body color with dark color bandings. At the last 6th stage, spider's cheek area seems to exhibit iridescent coloration, which may be seen in one of the extra photos showing the side profile. The 5th stage seems to lose the dark areas until returning at the 6th, it is also when the orange color shows more clearly (or at least that's what my eyes are telling me), before then, it was more green-ish with black or brown-ish bands, except for the 1st stage where it was either very reflective dark green or black. Preys fed include various types of flies such as drain flies, fruit flies, and mosquitoes in the area, feeding occurs almost daily which might accelerate the growth more than in the wild.
This is only a fun personal project, not anything extensive; spider was released at the time of uploading observation. Formatted date in the photos is YYYY/MM/DD.
Edit 1: Another specimen with clearer patterns at assumedly stage 1
Edit 2: A male specimen observation here
My second wild turtle in Vietnam. Observed near the same location as the first. I was able to catch this one by hand, and released it in the same place after taking the attached photos.
Please check the other photos specifically 3/4.
There's a famous pair of feral White-crested Laughingthrushes at this park. They are always together and I heard they've been here for 20 years.
It had been a while since I saw them last, and today I found one. Not by the usual loudness and activity but it was quietly perched in the bamboo.
I later noticed it wasn't opening the right-eye. When foraging it opens but it looks like it has an injury.
I don't know what happened to this one or the other one but it is hurt.
First encounter, found just on the edge of the path. The blue glistening was the first feature that I noticed. Very calm demeanour, allowing me to take photos very close for a few mins.
Observed and photographed by my colleague Mike Morrison. A rare find usually associated with deep water in the tropics. This specimen was 3 m in length, 300 mm from spine to belly and 75-100mm thick and was estimated to weigh around 50 kg.
The adult form: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105011398
The body length is approximately 1,6mm
The first leg is approximately 2 cm