The Weekly Recap
Hello and welcome back to the weekly recap! Very sorry for missing a week, I’ve been travelling in Australia with my best friend and unwittingly doing some mammalwatching of my own. We saw 15 Koalas, some very greedy Brushtail Possums and, most importantly, many a Wombat in Kangaroo Valley (which we usually smelt before seeing… apparently they had Mange). We also saw over a thousand Fairy Penguins on Phillip Island, which were as adorable as they were useless – we giggled a lot watching them get knocked over by waves as they tried to summon up the bravery to run across the beach. I expect it would be a bit like watching my dad try to surf.
Anyway, over the past couple of weeks there have been two Royle Safaris trip reports from Western Sahara: one from November 2024 and one from January 2025. They saw over 17 species on both including Sand Cat, Fennec Fox, Ruppel’s Fox and African Golden Wolf.
Next up was Cheryl Antonucci’s trip to Western Brazil. She saw 33 species including a pair of Doubtful Titi Monkeys that look like Siamese twins, Ecuadorian Squirrel Monkey, Pink River Dolphin and Long-nosed Proboscis Bat.
Still in South America was Jan Ebr’s short trip to Chile where he saw Bennett’s Chinchilla Rat, South American Sea Lions, Coruro and 4 other species.
He also shared a report from Sri Lanka and the Maldives, where he saw a total of 32 mammals: adorable mother and baby Tocque Macaques, a playful Grey Langur, Dwarf Sperm Whale and Grey Slender Loris, for all of which there are gorgeous photos.
Edward Wong also did some mammalwatching in Sri Lanka, and his report has just as many great photos, including a huge collection of very silly frogs. Some mammal highlights are the Sri Lankan Sloth Bear, Fishing Cat, Red Slender Loris and and Rusty-spotted Cat.
James Blake has shared a short post about finding the famous Common Hamsters in Meidling Cemetery, Vienna.
Next is Robert Crawford’s trip report from Uganda, with highlights like East African Potto, African Palm Civet and African Golden Cat.
My dad’s trip to Barbados got him the Jamaican Fruit-eating Bats, Antillean Fruit-eating Bat, and Barbados Myotis and in a cave which sounds sufficiently worse than the ones he’s dragged me into.
Finally, Ian Thompson has shared his report from a Western USA road trip. He saw 60 species like Mojave Ground Squirrel, American Black Beer and the very odd looking White-tailed and Black-tailed Jackrabbits.
Another episode of the Mammalwatching Podcast is here! This one is an interview with Nigel Marven, a wildlife filmmaker who’s worked with Sir David Attenborough (I already know my dad must’ve been starstruck).
If you have seen a wild Serval since 2016, then check out this post – the IUCN Red List assessment of the species is being revised and so data is needed!
Wayne Kidder is looking for any good mammal contacts in Doha for October. Rebecca Taylor is wondering if Badlands NP is a good place to photograph Black-footed Ferrets and if there are any mammal guides who could help.
Sabine travelling to Italy next year has shared a list of desired species and would love some tips on how to find them.
Check out this post about the Australian Kultarr, which is being split into 3 species – you may need to update your lists!
Finally, the latest Gnusletter from the Antelope Specialist group is out: you can read about the rediscovery of the Beira in Ethiopia and all about an African Buffalo mega-herd!
If you would like to subscribe only to weekly updates like these from mammalwatching.com, you can visit this page.
Thanks for reading:)
Katy
Cover photo: Jon Hall
Post author
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.