Resting Critters

A habitat area here features an animal that was having a bit of a doze, as it tends to be nocturnal. The American Barn Owl ranges through North America and into northern South America. Its prey includes small mammals and lizards. Focusing on high energy prey allows the bird to eat proportionately less than those birds who might rely on lower energy foods, and thus use up less energy.

A hammock is slung up here for a mammal that sleeps eighteen or so hours a day (I'm jealous). The light furred Linneus's two toed sloth is an omnivore that is mostly nocturnal, curled up comfortably in a ball and totally oblivious to visitors.

This is a Massassauga rattlesnake, a resident of North America. Another one of those sit and wait predators, this one features venom that does the work of killing the prey with one bite- the snake doesn't have to spend energy chasing what it's already bitten, just follow the scent and consume at their leisure.

Straw coloured fruitbats are from sub-Saharan Africa. A group of them were clustered together and hanging upside down. I came back a few minutes later and they were more active, as we'll see in a coming post.

For today I finish with this critter. The veiled chameleon is native to the Arabian peninsula. Mostly it goes after insects and spiders, but does eat plant matter too. This one was gracefully crossing from one branch to another as I photographed.