The Blind Man Society

This is the last nature post for awhile. I wanted to do one on three more of my personal favorite animals out there – including the Tarsier, Screech Owl and Emerald Green Tree Boa. So, without further ado…

Tarsier:

These primates are just 40,000 volts of cool, and have eyes as wide as Tom Sawyer. Tarsiers are nocturnal, arboreal, and they leap between vines and branches to move around. They are very shy and have HUGE eyes. These guys protect themselves by ganging up on predators.  When one sees one, it starts vocalizing, and the others show up and harass it until it leaves or they escape.

Screech Owl:

These owls are my absolute favorite Strigiform.  When I was a kid, I had a recording of owl calls on tape, and played it on my boom box in the back yard every night.  One night, a screech owl answered and came into the yard. 

Screech owls have four different vocalizations in their whirring – they don’t hoot – each second, and dedicated songs for males and females.  Females are larger than the males (both are less than a foot tall) and the female selects a male based on the quality of his hole in the tree, and the amount of food available inside. 

Emerald Green Tree Boa:

These are my favorite snake out there.  In the pet trade, these are known as the Rolls Royce of snakes and the top of the reptile keeping art form.

The above picture is how these snakes rest in the tree tops of the Amazon.  They can get up to 9 feet long depending on the kind, and have very long canines, top and bottom teeth that they use to catch parrots and other prey (like monkeys) in the jungle.  Being arboreal, they constrict their prey while hanging from their prehensile tails and eat it while hanging upside down from their tree branch.

In captivity, a misting system is required or a rain machine to keep them at proper humidity levels and they do NOT like to be handled.  As neonates, they can be orange or red, and slowly turn green as they get older.  These remain the ONE THING I have not gotten to on my dream list to keep! Sigh…one day…. 🙂

I hope everyone is having a great day out there wherever you may be, and thank you so much for taking the time to read! As always, please feel free to leave a comment in the box below.