Species identification topic

Roger wrote:

sbell wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Could it be a TARENTOLA MAURITANICA? You know, the species you English people call "Moorish Gecko" or "Crocodile Gecko"? Look at its skin: it's rough with a lot of nodules. It's also yellowish brown in color and it seems to be represented on a stone wall.

That kind of makes sense--it's not a great representation, but the colors and nodules make sense. Plus, given the wide distribution (it's also called the 'house gecko' for a reason!) it would be familiar enough to warrant a figure.

Very clever indeed! These Yowies are quite toyish, even more toyish than the real gecko. Actually, in my country, when we talk simply about geckos, we are always referring to TARENTOLA MAURITANICA, that's a very common sight here and I used to play with them as child. A pity that they often get scared and left their tail moving alone. I honestly, also agree with that brilliant conclusion and I'll add it on TAi as a Moorish wall gecko!

I've changed it in my database to reflect the same.

[quote="sbell"]

Roger wrote:

sbell wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Could it be a TARENTOLA MAURITANICA? You know, the species you English people call "Moorish Gecko" or "Crocodile Gecko"? Look at its skin: it's rough with a lot of nodules. It's also yellowish brown in color and it seems to be represented on a stone wall.

That kind of makes sense--it's not a great representation, but the colors and nodules make sense. Plus, given the wide distribution (it's also called the 'house gecko' for a reason!) it would be familiar enough to warrant a figure.

Very clever indeed! These Yowies are quite toyish, even more toyish than the real gecko. Actually, in my country, when we talk simply about geckos, we are always referring to TARENTOLA MAURITANICA, that's a very common sight here and I used to play with them as child. A pity that they often get scared and left their tail moving alone. I honestly, also agree with that brilliant conclusion and I'll add it on TAi as a Moorish wall gecko! :

I've changed it in my database to reflect the same.

Oof! This time, I did better than with the fishies... But do you know what confused me with the lion fishes? It is that in french, both scorpion fishes and lion fishes are called "rascasses" in french. And when I made my researches ( in french), the brown lion fish with the two spots was not shown; only the brown scorpion fish. And that is what created the confusion.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

sbell wrote:

Roger wrote:

sbell wrote:

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Could it be a TARENTOLA MAURITANICA? You know, the species you English people call "Moorish Gecko" or "Crocodile Gecko"? Look at its skin: it's rough with a lot of nodules. It's also yellowish brown in color and it seems to be represented on a stone wall.

That kind of makes sense--it's not a great representation, but the colors and nodules make sense. Plus, given the wide distribution (it's also called the 'house gecko' for a reason!) it would be familiar enough to warrant a figure.

Very clever indeed! These Yowies are quite toyish, even more toyish than the real gecko. Actually, in my country, when we talk simply about geckos, we are always referring to TARENTOLA MAURITANICA, that's a very common sight here and I used to play with them as child. A pity that they often get scared and left their tail moving alone. I honestly, also agree with that brilliant conclusion and I'll add it on TAi as a Moorish wall gecko! :

I've changed it in my database to reflect the same.

Oof! This time, I did better than with the fishies... But do you know what confused me with the lion fishes? It is that in french, both scorpion fishes and lion fishes are called "rascasses" in french. And when I made my researches ( in french), the brown lion fish with the two spots was not shown; only the brown scorpion fish. And that is what created the confusion.

I think you're doing a fabulous work with all of them. In fact, you're being a precious help to identify a lot of figure species.

Hey guys, I've tried to identify these myself and have had no luck (amphibians and reptiles are my area of least expertise) and could use some help. I'm looking to increase my speciation in these groups, so any ideas on what these could be customized as would be great. Thanks for any help, its greatly appreciated.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Note: I can recognize a few as possible skinks, toads, iguanas, etc. but I'm just not savvy enough to pick the best possible species for the model, and if there aren't really many species to choose from at least a unique patterning for the models would be a welcome idea (i.e. blue iguanas as an example). Thanks again.

I am also not surely the most indicated person to help you in this matter but I think most of them intend to represent species while some are just generic. Surely not easy for me.
The first lizard is a gliding lizard aka flying dragon, the 5th much probably a gharial and the 1st of 2nd row a iguana. It is only what I can say and not with certainty. Customizing some of them may be a good idea but only those that are too generic. :)

I need your help once again! I'm adding some of the Ferrero Kinder animal figurines to TAi but I'm stuck with one species..


This is an otter, obviously. My problem is: what sort of species? This critter is part of the 2012 Arctic Animals set. Arctic. When I search for an otter's habitat, the one with an Arctic habitat is a sea otter. Yet this figurine's anatomy doesn't look like the one from a sea otter. So it must be a river otter. I found out the North American river otter sometimes ends up in really northern, Arctic parts. Do you think this could be a North American river otter?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Yeah, it's probably an American river otter. They pretty much look like that, and while I don't know about 'arctic' they can certainly go pretty far north here in Canada.

sbell wrote:

Yeah, it's probably an American river otter. They pretty much look like that, and while I don't know about 'arctic' they can certainly go pretty far north here in Canada.

Thanks for your opinion, Sean!

I understand your doubt and also Sean's suggestion. Although American river otters go far North, they're continental species, though, they are never introduced in lists of Arctic fauna, sea otter is much more common in these lists as you mentioned. They're a marine species, so it is natural. Though, the toy doesn't show any evidence that it is supposed to be a sea otter. When they're floating on their backs it is easy once river otters doesn't float like that. I believe this is a generic mold to be used as any otter species, as a common otter in Europe, American river otter in America and probably a sea otter in Arctic. Sea otters have relatively shorter tails and different paws, does it help?

Roger wrote:

I understand your doubt and also Sean's suggestion. Although American river otters go far North, they're continental species, though, they are never introduced in lists of Arctic fauna, sea otter is much more common  in these lists as you mentioned. They're a marine species, so it is natural. Though, the toy doesn't show any evidence that it is supposed to be a sea otter. When they're floating on their backs it is easy once river otters doesn't float like that. I believe this is a generic mold to be used as any otter species, as a common otter in Europe, American river otter in America and probably a sea otter in Arctic. Sea otters have relatively shorter tails and different paws, does it help?

Sea otters also tend to be much fuzzier, and probably couldn't actually 'stand' like that--they are almsot entirely aquatic.

sbell wrote:

Sea otters also tend to be much fuzzier, and probably couldn't actually 'stand' like that--they are almsot entirely aquatic.

I agree!

Thanks for your opinion, Roger. This is exactly the determination problem why I came here Though I have to agree with Sean on this one; the figurine is anatomically just not correct as a sea otter. So it must be some other kind of otter. I just thought I read something about North American river otters going north as far as the Arctic.. I just can't find it anymore

Tarunyada wrote:

Thanks for your opinion, Roger. This is exactly the determination problem why I came here Though I have to agree with Sean on this one; the figurine is anatomically just not correct as a sea otter. So it must be some other kind of otter. I just thought I read something about North American river otters going north as far as the Arctic.. I just can't find it anymore

Just a quick look at Wikipedia shows a distribution as far North as Alaska/Northern Canada, so it seems that they can be found in the arctic. Although it does seem more likely that a set maker just got lazy when including an otter species.

As it is, Sea Otters don't usually actually venture much further north than Kamchatka/Aleutian islands (i.e. beyond 60 degrees North), so they really aren't appropriate as 'arctic' animals anyway--they are Pacific ocean animals, not Arctic ocean animals.

sbell wrote:

Tarunyada wrote:

Thanks for your opinion, Roger. This is exactly the determination problem why I came here Though I have to agree with Sean on this one; the figurine is anatomically just not correct as a sea otter. So it must be some other kind of otter. I just thought I read something about North American river otters going north as far as the Arctic.. I just can't find it anymore

Just a quick look at Wikipedia shows a distribution as far North as Alaska/Northern Canada, so it seems that they can be found in the arctic. Although it does seem more likely that a set maker just got lazy when including an otter species.

As it is, Sea Otters don't usually actually venture much further north than Kamchatka/Aleutian islands (i.e. beyond 60 degrees North), so they really aren't appropriate as 'arctic' animals anyway--they are Pacific ocean animals, not Arctic ocean animals.

Thanks, Sean. I think we can stick to Northern American river otter than? Yes, it seems they got lazy Well I still love the figurine!

Can you guys tell me what these are. They are from Battat.

[img][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/img]

[img][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/img]

[img][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/img]

Those aren't really from Battat--like K&M, Battat bought casts of generic reptile molds are repackaged them.

The models themselves are way too generic to identify, even to family. The lizard on the right could be some kind of spiny lizard (it's kind of similar to the XX ones) but too skinny.

Hi everyone, does anyone know information about this schleich figure? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I'd like to know the number, name, series etc. :) and maybe what it's worth?

Hey y'all, my knowledge of invertebrates is rather limited. What is this creature, made by Safari?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

It is a Cowry Shell from the Coral Reef Toob 699104 . Look HERE

Thank you so much!

I also need help with this critter:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That is a hamster

Noahsark wrote:

That is a hamster

Syrian hamster :)