My Temple of Nature: Maned Things

I was going to do a post on the maned wolf. I went to Wikipedia to look up some information, typed in 'maned' and all these other maned things came up. A maned rat? Maned owls? Maned ducks? Hmmm.

Also after reading about the maned wolf I realized that the information sounded vaguely familiar. Yes, I talked about the maned wolf in my 'Mutual Admiration Society' post. So this post will be about all the OTHER maned things.

First, the maned rat. It's also called the crested rat and lives in east Africa. It sort of resembles a large rat with a mohawk.

Source: Wikipedia

With its striped coloring though you might mistake it for some weird looking skunk. It eats leaves, fruit and other plant material, but will also eat insects.

The maned sloth is endemic to Brazil and only lives in the Brazilian coastal rainforest. It is of the three-toed variety, and looks like a regular sloth except for a dark 'scarf' around its neck.

Source: Zeke's

For more information on sloths, see my 'Slinking Sloths' post.

Now about those maned ducks. They are also known as the maned goose, but I don't see a mane. Do you?

Source: Wikipedia

Also called the Australian Wood Duck, they are obviously from Australia. Here's the female.

Source: Wikipedia

Maybe Fuzzy Headed Duck would be more accurate. Their most unusual characteristic? They don't swim all that much. They graze the grasslands in flocks and nest in tree cavities.

Next on the list is a maned blenny. The Webster's New World Dictionary definition of a blenny is "any of various small marine percoid fishes with a long, many-rayed dorsal fin and a tapering body covered with slime." What a lovely description. Here's what it looks like.

Photo by J. E. Randall Source: Fishbase

Isn't it cute? This particular blenny is found in the shallower waters of the Indian Ocean.

When you think of a mane, fish don't normally come to mind, but there is another 'maned' fish, the maned goby. It has three or four other names including the long-finned goby and the small-scaled goby. Gobies are small spiny-finned fish whose "pelvic fins are united as a suction disk that clings to rocky surfaces." (also Webster's). This goby is found in the Western Pacific.

Source: Encyclopedia of Life

And last but not least, the maned owl. Endemic to Africa it prefers rainforest canopy, not regular forest, for its home. Not a lot is really known about it, including (again) why it's known as a maned owl! To see a photo, click here.

As far as I'm concerned, I was a little disappointed with all these so called maned things. So to make up for it....