💕🐧🐧🐧💕 African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) are the only penguin species of Africa. Their wild population has decreased by 90 percent since 1956. At this rate of decline, the African Penguin is expected to be extinct in the wild by 2026. You can help the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (@sanccob , sanccob.co.za) with a donation.

Barramunda / Australian lungfish
(Neoceratodus forsteri) in the Frankfurt Zoological Garden.

There are 6 species of lungfish in the world, of which the Australian is the most primitive. The lungfish morphology has hardly changed in the last 100 million years and therefore, like the closely related coelacanths, are considered living fossils.

Genetic studies, as well as the skull structure, the arrangement and shape of the fins, the approach of separation of oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and oxygen-poor blood from the body, suggest a close relationship to the tetrapods, to which we also belong.

Netherless, the lungfish aren't considered our ancestors, but are closely related to them.

Mata mata! 😄🐢
A nocturnal freshwater turtle that is found mainly in the Amazon and Orinoco basins. There it prefers shallow waters, where it remains motionless until a fish comes close. Only small fish are eaten by creating a vacuum that sucks the prey into its mouth. The fish is swallowed whole, the structure of the mouth makes it impossible to chew.

Cape ground squirrel! 🐿
In nature, they often share their burrows with meerkats and / or yellow mongooses.

The Sumatran tiger is the only surviving tiger population in the Sunda Islands, where the Bali and Javan tigers already extinct. The species is listed as "Critical Endangered" on the Red List. Zoos like the Frankfurt Zoological Garden try to breed them. The success is very important for the preservation. Since 2017, there is a new male. But he doesn't harmonize with the female. Therefore, it's necessary to exchange with other zoos to preserve this rare animal.

Last year I visited the only zoo for microbes in the world. Micropia! It's worth it! There should be a lot more such zoos, because these insights are fascinating! 👌🔎🔬

Last year I visited the only zoo for microbes in the world. Micropia! It's worth it! There should be a lot more such zoos, because these insights are fascinating! 👌🔎🔬

Today he would have celebrated his 57th birthday.
I don't need to say that I've always been a huge fan of him.

The picture shows a freshie in the Frankfurt Zoological Garden in Germany.

Waxy monkey tree frogs! 😄

Desert iguana! 😄
(I've changed the background)