#3 Steller sea lion

Eumetopias jubatus
IUCN Redlist: Endangered 
Location: Flat Rocks, West Coast Trail, Vancouver Island, Canada

Time: 1422 PST, March 21 2011

Both Steller sea lions and Californian sea lions live in this area, and both may have been present in this photo. Stellers, however, were positively identified by their vocalisations, and so are the species that will be counted.

This colony is a few minutes walk north of the Pachena Point Lighthouse on the West Coast Trail.

IUCN Red List

#2 American red squirrel

Tamiasciurus hudsonicus

IUCN Redlist: Least Concern

Location: West Coast Trail, between Pachena Bay and Pachena Point, Vancouver Island, Canada

Time: 1210 PST, March 21 2011

IUCN Red List

#1 Homo sapiens

Homo sapiens Linnaeus 1758
IUCN Redlist: Critically endangered
Location: undisclosed to protect the species
Time: 1855 UTC March 18 2011


Sightings of this unusual species have been reported from around the world, but very little is known of its habits or life history, and due to its elusive habits it has no widely accepted common name. Despite finding a lot of signs of their presence at this location, this was the only shot of one I managed to take, as it disappeared among the trees. I have spotted this species before, but this is the only photograph I have taken of one.

While I recognise that this post violates my image quality rule, but I expect that under the circumstances all my zero current readers will approve of my counting this species.

IUCN Red List

Welcome

Welcome to 120 Kilopods, where I will be recording my efforts to see and capture on camera all 30,000+ known species of tetrapods. As well as all the amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles I can find, this site will also feature other interesting things, biological or not, that I might encounter during my search.

Here are my basic rules:

• Pics or it didn't happen. A photo taken by me, or someone present at the same time, must exist, and be of sufficient quality to identify the animal (with allowances for animals not readily identifiable to species level by sight).
• Wild animals only. I'm not looking for animals in zoos, or pets. Exceptions: animals extinct in the wild - for obvious reasons; domesticated species - not domesticated forms of wild species, but domesticated forms that are considered distinct species; species with wild populations in inaccessible areas - e.g. areas closed for the protection of the species, military zones, etc. Just being off the beaten track doesn't count.
• The count starts at zero. Only species seen after 00:00:00 UTC Tuesday March 15th 2011 will count toward my total.
• Rules are made to be broken. Especially this one. In exceptional cases I might post species that break these rules, and any other rules I might add to the challenge. I'll explain my reasoning if and when that time comes. Feel free to challenge me if you think I'm breaching the spirit of the challenge, I'm happy to receive your feedback.

I'll end this post with a few brief thoughts:

• I want this blog to be an interactive place. Please discuss and let me know what you impressions are, any rules you think should be added, species ID I've got wrong etc.
• I'm letting this blog to grow organically. I'm not going to traipse around the blogosphere, shilling my wares. It might be slow to get moving, so if you've stumbled across the site and think it's quiet, then tell your friends. Or don't. I don't care.
• I know how huge this task is. If I shoot and post a new species every day, it'll take over 80 years, and with more tetrapods being discovered every year, it's going to become even bigger. The ongoing Holocene extinction is working in the other direction, but I can only hope my job isn't made significantly easier for this reason.

That's all for now.