They are different characters, aren't they ?

Growing up til now, I watched every documentary I could see, about animals of the world. I've always been fascinated with watching them move , their behaviour habits, the colours of them, the fur texture.

When I first saw these fox, I laughed, along with sitting close to observe them. They peek over small rises in the ground, ears back, and all you see is a wee bit of that flat head and their eyes. Like those little mud skipper fish, with eyes on top of their heads ...

The name Flathead was the first thing that came to my mind. It ought to be their biological name, too ! If you take the fur off them, they're all skull. Big heads and jaws. I think Arctic fox are like that too.

Jack, I always wanted to work with biologists, in doing nice technical art illustrations to go with their writings, in books and articles. They really should have ,let me name some things....

Great post and pictures Jack. I've always been fascinated by Mongolia and would love to visit some day. I also noticed the intact horse skeleton, perhaps no wolverines or bears or equivalent? You have lived a fascinating, adventurous life!

white17 "It surprises me to see those skeletons almost completely intact. Especially that horse. Judging by the color of the bones it has been there a while. Old wolf kills I have seen around here..the bones are generally scattered quite a bit by the time they get that bleached out. Any ideas why that appears to be the case ?"

30/06 " I also noticed the intact horse skeleton, perhaps no wolverines or bears or equivalent? "

Good point guys. Very surprising to me also, because a very common bird over there is the lammergeier (bearded vulture). This bird (with somewhat over 9-foot wingspan) lives almost entirely on bones and marrow. What it can't break up into bite-sized chunks, it carries high into the air and drops the bone on rocks, breaking it up small enough to swallow. There were at least two other vultures that were common (Himalayan and the Cinereous Vultures), seeing up to 20 of them on one carcass. With the wolves, and the many scavengers, it's amazing that anything is left at a kill-site. On the other hand, the photo of the horse remains is from a horse about 1 week old (since predation). The dead elk was killed the night before the photo.

Jack you need to write another book "(Mt.) Lions, and Tigers, and Bears oh my!