Hey everyone! Iām Billy from England, started listening to this podcast a couple months ago and havenāt really listened to anything else since haha
Watching episode 56 and did Forrest ever post that photo of the giant snakeskin that he found in the cave with the flying foxes? Sounds crazy, anyway nice to meet you 
Hi Billy from England. I am Richard in North Carolina, USA.
I donāt have any information about that snakeskin (in fact i donāt think iāve listened to that particular episodeā¦i will have to make a point of it), but i wanted to welcome you to the group.
So, where in England are you from? I myself have never been outside of the Americas, but i have been fortunate enough to travel a bit. A little Mexico, a little Canada, but mostly within the U.S. and Costa Rica.
The Costa Rica part was an unexpected turn of events in the 2nd or 3rd (or 4th?) chapter of my life that led me to my wife, Vanessa. Iāve been there 12 or so times.
I donāt know exactly what is wrong, but there is very little activity in this group. Iāve made quite a few efforts, but that was months ago. They website being used here is kind of cluncky, i guess, and a little old school.
The biggest thing i figured out is i can type the āatā symbol to tag people into a conversation.
Like this @Richie_Litterine @pwilson96 @DrewBruh @GalaxyCatWoman @EricHawrylyshyn @Patrick_Allen @Skoll_Hati @Jenifer_Schroeder
Hey Richard, nice to meet you bro!
Iām from a place called Manchester in the north west of England. The UK really isnāt known for its wildlife really, we used to have cool stuff like Bison, Wolves and huge Elk back in the day but itās all gone as you can imagine.
Iām not from a particularly wildlife focused family really so trips have been few and far between, Iāve been to mainland Europe but similar to england, a lot of the cool stuff has gone really.
Did go on a trip to Borneo when I was 17 for w a month and that was AMAZING, a wild male Orangutan, vipers, sea snakes a HUGE leatherback turtle too while scuba diving
How were the Americaās? Iām always jealous of the diversity of the USA too although I suppose the size of it, itās bound to be diverse!
I think most people use the discord which Iāve just joined up to today but thought Iād check this again today, nice to meet you Richard and hopefully speak again soon 
Billy, i think youāre exactly right about the Discord. Iām either old school or plain old and never gotten around to figuring out Discord. Just havenāt tried. Same with Twitter.
You are adding to my interest. I might eventually.
Glad you had that experience in Borneo.
Just for fun, i was thinking about what was my personal favorite European animal. And guess what: itās the lemming of all things. I know there are no lemmings in the UK, so thatās beside the point, but i have a soft spot for guinea pigs and they are so much like them! Ive heard about them forever but first saw them in a nature documentary fairly recently. I was floored. I wasnāt expecting that.
You got a favorite USA animal?
You asked āHow were things in Costa Rica?ā
Check another post i made 
brommunity.wildtimes.club/t/going-to-do-some-bird-watching-from-my-in-laws-back-porch/142
Hey Richard,
Yeah I think people use discord more, it took me ages to get Twitter to so Iām with you bro!
Borneo was amazing, truly something Iāll never forget, it was humbling tricking through the jungle with my boots, backpack, bug spray and cargos just to see the locals sprint past in their flip flops haha.
Oh very good one, thereās lots of small things in Europe but the human population has been established here with industrialisation that thereās not much left although we do have some cool deer species and migratory sea creatures like basking sharks
Favourite American animal? Ohhhh good one, I donāt know why but I love an anteater I just think theyāre so bizzaire they almost shouldnāt exist (although fun fact ants make up 20% of all animal biomass on earth which is insane to think) but apart from that probably bears? Like I do find it absolutely insane that theyāre roaming around the northern states because in Europe if itās not a big dog, horse or cow toy have literally nothing to worry about but the thought of a 300 kilo bear is pretty cool
But we Europeans struggle to comprehend the size of the USA I think, like a 12 hour drive fir is you could travel most of the entire UK and we donāt even have straight line interstates but for you guys thatās not even that far haha
Billy, I have EXCELLENT news for you! You donāt have to choose between anteater and bear. The lesser anteater (aka tamandua) is also known as the antbear. But in Costa Rica, where they donāt have bears, locals just call it OSO meaning bear, which is in turn short for OSO DE HORMIGAS (bear of ants).
The OSO is a very cool animal, and one of my absolute favorites. When i first saw one (zoo, never wildā¦yet) i was awestruck at how it blends sloth and anteater. See, i knew anteaters and sloths and armadillos are all closely related, the Xenarthrans, but I never quite saw the connection. That is, until i saw the OSO. The ālesser anteaterā should be called the ātree anteaterā in my opinion, because it has curved claws for climbing.
I already knew it was a favorite animal of mine before visiting CR. I was lucky enough to find a REALLY cool souvenirā¦an illustrated kids book.
Photo below.
EDIT: I use the term OSO here because it is convenient shorthand but definitely Oso translates as ābearā which this animal is not
Hey Billy, welcome! The discord is for sure the place to go for more active conversation on a regular basis. Iād recommend getting on it, itās only a very small learning curve. I downloaded discord in early 2021 solely to join the TWT server and I cerrrtainly donāt regret it! Iām definitely guilty of not being real active in here, but I try to hop on every so often!
