elle
(Elle)
#1
Colophon
The animal on the cover of Python for Finance is a Hispaniolan solenodon. The
Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) is an endangered mammal that lives on the
Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It’s
particularly rare in Haiti and a bit more common in the Dominican Republic.
Solenodons are known to eat arthropods, worms, snails, and reptiles. They also consume
roots, fruit, and leaves on occasion. A solenodon weighs a pound or two and has a foot-
long head and body plus a ten-inch tail, give or take. This ancient mammal looks
somewhat like a big shrew. It’s quite furry, with reddish-brown coloring on top and lighter
fur on its undersides, while its tail, legs, and prominent snout lack hair.
It has a rather sedentary lifestyle and often stays out of sight. When it does come out, its
movements tend to be awkward, and it sometimes trips when running. However, being a
night creature, it has developed an acute sense of hearing, smell, and touch. Its own
distinctive scent is said to be “goatlike.”
It gets toxic saliva from a groove in the second lower incisor and uses it to paralyze and
attack its invertebrate prey. As such, it is one of few venomous mammals. Sometimes the
venom is released when fighting among each other, and can be fatal to the solenodon
itself. Often, after initial conflict, they establish a dominance relationship and get along in
the same living quarters. Families tend to live together for a long time. Apparently, it only
drinks while bathing.
Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the
world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.
The cover image is from Wood’s Illustrated Natural History. The cover fonts are URW
Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is
Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.
