Metaphorical Animals (Meta)

Moat crossed. Was not familiar with this particular term, but I guess I learned something. Thanks. Ben.

Enjoyed the puzzle. There were 2 animal metaphors I was not familiar with, but always love to learn new things while doing meta puzzles...Thanks again Ben!

Term not familiar to me either. Needed Google.

Well, I learned something new today. :D

Learned some new things today! Nice puzzle, Ben!

Never heard of it, but thank goodness for Google! Enjoyed the puzzle.

This rara avis was new to me too. At least there was no red herring.

Ditto below. Had never heard of it, but learned. Thanks, Ben!

Always nice to learn a gnu ptarmagin.

Fun one, and I learned something!

Not a metaphor I’d ever heard of. I figure another year or two of Ben's puzzles and I’ll be ready to move to Australia and fit right in!

That was a new term to me! I spent more time "hunting down" this animal than I did solving the puzzle and identifying the themers. Thanks for a fun and educational puzzle, Ben!

Nice! Hadn't heard of this or the gray rhino.

As others have noted, this was a new term to me as well. Needed a nudge to narrow down my google search enough to find the animal. Nice puzzle.

Finally got it with a bit of a nudge to guide my Google search. New to me as well.

Thanks, Ben!

We needed that last nudge despite all our prior googling to find the animal. Very interesting!

Well I had everything I needed except I had never heard of a WARRANT CANARY and no amount of Googling would turn it up. WARRANT BIRD gave me pages from every Wildlife and Game control service in the US. Metaphorical animal in tech yielded a lot of Unicorns, Spiders, Ants as well as a publication that recurred frequently; "God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning". It was not until I got the final nudge about the mining industry (and being originally from NE Pennsylvania I was all too aware of the canary in the coal mine) that I was able to find CANARY WARRANT. So, I've crossed the MOAT and I guess learned somehting new, except I am not sure I entirely understand what a WARRANT CANARY is? Ah well, all the solves cannot be pretty!

Nice one, Mr. Chen71! We use warrant canaries all the time here in Linux Habitation. One of my jobs is to change the newspaper in the cages.

Florence Nightingale is not a metaphorical animal. She was an actual person named Florence Nightingale.

I was tripped up by the 4th animal -- gray ? And since I had never heard the term for the meta answer, I was driving myself crazy looking up gray animals. Two things I will not forget in the future. Thanks for the challenge, Ben!

Crossed the Moat, unfortunately work got in the way of my crossword time, hate when that happens. Interestingly was listening to a podcast when this canary came up. You should always look in the terms of service for this.

I was stuck on “naked as a jay bird”. Was it supposed to be “naked ape”?

Loved this one! Thanks for being fantastic always.