Synopsis:
Donald can earn a thousand dollars by photographing the elusive Iron-billed Woodpecker. How hard can that be? Well...

Comments:
It is more than plausible that Barks - preparing for this story - had read the news about the extremely rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker from the South-Eastern states of the USA. It was last confirmed sighted in 1944, whereupon he made his story using a similarly looking bird which he named Iron-billed.

Synopsis:
Donald is a butterfly hunter and he is hired to go to Africa and collect the world's rarest butterfly. A villainous competitor follows...

Comments:
The butterfly being the Almostus Extinctus, but in the end of the story the name may need changing, after the nephews come across a batch of caterpillars which develop into hundreds of Almostus Extinctus'es...!

Synopsis:
Scrooge wants a unicorn for his zoo so Donald and the nephews are sent to the Himalayas after the fabled animal which they know does not exist. Or does it?

Comments:
In this story it does! Apparently, it was also in impending danger of being extinct. At least the Ducks never experienced more than the one unicorn...

Synopsis:
Gyro is breeding worms that drag fish out of the water. Donald is an avid angler. Now for some serious fishing...

Comments:
The worms are super worms invented to help idle anglers. The worms re-enters the waters endlessly in order to drag in more and more fish.

Synopsis:
Donald encourages the nephews to study the industrious ants and their way of life but they end up taking the wind out of his sails.

Comments:
For this story Barks invented the dreadful Antofagasta ax-toothed ants, who can dig and eat through wood of any kind in no time at all. In DD60 The Titanic Ants ordinary ants took on enormous sizes, and in U$33 Billions in the Hole Donald and Scrooge were shrunk enabling normal ants to kidnap them.

Synopsis:
Donald and the nephews travel into the jungle to find Razor Wasps which can destroy the Pickle Haters that threaten the pickle harvest in Duckburg...

Comments:
Barks presented us to not only one but two invented species in this story; first we are introduced to Pickle Haters which triggers the story, and then the Ducks venture out to find the counter-measure - Razor Wasps.

Synopsis:
The nephews win a underwater camera and Donald immediately sees its potential. He heads for Loch Less to photograph its sea monster!

Comments:
There can be little doubt that Barks based his initial plot on the mysterious and highly elusive being - if any! - in the scottish Loch Less. A few years earlier he made another story about a sea serpent (FC0318 No Such Varmint) and a few years later another sea serpent played a key role in yet a third story (WDCS292 Instant Hercules).

Synopsis:
Scrooge travels with Donald and the nephews to inspect his oil wells. Before long they find themselves in the cave of some giant birds...

Comments:
...birds from the old Arabian tales - Rocs! The birds are of a size enabling them to carry full grown donkeys (and Ducks!) off into the air. In U$50 Rug Riders in the Sky the ducks had another run-in with a special breed of the same bird, but this time it was Magica de Spell who had transformed herself into a nasty version of the fabled being...

Synopsis:
Scrooge's technicians have invented unbreakable glass but what can it be used for? Well, the Money Bin could be encased in it...

Comments:
As it turns out Magica de Spell - who, as usual, is striving to get hold of Scrooge's Number One Dime inside the Bin - discovers the only medium that can break the glass - The Tanganyika Yeeker. It is a bird which can actually hit the special note by screaming that can bring down the tough glass.

Synopsis:
Scrooge's zoo is failing and in order to get some more guests he will pay a billion dollars for a speckled elephant with a square trunk...

Comments:
Once again Scrooge has problems getting customers to his zoo, and once again he wishes for an apparently non-existing animal to bring new life to his turnstiles (the first idea was a unicorn as described above). And once again, against all odds, Scrooge's wish comes through...