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I need your help. I am the proud owner of 17 animals. Unfortunately they have all gone missing in the past few weeks and I have a feeling they could be hiding in the States somewhere. Can you help me retrieve them?

$$\begin{array}{align*} \textbf{1a}&\text{South Carolina, California, Oregon, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Idaho, Ohio, New York} \\\textbf{1b}&\text{Arizona, North Carolina, Alaska, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nevada,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Delaware, Alabama} \\\textbf{2a}&\text{Utah, Maine, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Delaware, Utah, Ohio, Wyoming} \\\textbf{2b}&\text{Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee} \\\textbf{3a}&\text{Louisiana, New Mexico, Idaho, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Florida,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Mississippi, Minnesota} \\\textbf{3b}&\text{Vermont, South Carolina, Georgia, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Montana} \\\textbf{4a}&\text{Kentucky, California, Tennessee, Virginia, Montana, New Jersey,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Minnesota, Colorado} \\\textbf{4b}&\text{Pennsylvania, Delaware, Alabama, Wisconsin, Missouri, Connecticut,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Kentucky} \\\textbf{5a}&\text{Colorado, North Dakota, Oregon} \\\textbf{5b}&\text{Oregon, California} \\\textbf{6a}&\text{South Dakota, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{New Jersey} \\\textbf{6b}&\text{New York, Virginia, Vermont, Texas, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Nebraska, Oklahoma} \\\textbf{7a}&\text{Idaho, Pennsylvania, Connecticut} \\\textbf{7b}&\text{Maine, Texas, Pennsylvania} \\\textbf{8a}&\text{Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington; Arkansas, Iowa,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri; Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Virginia, West Virginia; California, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Utah, Washington} \\\textbf{8b}&\text{Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin;} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Wyoming; Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah; Alabama,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,} \\\textbf{ }&\text{Wisconsin} \end{array}$$

Grid

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The Animals

What a menagerie! I hope you find them all soon! Do you need help putting up posters? Your 17 animals are:

SCORPION
ANACONDA
HEDGEHOG
SNAKE
SEA HORSE
MARMOT
KANGAROO
PEACOCK
CONDOR
ORCA
PARROT
ARMADILLO
EEL
ELK
LION
BEAR
ELEPHANT

The Clues

The answers for 1a and 1b can be found by:

Taking the initial letter from each state
SCORPION
ANACONDA

The answers for 2a and 2b can be found by: (From Silenius)

Taking the last letter from each state
HEDGEHOG
SNAKE

The answers for 3a and 3b can be found by: (From Silenius)

Taking the middle letter from each state
SEA HORSE
MARMOT

The answers for 4a and 4b can be found by: (From Techidiot)

Taking the first, then second, then third, etc. letter from each state
KANGAROO
PEACOCK

The answers for 5a and 5b can be found by:

Concatenating the two letter abbreviations for each state:
CONDOR
ORCA (You must have a lot of space to keep an orca!)

The answers for 6a and 6b can be found by: (from Brien)

Taking the initial letter of each state capital:
PARROT
ARMADILLO

The answers for 7a and 7b are found by: (From wing-it)

Counting the letters in each state name and assigning a letter to that number. 1=A, 2=B, etc.
EEL
ELK

Some observations about 8a and 8b

There are three semicolons, separating the clues into 4 sections Within each section, the states are alphabetized.

The answers for 8a and 8b can be found by: (From Silenius)

Separating the clue into components, breaking at the semicolons. For each component, shade those states in on a map. The shaded states will approximate a letter.
LION
BEAR
Example: Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington; enter image description here

The Grid

Considering the letters that fall into the grey box, pick the first alphabetically for MIN and vice-versa for MAX. (Well done wing-it!) This does leave MARMOT in a bit of a strange position however!


enter image description here The highlighted letters spell out the last animal: ELEPHANT

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  • $\begingroup$ 2a/2b last letters: HEDGEHOG/SNAKE $\endgroup$ – GoldenGremlin Feb 22 '17 at 12:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Silenus, feel free to append to this answer (or add your own) :) $\endgroup$ – James Webster Feb 22 '17 at 12:12
  • $\begingroup$ 3a/3b middle letters: SEA HORSE/MARMOT $\endgroup$ – GoldenGremlin Feb 22 '17 at 12:17
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    $\begingroup$ The crossword appears to be hiding ELEPHANT, however this uses MARMOT in the bottom leaving the last two spaces blank, and I have no idea what the min/max clues mean. That would mean either 7a or 7b would be a 3-letter animal staring with E, possibly ELK, EMU, or EWE, but don't know what the clue means. Possible (unlikely) solution for 7b: E ast - W est - E ast, but don't know where that would leave 7a. $\endgroup$ – wing-it Feb 22 '17 at 21:49
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    $\begingroup$ The way I arrived at the elephant conclusion independently was by lining each word up starting from the first letter and taking the MIN or MAX letter from each index. So for the last row, clues 3a/3b, you put in "SERMOTSE", and so on $\endgroup$ – Brien Feb 23 '17 at 19:04
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Regarding 2a/2b:

Taking the last letter from each state to get HEDGEHOG and SNAKE.

Regarding 3a/3b:

Take the middle letter from each state to get SEA HORSE and MARMOT.

Regarding 8a/8b:

Each clue consists of 4 lists of states. The states in each list are path-connected.

For example, regarding 8a:

{Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington} form an L-shaped region.

{Arkansas, Iowa,Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri} form a vertical line.

{Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois,Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina,Virginia, West Virginia} form a circle.

{California, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska,New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas,Utah, Washington} form an N-shaped region.

Together these spell LION.

For 8b:

{lllinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin} form a B-shaped region.

{Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Wyoming} form an E-shaped region.

{Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah} form an A-shaped region.

{Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin} form an R-shaped region.

Together these spell BEAR.

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  • $\begingroup$ From the first two letters for 8b, I reckon the next two letters will be A and R $\endgroup$ – James Webster Feb 22 '17 at 13:59
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Regarding 6a/6b

Take the first letter from each state's capital to get PARROT, ARMADILLO

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