In honor of the two black bears that all but rang our doorbell last night (they were after our pumpkins — video here), thought I’d post a black bear cub I photographed a few years back in Minnesota. Apparently, this is a comfortable spot for a nap. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/800th of a second.
I photographed this bull moose a few winters back in Yellowstone. Well, just outside of Yellowstone in the town of Silver Gate, Montana. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 175mm) ISO 400, f/8 at 1/400th of a second.
Here’s another from Madagascar. The Heterixalus Betsileo frog. I saw these guys in various shades of yellows and whites, often with those gold flecks. This one was photographed in the town of Perinet at the beginning of a night hike. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 165mm with Canon 500D close up filter attached) ISO 100, f/22 at 1/60th of a second, two Nikon SB-600 flash units.
Two crowned lemurs take a nap near Parc Ivoloina in Madagascar. These guys were part of a free-ranging troop that frequented Ivoloina, an educational and recreational zoo. You can see the way the males and females have somewhat opposite colors. In this case, the male is on the bottom and is more reddish with a black crown, while the female is more grey with an orange crown. Nikon D200 with Nikkor 80-200mm lens (at 200mm) ISO 400, f/4.5 at 1/60th of a second.
This young Galápagos sea lion was clearly not impressed with the size of my camera. Photographed on Santiago Island in the Galápagos. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 290mm) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/500th of a second.
I love toucans. To me, they’re iconic of the tropics and few things make me as happy as seeing one flying through the treetops. The keel-billed toucan (otherwise known as the rainbow-billed toucan) is among the most spectacular of these spectacular birds. Like yesterday’s sloth, this one was photographed in Soberania National Park in Panama. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/800th of a second.
A three-toed sloth doing what three-toed sloths do — hanging in a tree taking his time. This one was photographed in Soberania National Park in Panama. Panama is a great place for sightings of both three and two toed sloths. Nikon D810 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/160th of a second.
The black skimmer is named for its characteristic style of feeding. It glides just above the water line, skimming the surface with the lower part of its beak, or mandible. When the lower mandible senses a fish, the upper mandible snaps down for the catch. This image doesn’t show that behavior, but clearly displays the beak. Photographed on Merritt Island on the east coast of Florida. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 340mm) ISO 400, f/7.1 at 1/1600th of a second.
The tufted capuchin’s of the Hyacinth Valley in Brazil are very smart monkeys. Thus the nickname. They’ve learned how to harvest pine nuts and then use tools to open them. They start by tearing the outer husks off the nuts and then leave them in the sun to dry for about a week. When they return to the dried nuts, they place them on a large flat rock surface, which acts as an anvil. They then use much harder igneous rock boulders as their tools to smash open the nuts. Only chimpanzees are known to make more intelligent use of tools. I’ve posted a few shots in the past of the action with the rocks. This guy was simply posing for the camera against that nice blue sky. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 490mm with 1.4 teleconverter) ISO 400, f/5.6 at 1/1250th of a second.
It’s been a long dry spell for me since my last adventure, but looking forward to getting back into the wild soon. I’ll be leading a tour to Kenya and Uganda in early January. The Uganda portion of the trip will be primarily for gorillas, but you never know when you might encounter a chimpanzee as well. This was taken on my last trip to Uganda, in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Nikon D700 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/320th of a second.