These two rutting male impala appear to be taking a break from chasing each other around so that they can show a little affection. This was in Laikipia, Kenya, an area that used to be mostly farmland but has been reclaimed for wildlife preservation.
I saw quite a few of these black-backed jackals in the Central Kalahari Desert of Botswana. One of the nice things about that trip was that I was able to get out of the safari vehicle and onto the ground for more intimate, eye-level shots. I caught this guy, early in the morning, just as he was getting up from a long nap in the dry grass.
This one goes out to another little snow monkey friend of mine named Luke who was born last week. Also known as a Japanese macaque, this little guy was relaxing in the hot water springs near Nagano in Japan.
Keeping things in Australia for another day, this is a male regent bowerbird, photographed in Lamington National Park in Queensland. Male bowerbirds build elaborate structures on the ground, known as bowers, to attract females. They will line these bowers with sticks, shells, leaves, seeds and berries. They will also sometimes use wads of leaves as paintbrushes to spread a saliva paint to spruce up the place. This makes them one of the only known birds to use tools.
As promised after yesterday’s bug — cuddly and with fur. This is one of the koalas that I saw on Kangaroo Island in South Australia back in 2005.
It’s been a real long time since my last insect posting. I know most of you prefer feathers and fur to exoskeletons, but I figured it was high time we gave a shout out to our invertebrate friends. And what better bug is there than the giraffe weevil? This guy is native to Madagascar and aptly named as you can see. The males have the long, giraffe-like necks while the females have a much shorter neck. Hope you like it, but if not, tomorrow I promise something much more cuddly.
I usually like to post photos that either show an animal’s behavior or its habitat. With a creature as magnificent as a tiger, however, a simple head shot seems good enough. Of all the wild beasts I’ve seen around the world — gorillas in Uganda, jaguars in Brazil, polar bears in northern Canada — the tigers I saw in central India were the most spectacular and finest looking specimens of all. This lovely lady was resting in the dry grass of Bandhavgarh National Park, casually observing me and the rest of her mesmerized admirers.
Well, maybe not telling a joke, but it kind of looked that way. Zebras are, however, the subject of many folk tales in Africa, which tell of how they got their stripes. According to the bushmen of Namibia, zebras were once all white before an unfortunate encounter with a baboon at a water hole. Seems the two species got into a fight and the zebra kicked the baboon so hard that it tipped over a fire. The fire sticks hit the zebra and left the scorch marks all over the white fur. I’m not saying they’re good stories, just that stories exist. Enjoy.
This is an old one, but was never posted to the blog. That evil looking bird up there is a cassowary and it has been declared by the Guinness Book of World Records to be “the most dangerous bird in the world.” It earned this distinction in large part due to its huge claws that it uses to defend itself, usually aiming for the torso of would be intruders, human or otherwise. Native to northeastern Australia and Papua New Guinea, it is the third largest bird in the world behind the ostrich and the emu. Like those birds, it is flightless, and it can grow to over 6 feet tall and weigh more than 150 pounds. Lucky for me I had a 600mm lens on my camera and could photograph from a safe distance.
There are more than fifty different species of lemur in Madagascar, of all shapes, sizes and colors. About half of them are nocturnal. This is a crowned lemur — an average sized diurnal lemur. The name is an obvious reference to the reddish crown on the forehead. This individual is a female. Males have the exact opposite coloration (reddish body with a grey crown), a characteristic known as sexual dimorphism.