This is a California newt that I came across one day while hiking in the woods outside of San Francisco. They are pretty big for newts and can grow to about eight inches in length. They also happen to be highly toxic if ingested. Fortunately, I have no desire to ingest California, or any other species of newt.
Part of my trip to Uganda several years back included a day of chimpanzee trekking in Kibale National Park. It was somewhat difficult to photograph the chimps that day because they were so high up in the trees and there was a white sky in the background. I was able to get several okay shots, however, when there was enough foliage to fill the frame. This lady (at least I think she’s a lady) was busy eating fruits when she took a glimpse back to see what all the clicking was about.
The Pantanal in Brazil is full of yacaré caiman. In fact, at roughly 10 million individuals, they make up the largest crocodilian population on earth. This is a fairly young caiman, but when fully grown they can get to be about 10 feet in length. It was late in the afternoon when I took this shot and the dark shadows in the water were caused by the surrounding trees.
Seemed about time for another lion cub post. This little guy appears to have found something awfully tasty on the bottom of that foot, or maybe he was just scratching an itch with those sharp teeth. There were six cubs in this pride from the Masai Mara in Kenya. The above foot biter was one of three that were roughly a month old.
These pelicans are very cartoony looking with those big yellow eye pads. I saw quite a few of them on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. They also have the distinction of possessing longest bill of any living bird species.
This little guy is an eastern mud turtle. I spotted him one day in Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. Mud turtles are semi aquatic, spending the cold months on land (under ground) and the warmer months in the water.
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.