When giraffes fight, they use their long necks to try and punish their opponents. The behavior is called necking and we only saw it once when we were in Kenya. These two males were really going at it, slapping each other with their heads, both landing blows here and there, but neither really delivering a knock out punch. Eventually they grew tired of whatever it was that they were fighting about and they resumed foraging.
Here’s another of the many silhouette shots from Kenya. This time a male impala in the Olare Orok Conservancy.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted Oriental scops owls. This species is called the Indian scops owl. It was taken on the same night — when we were able to locate four different kinds of owls in one relatively small area. By being so close to the owls (as well as by getting the flash off the top of my camera with a synch chord) I was able to get these shots without any red eye issues.
It was fun to watch the peacocks displaying while in India’s national parks. Although I was impressed, none of the peahens seemed to be, as they went about their business plucking insects and seeds from the ground. Eventually the peacocks would give up and continue foraging themselves. Just so we’re all clear, the male is the peacock, the female is the peahen, and both are peafowl.
I realize that these two shots aren’t much photographically, but what I wanted to show was just how powerful the male tigers are, and how bulky their upper arms are compared to the females (all the tiger shots that I’ve posted so far have been females). This guy was walking along a ridge and kept his gaze forward, for the most part. In a future post, I’ll upload a more interesting shot of this guy.
Also known as the Indian bison, the gaur is the world’s largest species of wild cattle — even bigger than the African buffalo. They can grow to 7.2 feet at the shoulder and weigh as much as 2200 pounds. The gaur is listed as vulnerable — mainly due to illegal poaching. This particular gaur was one of the largest males that I saw while in India.
This is the other species of monkey that I saw in India — the rhesus macaque. I didn’t see as many of these guys as the langurs, but they are much more common and widespread. In fact, this is one of the most common monkeys in the world and there is even a wild population living in Florida — non-native, of course — that took hold after a tour operator released them in the Silver River State Park area to enhance his tour experience. I would see these monkeys a lot in the little towns that I drove through on my way from one park to the other, but rarely saw them in the actual parks.
It’s always nice to see an owl in the daytime. This little guy is called a barred jungle owlet and I spotted him/her in Bandhavgarh in India. There seems to be some confusion as to why certain smaller owls are called owlets and not owls. The best explanation seems to be obvious — they are smaller than the average owl. This owlet, in fact, wasn’t much bigger than a softball.
Here’s another of the baby hanuman langurs that were all over the place in India. This one was in Bandhavgarh National Park. Is it wrong to say he looks a bit like Michael Jackson?
Not the most attractive animals in the world, but according to the tigers in the area, quite good eatin’. This guy was photographed late in the day in Kanha National Park in India.