Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Dead yaks reputedly provide rather more than half of the food eaten by Gyps himalayensis, but many members of Homo sapiens have also been devoured.
“Live” humans, fear not!
These very large raptors are scavengers, not hunters.
For countless human generations – via so-called “Tibetan Sky Burials”, in which religious rites are meticulously conducted, but the recently-deceased are not buried – Himalayan Griffon Vultures have done high-altitude humans a valuable service.
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For #6 in this series, the number of stripes on the bodies of the featured threesome was self-evident: 3 X 5 = 15.
The number of stripes on today’s heroes is an enormously higher number, not self-evident: 3 X ? = ?…my head hurts…
All members of Equus quagga have many stripes.
Each has his/her own unique pattern.
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Funambulus pennanti is a very, very much smaller mammal than is Oryx gazella.
Nonetheless, whereas yesterday’s large African antelopes occupied a tiny portion of the featured image, today’s Asian rodents dominate it.
Many people regard this widespread, very adaptable squirrel species as “particularly cute”.
From an agricultural/human food production/storage point of view, however, five-striped palm squirrels are a serious pest; in Elmer Fudd-speak, these are “weally wascally wodents”.
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Generally, when it comes to encountering wild animals, humans think, “the closer, the better”
Many wildlife photographers think similarly; they spend large sums of money on huge lenses that prove equally damaging to owners’ bank balances and backs.
Photographers usually try to ensure that the splendid beast/s “fill the frame”.
A shallow depth of field is favoured, thus emphasising the beast’s splendour, and minimising any “distracting” background detail…although “attractive” bokeh is more-than-acceptable.
(if “bokeh” is new to you, click here)
But, but…
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Nationally-emblematic animals do not respect national boundaries.
The springbok is South Africa’s signature species.
However, a great many thousands of Africa’s circa 2 million-plus springboks live in Namibia.
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Q #1: what has driven some animals to become so remarkably tall?
Q #2: what drove plants to become taller than they might otherwise be, in open woodlands and savanna?
Look at this post’s featured image, and you may have – in part, at least – answered both questions…
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One very rarely sees a reptilian troika.
Unsurprisingly, Batagur dhongoka – this post’s critically endangered species – is this little series’ sole reptile.
The behaviour depicted is characteristic…and it greatly boosts a human’s chances of enjoying a proper look, even taking a reasonable photo…
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Recently, in a “to cull, to tweak, or to let it be?” mission, I waded through nearly 10,000 images.
I suddenly realised that most of my “single species” wildlife photos involve either a single animal, a pair, or a group/flock/herd of more than four individuals.
Three, I think, is the rarest single-species group size…or number of individuals a photographer can “isolate”, successfully.
This little celebration of “companies of three” will range over three continents and at least one island….
It begins in one of my favourite parts of the island continent.
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The featured image looks north/ish, to the silhouetted edge of the Namib’s “sand sea”, circa 40 kilometres east of Sossusvlei.
I took the photo at 7.37 pm – Sossusvlei’s sunset time on 21 November 2022.
This little series’ final image was captured 7 minutes later.
Had I had available the necessary time and technology, I would then have loved to listen to a particularly sublime musical creation which I first heard in 1989, and which amazes and inspires me, still.
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I took the featured image at 7.21 pm, 6 minutes before sunset, in the Sossusvlei area on 21 November 2022, looking south/ish from Kulala Desert Lodge.
Had I an additional pair of eyes in the back of my head, they would at that moment have been looking north/ish at a very different sight -the suddenly-silhouetted southeastern edge of the Namib’s “sand sea”.
However, even if my single pair of eyes had maintained an unmoving, “fixed focus, static camera” perspective they would have very soon delivered a beautiful example of “exactly the same, but completely different”…as this post’s final image illustrates.
Happily, I could – and did – move my head, hands, feet and camera.
The image below was taken just one minute later.
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