Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
This little series concludes in northern Namibia, with a very elegant species of Antelope.
In the 1950s General Motors appropriated its name.
The “real thing” bears zero resemblance to any lumbering, oversized, grossly inefficient “Yank Tank”.
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Reportedly, this species – a southern African arid/semi-arid savannah/grassland specialist – will sometimes fly 120 kilometres from its nest, in order to find water.
Happily, for many Burchell’s sandgrouse this is no longer necessary; boring humans – well, humans who sink bores – have proved a boon to Pterocles burchelli.
Named after an English naturalist, they are somewhat pigeon-like in appearance…but not in their abilities and behaviour.
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As you can see in the image above, when a predator is not obviously present, the level of vigilance/alarm/nonchalance exhibited by its prey can vary greatly, from one individual to another.
This is true even within a small, close-spaced, single-species group.
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Two questions arise when considering all three birds in today’s featured image.
The obvious one: “clearly, their wings are not black, so how do they merit their name?”
The other one: “why is Himantopus himantopus in the Guinness Book of Records?”
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This post’s Tibetan Plateau location is higher and wilder than was true of #8 in this series.
The Chang Tang – also rendered into English as “Changtang” – is a very harsh environment, mostly grasslands at more than 4,000 metres above sea level, punctuated by mountains.
Much of it is protected in one of the world’s largest national parks, but climate change’s impact – here, mostly negative – is proving particularly extreme, rapid.
Goa – or Tibetan Gazelle – live here in still-considerable, but declining numbers.
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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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