Presumably, the living lizard had no sense of the pictured circumstance’s synchronicity, let alone any awareness that a human passer-by might find it quirky or amusing.
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As previously reported, I think that – within the so-called “First World”, at least – South Australia is the world leader in poor signage on roads and tracks.
Often, necessary signage is non-existent, or impossible to read until/unless one is within a metre or less of the ludicrously tiny and/or long-faded signpost.
Not uncommonly, signposts are entirely illegible.
Very often, signage is maddeningly inconsistent.
Picture yourself in rural or “outback” South Australia – or even in a near-Adelaide place where you have dared to “get off the freeway”.
Your intended destination is bigger than Woop Woop but much smaller than Adelaide.
At the first relevant turn-off you are pleased to see a legible sign which points to “bigger than Woop Woop…”
However, none of the next six crossroads carry any legible signage whatsoever…or their legible signs make no mention of your destination.
What should/could have taken you 30 minutes and 40 kilometres, instead devours 70 minutes and 90 kilometres.
Another South Australian specialty is the placement of “No Through Road” signage only at the relevant road’s dead end.
Having traversed thousands of SA kilometres over 68 years, I had assumed that South Australia’s signs – and their oft-ludicrous absence – had long-since exhausted their ability to surprise me…
As I recently discovered, in a “remote” place, I had underestimated them!
The relevant sign was very well crafted, easy to see and read…and utterly superfluous.
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This post’s photos were not “manipulated”.
They were single-exposures, taken in available light (no flash) with a hand-held camera, on or near Market Street, San Francisco on the night of 14 October 2012.
We had not stumbled upon the shooting of a scene for a “major motion picture” of the ghostly, supernatural, or steampunk kind.
It was just another normal autumn night in ‘Frisco – if one accepts that any urban-Californian night can ever be normal.
There is a non-supernatural explanation for the “surreal” appearance of some of this city’s central streets, most especially on chilly nights.
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The relevant city’s metropolitan population is approximately “Brisbane’s plus Adelaide’s” – well in excess of four million humans.
It is a safe bet that its “other large mammals’ combined population” would comfortably exceed that of all Australian cities.
What you are looking at would be “inconceivable” within an Australian CBD, but to those who reside in Rajasthan’s capital (and largest) city, this would be an unremarkable sight.
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If beetles had their own Olympics, the one you are looking at would be an unbackable “certainty” in sprint events.
When the pictured individual “took off”, haring across a dune above Sossusvlei, I could barely believe my eyes.
As I later discovered, the Namib Desert’s dune-dwelling Toktokkies are believed to be the fastest runners in all beetledom.
And that is not this particular Toktokkie’s most amazing aspect!
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Q: Did s/he jump or was s/he pushed?
A: S/he jumped out of the relevant wave and onto one of Australia’s most beautiful, untamed beaches.
Q: Why, in fewer than four words?
A: Spooked by salmon….
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What is a “quirky moment”?
The answer is largely a matter of the relevant human observer’s/participant’s experience, sensibility, attitude.
One person’s “surprising” or “bizarre” or “amusing” is another’s “to be expected, in this particular context”, “prosaic”, or “unremarkable”
What is happening in the featured image is a case in point.
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…only in India!
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Leopards are members of a single species – Panthera pardus – but the eight (or nine) “valid” living subspecies have different characteristics, and their current fortunes/prospects are widely divergent.
Generally, across Africa and Asia, leopard numbers are falling.
India, however, is an exception; after the leopard population had plummeted through “the Raj” period, it has (from a low base) markedly increased – perhaps, by 60 percent – over the last two decades.
This post features one very healthy, confident male.
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This post documents the last of our four close encounters with leopards in Namibia during November 2022.
The featured image shows “our hero”, not long after we had noticed him.
He was to our right; his quarry (a springbok) was where all the visible grazing mammals were at that time – to our left, on the other side of the relevant road.
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