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Most Australians have never heard of – let alone, seen – a member of the species pictured above.
Quelea Quelea – the Red-billed Quelea – is, however, almost certainly the most abundant bird on “our” planet!
It is a significant agricultural pest. Sometimes in flocks of millions, billowing in the sky like smoke…
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On average, this (contested) title probably rightfully belongs to males of a species widespread in southern Africa: Ardeotis kori – the Kori Bustard.
They commonly weigh 18 kilograms apiece.
The so-called “World Wide Web” is in fact more than a tad Northern Hemispere-centric/ USA-centric/ Eurocentric; I strongly suspect that Africa has the biggest bustards.
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These dunes are just behind the Skeleton Coast, not far from the generally-dry mouth of the Hoarusib River.
Their appearance changes radically, as the sun’s position shifts, clouds form, move or disappear, and as fog rolls in, intensifies, or “burns” off.
Generally reckoned the world’s oldest desert, the Namib is “another world”, albeit part – a singular part – of “our” planet.
Humans cannot yet directly experience the Martian landscape, but a few of us are lucky enough to have experienced the Namib.
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The Namib’s “sand sea” has to be seen to be believed…and when you do see “our” planet’s most exquisite dunes, you may still wonder if you are dreaming, or hallucinating.
Namibia also has the most beautiful rock faces I have ever seen; as is also true of Central Australia’s rocky ranges and outcrops, their beauty is in part thanks to the highly specialised vegetation with which they are sparely “punctuated”, rather than fully “clothed”.
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Atlantic fog-factor permitting, early morning affords your eyes and camera their best chance to experience/capture crisp, sharp views of some of the world’s most astonishing vistas.
(Namibia’s western side is one of “our” planet’s least rainy regions, but also one of the foggiest)
Once the sun is “high” and the heat is “on”, the light becomes flatter, yet harsher, and heat haze destroys fine detail.
However, late morning has its own special charm…
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As even the most cursory googler will discover almost instantly, “facts” and opinions concerning Namibia’s seal population and human “management” thereof are widely/wildly divergent/contested.
Suffice for now that all of Namibia’s seals are Cape Fur Seals, and that an enormous number (and major proportion of the global population) of them live and die on Namibia’s coast.
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Péringuey’s Adder is one of many names for Bitis peringueyi; the most descriptive are “Namib desert sidewinding adder” and “dwarf sand adder”.
This one was variously speeding/attacking/burrowing-hiding on or near the surface of one of the Namib’s westernmost dunes, just in from the Atlantic Ocean…and almost literally next door to Swakopmund’s easternmost houses.
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This mother and calf are black rhinos – the smaller of Africa’s two rhino species
They still “enjoy” a critically endangered conservation status, but numbers have rebounded in recent years.
Circa one third of them live in Namibia.
Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at 9.30 pm on 05 November 2022 in Etosha National Park.
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On Thursday – the second day of our current “expedition” to Namibia – my beloved and I had our lifetimes’ most exciting (to date) close-range encounter with a wild carnivore.
The featured image’s leopard is coming back down from the tree in which she had just stashed “the kill” she had made that afternoon.
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