Tag: wildlife

Grand sands (#33 in series: large antelope, huge dunes)

Published January 19, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#33 in series: large antelope, huge dunes)

Oryx gazella – the gemsbok, aka “African oryx”/ “South African oryx” – is the largest oryx species.

Namibia’s emblematic mammal is prodigiously well-adapted to a very demanding environment.

Gemsbok would probably handsomely defeat the “ship of the desert” in any global championship for “most efficient/ hardiest mammal in sandy places where rain hardly ever falls, and where no “permanent” rivers flow”.

The Namib Desert’s “sand sea” – most especially, around Sossusvlei – has some of “our” planet’s most astonishing landscapes.

More than a few of its dunes dwarf even the largest local inhabitants!

Grand sands (#24 in series: Thar Desert’s underground “celebrity”)

Published January 8, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#24 in series: Thar Desert’s underground “celebrity”)

The mammalian world’s biggest family – the rodents – includes six genera which (collectively) contain at least 110 living species of “gerbil”

Some of them – on their own turf, at least – are more commonly known as “jirds”.

Jirds are members of the genus Meriones.

As is generally true of gerbils, jirds live in deserts, and other “arid” or “semi-arid” places.

Unsurprisingly, most are nocturnal; but not the Indian desert jird, Meriones hurrianae.

One Indian blogger has described this post’s highly atypical hero as the tiny musketeer of Rajasthan’s Thar Desert.

Grand sands (#23 in series: “The Great Indian Desert”)

Published January 7, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#23 in series: “The Great Indian Desert”)

The Thar Desert’s other name accords with reality: it is India’s biggest desert, although 15% of it is in Pakistan.

Most of it – around 60% – is in Rajasthan; the Thar Desert occupies a little more than 60% of India’s largest state, by area

According to most sources, around 40% of Rajasthan’s human population live within the Thar Desert.

Rajasthan is far from India’s most populous state, but it is currently home to more than 80 million humans.

Unsurprisingly, the Thar Desert is “our” planet’s most densely populated desert, by a large margin.

It is also remarkably rich in wildlife.

Indonesia, 2024 (#20 in teaser series: featherless flight, Raja Ampat)

Published November 22, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#20 in teaser series: featherless flight, Raja Ampat)

Nearly an hour after I took the previous post’s photo, “our” boat was still at anchor, the sun had recently set, and everyone on board was looking skywards.

Thousands of fruit bats roost on the nearby small island of Mios Kon.

We were watching them set off on their nightly foraging/hunting “expedition”.

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Triple K “expedition” (#29 in teaser series: emblematic, elusive)

Published June 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

Triple K “expedition” (#29 in teaser series: emblematic, elusive)

The Karakoram Highway is surely the most visually spectacular major road, anywhere.

On 20 May 2024, we were proceeding along part of it, en route from Gilgit to the Hunza Valley.

At 11.26 am – circa one hour out of Gilgit – the pictured sign welcomed us to the “home” of Pakistan’s national animal.

The markhor is often described as the world’s largest wild goat.

In terms of average body mass and length, that claim is probably incorrect.

However, an “average” male markhor’s shoulder height exceeds all other goats’ “average” shoulders

So, Capra falconeri probably is the world’s most imposing goat.

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Namib Desert’s northwest (#21 in series: another win for the Springboks)

Published March 12, 2024 by Pelidoug

Namib Desert’s northwest (#21 in series: another win for the Springboks)

For Australian followers of Test Matches across two “major” sporting codes, this post’s subtitle will recall at least several decades of all-too-familiar, unwelcome headlines

The actual Springbok – Antidorcas marsupialis – is South Africa’s heraldic beast.

However, this charismatic antelope is similarly abundant in Namibia and Botswana, and its range extends into the drier, southwest corner of Angola.

(Namibia’s emblematic mammal returns the compliment; gemsbok also thrive in South Africa and Botswana)

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Namib Desert’s northwest (#20 in series: maternity, on the rocks)

Published March 11, 2024 by Pelidoug

Namib Desert’s northwest (#20 in series: maternity, on the rocks)

Baboons thrive in many different kinds of environment, across most of Namibia.

However, all of Namibia’s baboons belong to just one species: Papio cynocephalus ursinis, known as Chacma baboons, or Cape baboons.

Click here to discover more.

If you think that there are only two baboons in this post’s image, you are not looking closely enough!

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Namib Desert’s northwest (#19 in series: living it up)

Published March 10, 2024 by Pelidoug

Namib Desert’s northwest (#19 in series: living it up)

This post’s heroes are superbly adapted to life in a very demanding, arid environment.

Oryx gazella – known locally as “gemsbok”, but labelled as “South African oryx” by many non-African English-speakers – is Namibia’s heraldic beast.

It is the largest oryx species.

Gemsbok are remarkably water-efficient.

Few, if any, other mammals can survive for so long, “between drinks”.

They can also reach/withstand amazingly high body temperatures – temperatures that would prove fatal to other mammals. (this ability reduces water needs and energy expenditure).

The pictured individuals are doing it “very easy”, in a place that offers green grass and mostly-moderate temperatures.

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“Hunting” tigers (#3 in 3 part series: close encounter)

Published November 13, 2023 by Pelidoug

“Hunting” tigers (#3 in 3 part series: close encounter)

It was late afternoon, on our final “full” day in and around Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.

We were midway through the eighth of our nine Nagarhole wildlife “drives”.

Tiger-wise, time was running out.

We had enjoyed many “close encounters of the wildlife kind”, including one with a very healthy leopard.

On two occasions we had seen a tiger…just, fleetingly.

On more than two other occasions our ears had provided unmistakable evidence that a leopard or tiger was “on the prowl”, nearby.

However, at 4.52 pm on 07 March it appeared likely that we were not going to experience any 2023-vintage, visual “close encounter of the tiger kind”.

I took the featured photo – above – at 4.58 pm.

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“Hunting” tigers (#2 in 3 part series: use your ears)

Published November 11, 2023 by Pelidoug

“Hunting” tigers (#2 in 3 part series: use your ears)

Imagine an English-speaking tiger, asked to describe the deer in this post’s featured image.

”Delicious”, might be the tiger’s reply.

You are looking at #1 and #2 on the list of species most preyed on by India’s tigers – respectively, sambar and chital/spotted deer.

As you can see, all five deer are definitely not relaxed.

Drinking and having “a good look around” are not simultaneously-possible; the pictured chital are in “eyes down” mode.

The sambar calf is looking at its mother.

However, you can see that the ears of all five deer are open, alert.

If you wish to see tigers (or leopards) in the wild, your ears are your most useful organs.

Big cats’ hunting success is stealth-dependent; they are highly unlikely to make sounds that betray their presence.

Your very quiet self should be focused on hearing the alarm calls which “prey” animals make whenever they notice a predator.

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