Tag: wildlife

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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“Hunting” tigers (#1 in 3 part series: tiger country)

Published November 8, 2023 by Pelidoug

“Hunting” tigers (#1 in 3 part series: tiger country)

If you wish to see tigers “in the wild”, India is your best destination.

It contains circa 25% of the world’s remaining tiger habitat, but India is currently home to around 75% of “our” globe’s wild tigers.

There is no such thing as a reliable estimate of India’s wild tiger population, let alone the world’s.

The likely-best available figures come from the Global Tiger Forum.

On 10 September 2023, Global Tiger Forum published its latest global estimate: 5,574.

That is 74% higher than their 2010 figure. (click here for more detail)

It is impossible to know how much of the apparent increase reflects better monitoring rather than actual increase.

That said, there are grounds for believing that in some nations – India, especially – wild tiger numbers really are rising, after many years of steep decline towards seemingly-inevitable extinction.

This little series looks at Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, south India.

The featured image and the one immediately below show what the local tiger habitat looks like.

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Quirky moments (#18 in series: up on the roof)

Published September 5, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#18 in series: up on the roof)

As you can see, the featured image shows a young primate, looking very relaxed, on a rooftop.

Obviously, the pictured individual was well aware of my (very close) presence.

At the time – 9.26 am on 28 February 2023 – the relevant two species had a couple of dozen mutually-visible members present, in a village near Coonoor in the Nilgiri Hills, south India.

Yours truly belongs to the world’s most abundant primate species.

My photo’s subject is a wild member of one of the rarest, most endangered primate species.

Its rapidly-vanishing natural rainforest habitat is confined to small, scattered locations in India’s Western Ghats.

Allegedly, that species’ members are elusive creatures (who) usually occupy the tallest, shadowy rainforest canopies, far from human sight.

However much I loved my experience of the “endearing moment” pictured above, it was in fact a moment that should never happen – a symptom of how very desperate has become the plight of Macaca silenus, the lion-tailed macacque.

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Quirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)

Published August 31, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#15 in series: mammalian avatar, with musical bonus)

If you are a Pelican Yoga regular, you have already seen Barbara Cartland’s and Barbie’s avian avatars. (in #10 of the “quirky moments” series)

This post’s “punkish” cub is a member of Africa’s most oft-misrepresented mammal species.

His kind are very much smarter and much more “social” than most humans realise.

Contrary to common human belief, spotted hyenas are primarily predators rather than scavengers.

Lions are much more likely to “steal” from hyenas than vice versa, and spotted hyenas are much the more efficient hunters.

Over the last several thousand years hyenas have had rotten “press”, but they are not rotters.

Nonetheless, the young hero of this post’s appearance and demeanour were decidedly “Rottenesque”.

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Leopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)

Published August 6, 2023 by Pelidoug

Leopard, hunting (Etosha National Park, northern Namibia)

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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