Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Over the last 15 years seals have become an increasingly common/obvious presence in the Coorong-proper and on/around the Goolwa Barrage.
This has delighted some people, but infuriated/worried some others.
Some of the infuriated/worried people perceive the seals as “intruders”, as “fish thieves”, as “out of control”, “a threat to fish and bird populations”.
So, who are these seals, are they “newcomers”, and are they a threat to “the natural balance”?
Comments closedAs Australia’s Right-“thinking” “pundits”/commentators/zealots “know”, if this “scaly, self-indulgent millennial” continues to bolt down avocados, it will never achieve home ownership!
They may, however, be pleased to know that no member of this species has ever sipped a latte…although some “pundits” surely will be disappointed to learn that its name does not salute a monarch/y.
Comments closedAt the moment southwestern Australia’s very own turtle is very evident at Lake Monger.
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken late afternoon on 27 January 2021.
Comments closedThe featured bird is very tiny, very hardy.
“His” valley’s sparsely vegetated floor – the “low ground”, locally – all sits within 200 metres either side of 4000 metres above sea level.
If transplanted to the Tibetan Plateau, New Zealand’s highest peak would fail to reach this valley’s lowest point.
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Meet Ochotona gloveri – Glover’s pika.
This mostly-solitary herbivore is a high altitude specialist, to whom temperatures north of 26 Celsius could prove fatal.
Glover’s pikas live on and near to the Tibetan Plateau, mostly on/in steep rockfaces.
Comments closedAsia’s wild asses are different from Africa’s, and larger too.
All but one kind are generally reckoned subspecies of Equus hemionus, the Asiatic wild ass or onager.
Pictured above and below is the khur or Indian wild ass, Equus hemionus khur.
Once widespread, in large numbers, khur now only number several thousand individuals, most of them in the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, western India.
Comments closedRed Pandas are their genus’s only (two) species; further, they are the only living members of their family, Ailuridae.
They are only very distantly related to Giant Pandas.
Giant Pandas are bears, members of the Ursidae family.
Red Pandas are more closely related to weasels, skunks and raccoons, as fellow members of the superfamily, Musteloidea.
Comments closedThe featured image depicts maternal tenderness, but Macaca thibetana is also a strikingly aggressive, opportunistic species.
Unsurprisingly, this species’ “near threatened” status is the result of pressure/competition from our own aggressive, opportunistic species!
Tibetan Macaques live in cool subtropical Asian forests at elevations between 800 and 2500 metres above sea level.
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Ugly Beauty is a composition by Thelonious Monk.
Received notions, prejudices and phobias can prevent people from seeing or hearing clearly.
Less so posthumously, but very much so during his lifetime, many just did not “get” Monk’s music – for reasons not hugely dissimilar to those which can blind people to an arachnid’s or a reptile’s beauty.
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The pictured individuals are within their “proper” range, in Rajasthan.
(see #26 in this “a shining moment” series for details about the very special, particular location)
However, for more than a few years, feral members of their species lived in several suburbs of Perth, Western Australia.
At least three individuals did 160 kilometres “better”, reaching the Wheatbelt town of Pingelly!
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