Tag Archives: creatures
Creatures of Canada.
Photograph by Claude Bouchard, Corbis
Northern gannets make a migratory stop in Percé Rock National Park on Bonaventure Island in Quebec.
It’s estimated that more than 120,000 of the birds stop off here every summer to breed.
Photograph by Ron Erwin, All Canada Photos
Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland harbors a thriving population of moose, and the large deer are common sights on the island. Visitors are warned to give the animals wide berth.
Photograph by Ron Erwin, Corbis
Here, a pine marten, thickly furred against the winter cold, makes its way through snow in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario.
Also called American martens, the animals spend much of their time in trees.
See more via Pictures: Animals of Canada – National Geographic Travel.
The Night Dwellers.
Humans are naturally afraid of the dark, mostly because it can cloak myriad dangers. But take a closer look, and it turns out many of the creatures that go bump in the night are adorable, resourceful and awe-inspiring.
Now fossil studies suggest that the very first mammals may have been born into darkness.
Today a wide variety of known animal species are nocturnal, mostly active at night, or crepuscular, mostly active at dawn and dusk.
These behaviors offer three main advantages: reduced competition for resources with daytime critters, protection from heat and water loss in arid regions and a way to hide from predators or find unsuspecting prey.
Photographer Traer Scott became fascinated with night-dwellers while watching moths fly near her porch lights on summer evenings—and then thinking about the bats that prey on those moths.
In her new book, Nocturne: Creatures of the Night (Princeton Architectural Press, 2014), Traer highlights the diversity of nocturnal species around the world, offering a glimpse at birds, bats, spiders and other animals that most humans rarely see.
While nocturnality makes sense for those animals and many others today, how or why it first emerged has been unclear. One prevailing scientific theory was that nocturnality evolved in early mammals as a defensive strategy to escape the jaws of predatory dinosaurs, which were mostly active during the day.
But according to research recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. being nocturnal may have been the status quo for the common ancestor of all mammals.
Traer Scott is an award winning photographer and the bestselling author of four books including Shelter Dogs and the recently released Newborn Puppies; Dogs In Their First Three Weeks from Chronicle Books.
Her work has been featured in National Geographic, Life, Vogue, People, O, and dozens of other major national and international publications.
See more Images from Traer Scott via Adorable Portraits Put Nocturnal Animals in the Spotlight | Science | Smithsonian.
Little Blokes.
Above: Birds hassling this little bloke, who really seems to have his mind elsewhere.
Below: One of the cutest baby pictures I’ve ever seen.
It must be the wonderful outfit.
derwombat.
‘Extinct’ New Guinea Big Eared Bat re-surfaces.
The bat reappeared in Papua New Guinea, according to a new study
When the New Guinea big-eared bat, which hadn’t been seen for over a century, was captured, it hadn’t even been hiding.
In fact, student researchers Catherine Hughes and Julie Broken-Brow from the University of Queensland trapped the bat in Papua New Guinea in July 2012 while it was flying in an open area by a logged rainforest now overrun by grasslands, according to their study published in Records of the Australian Museum.
The bat remained an unidentified species for nearly two years at the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery until Dr. Harry Parnaby, a researcher at the Australian Museum, requested to loan the mystery mammal.
He subsequently identified it as Pharotis imogene, a critically endangered species according to the IUCN Red List.
With ears nearly twice the size of its face, the insectivore—so tiny you could lift it with a pair of chopsticks—had last been seen in 1890, said researcher Dr. Luke Leung in a statement.
via “Extinct” Bat Isn’t Actually Extinct | TIME.
Steampunk Animal and Insect Sculptures by Igor Verniy.
by Christopher Jobson.
Steampunk Animal and Insect Sculptures by Igor Verniy steampunk sculpture assemblage animals
From heaps of scrap metal, old bike chains, and silverware, sculptor Igor Verniy creates birds, butterflies, and other unusual creations.
Many of his steampunk and cyberpunk sculptures are made to be fully articulated, with dozens of moving or adjustable parts enabling each piece to be posed in several lifelike positions.
These are some of my favourite pieces but you can see more over on his VK and Facebook pages.
See more wonderful sculptures via Steampunk Animal and Insect Sculptures by Igor Verniy | Colossal.
The Rare Blue Dragon Sea Slug.
Depending on your tastes, this bizarre little blue creature may inspire either shrieks of excitement or a bit of discomforted shock, possibly a combination of both.
Meet the blue dragon, one of the weirdest and most wonderful little-known animals in the world.
The proper name of this mythical-looking creature is Glaucus atlanticus, or blue sea slug, and although it is much smaller than its fictional brethren of lore (only about an inch or two in length) it has a host of nasty tricks up its sleeve—er wing?
They spend their lives upside down, attached to the surface of the water and floating along at the mercy of the winds and ocean currents. Blue in color, they blend in with the water in order to camouflage themselves within their environment.
And though petite, these baby dragons are also dangerous.
They store the stings cells collected from these cnidarians within their own tissues, and use them as a defence on anything that bothers them.
Handling a little blue dragon could result in a painful, and possibly dangerous, sting.
Source: Rare Sighting of a “Blue Dragon” Spotted on the Shores of Australia – My Modern Met
Crabhunter seals hijack Frozen Mobile Home.
Frozen Mobile Home:
Category Winner and Underwater Photographer of the Year 2020.
Massive and mysterious habitats, icebergs are dynamic kingdoms that support marine life.
As they swing and rotate slowly through polar currents, icebergs fertilize the oceans by carrying nutrients from land that spark blooms of phytoplankton, fundamental to the carbon cycle.
During an expedition in the Antarctic Peninsula with filmmaker Florian Fischer and free diver Guillaume Néry, we explored and documented the hidden face of this iceberg where crabeater seals have taken up residence among icebergs that drift at the whim of polar currents.
Image Credit: Photograph by © Greg Lecoeur / UPY2020
Source: Winners of the 2020 Underwater Photographer of the Year Contest – The Atlantic
Mice squabbling over crumbs wins wildlife photography award.
Image of mice scrapping at a train station platform won the people’s choice category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 award. (Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Sam Rowley)
What’s better than animal photos? Funny animal photos.
Australian Geographic unveils winning wildlife snaps.
It might not seem the wildest of wildlife photography, but the people have spoken. A pair of mice scrambling for crumbs under the fluorescent lights of the London Underground has won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Lumix People’s Choice Award for 2019.
The split-second shot captured the rodents in silhouette, undertaking epic combat on a station platform.The image, along with a handful of highly commended snaps, highlights the tensions and intricacies between humans and wildlife.
Winning British photographer Sam Rowley frequented train stations at night, lying on the ground to capture the wrestling mice — and attracting a few odd looks from commuters for his efforts.
In the Cave of the Glow Worms.
Something quite special dwells beneath the surface of New Zealand and these images prove that the country is just as beautiful below ground as it is above!
The Waitomo area is famous for it’s limestone caves and within these caves are one of the most magical insects in the world, the glowworm.
Glow worms emit a phosphorescent glow that light up the cave and create a surreal environment.
Over the past year I have been back and forth to Waitomo’s Ruakuri Cave to master the art of photographing these magnificent little creatures – it’s been quite the experience!
When the headlamps are out and all you can see are the glowworms, you can’t help but feel like you’ve stepped into James Cameron’s Avatar Pandora, it’s just unreal!
THE OLD GUV LEGENDS 