BEASTS
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Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus).
Location: Amazonas, Peru
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A landcrab takes a defensive posture.
Location: Santo island, Vanuatu
Lens used: Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS w/Canon 2.0x extender
I had the privilege of observing a leopard in the wild.
Location: Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Common Brown Lemur (Eulemur fulvous).
Location: Mayotte, France
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A hermit crab coming out of the protection of its shell.
This is my first ever attempt at a triptych. Though I didn't have such a thing in mind while I knelt in the sand and salt water waiting for the little guy to be comfortable enough to come out of hiding, I think it came together okay.
Location: Berbera, Somalia (Somaliland)
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Praying Mantis behind flowers.
Location: Olon, Ecuador
Lens used: Canon 100mm f2.8 IS
Brown-throated Sloth (Bradypus variegatus).
The Brown-throated Sloth is the most widely-distributed of the four species of three-toed sloth.
I observed this one swimming across an Amazonian tributary; he had just reached this log on the far shore and was resting.
Location: Amazonas, Peru
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Leaf visitor.
Location: Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Atlas Beetle (Chalcosoma atlas).
Location: Tomohon, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Mangrove Monitor Lizard (Varanus indicus).
Location: Tetepare Island, Solomon Islands
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Lizard on a palm.
Location: Moheli island, Comoros
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Plumed Basilisk (Basiliscus plumifrons).
Location: Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A fringe-eared Oryx.
I love the patterning on these.
Location: Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Geoffroy's Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi).
Location: Tikal, Guatemala
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A spider on a pulsatilla seed head takes a defensive posture.
Location: Buttercup, Mt. Hood Meadows ski area, Oregon
Lens used: Canon 100mm f2.8 IS Macro
If there is one wildlife experience in the world that I'd have to recommend to other, similarly-minded individuals, it would be to go see the very highly-endangered Mountain Gorillas in East Africa. There are groups in each of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC that can be visited. Doing so isn't a cheap excursion (in addition to the expense of just getting to East Africa) and, as the number of visitors to the gorillas is heavily regulated plus how the gorillas make their home in a politically iffy part of the world, it takes some advance planning to do. But when you finally do come upon the gorillas in the bamboo forest, surrounded by adults and youngsters doing their thing sometimes only mere feet from you, it's magic unlike anything else.
There is but one dominate male in each group, the Silverback. This shot is of our group's Silverback (we visited 'Group 13').
Location: Parc National des Volcans (Volcano National Park), Rwanda
Lens used: n/a (Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot)
Hippopotamus are the most dangerous animals in Africa.
Location: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Tusker tussle.
A couple of male elephants tussling.
Location: Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
No, I didn't mess up the photo's aspect ratio - Jackson's Hartebeest really do have such elongated heads and faces.
Location: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Coyote crossing the snow.
Location: Gulch, Mt. Hood Meadows ski area, Oregon
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A Caligo etreus butterfly.
Location: Mindo, Ecuador
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Nearly all of the iguanas I've seen on my travels have been tree dwellers - are they all like that? - usually in swamps, where there is water below. This makes for a pretty easy escape path in case of danger - just drop out of the tree and into the water. That is what we had this day when we took a small boat out into the swamp and water channels. We heard the loud splashes of beasts ditching all around us.
After a few hours of hearing splashes, I was about to resign myself to not getting a single iguana photo when we came upon this guy. Unlike his iguana friends, he seemed okay with us maneuvering our little boat nearly under him, where I got my shot.
They're quite colorful, in a subdued sort of way.
Location: Los Llanos, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A wild chimpanzee momma and baby watch me watch them.
Location: Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
What I believe is a Dorcas Gazelle, tensed to bolt as I approach on foot.
Location: Djibouti countryside
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
The Oribi is another tiny variety of antelope.
Location: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
I can't recall the name of this species anymore. Ugly sucker, though.
Location: Pench National Park, India
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Ugandan Kob.
Location: Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A pair of Lesser Kudu, artified.
Location: Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
The diminutive Dik-Dik is the smallest member of the antelope family.
Note that his nose is an 'innie', not an 'outie'.
Location: Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A pack of wild Spotted Hyena lurks in the dark.
Location: Harar, Ethiopia
Lens used: Canon 24-105mm f4.0 IS
I managed to catch photos of several leaping pink Amazon River Dolphins during my trip.
Location: Orinoco River Delta, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Marmots are cool. I see them at work regularly and they seem to have so much personality - if I was one to anthropomorphize, that is.
Location: Glacier National Park, Montana
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Though still incredibly endangered, the african Mountain Gorillas have much more in the way of advocacy than most species teetering on the brink. The money they bring in to the government's coffers, for example tends to keep them in the spotlight, somewhat.
Not all such endangered species are so lucky - most vanish away without anyone even knowing.
Humans are pretty much always to blame for such extinctions.
Please try to be a good human - at least acknowledge that we share this planet with other beings and creatures that deserve to live just as much as we do.
Location: Parc National des Volcans (Volcano National Park), Rwanda
Lens used: n/a (Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot)
A Silver-backed Jackal caught looking at me from the tall grass.
Location: Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A Silver-backed Jackal.
Location: Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Long-tailed Weasel (Mustela frenata).
Location: Near Klamath Falls, Oregon USA
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
White-fronted Brown Lemur.
Location: Marojejy National Park, Madagascar
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A Howler monkey lookin' at me from a tree.
It's a shame pictures can't convey what these things sound like when they start howling - they sound like jet engines. LOUD jet engines. Quite amazing.
Location: Orinoco River Delta, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
The end of life.
Location: Lyle, Washington
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Spider monkey.
Location: Serere Nature Reserve, Bolivia
Lens used: Canon 100mm f2.8 IS Macro
I got tired of the beach one day, so decided to hike inland and check out the flora. I come upon this guy while walking through the hip-tall grass.
Location: Grande Riviere, Trinidad
Lens used: Canon 60mm f2.8 Macro
The name of these flowers eludes me now, but they're quite common in Venezuela. The butterflies and moths just loved 'em.
Location: Los Llanos, Venezuela
Lens used: Canon 60mm f2.8 Macro
The pose tends to make me think of this langur as a 'Dirty Old Man', sitting there with his wee-wee hanging out.
Location: Pench National Park, India
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
An Indian Langur.
Location: Pench National Park, India
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A baby Langur suckles at its mother's teet.
Location: Ellora, India
Lens used: Canon 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS
The bottom of the foodchain.
Location: Tigray region, Ethiopia
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
Any idea what this is? A mole, maybe?
It was crawling across the snow at work one spring. Though he looks pretty healthy in this shot, he was twitching and moving awkwardly otherwise. I figured he might have been slipping off his mortal coil.
Location: Buttercup, Mt. Hood Meadows ski area, Oregon
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS
A semi-tight frame of an elephant munching on grass.
Location: Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Lens used: Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS