Posts in Category: mammal
Hansom Fellow. Giraffe at Kruger
Giraffe, Kruger National Park, South Africa.
As I suspected, the wifi at the lodges and camps in greater Kruger National Park in South Africa was somewhat chancy, so I have some posts to make up from my 11 days there. I will be doing it over the next several days. This hansom male Giraffe could not have been better posed, and the light could not have been better. You can tell it is a male because of the smooth round knobs on the end of its bony extrusions (horns). Females have tufts of hair there. I had many opportunities to photograph Giraffes and you will undoubtedly see several over the next few days. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 390mm equivalent field of view. I found that full zoom was only occasionally needed when photographing the larger animals at Kruger. Program mode. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Sloth Baby
Two-toed Sloth. Changuinola Valley, Panama
I believe this is a Two-toed Sloth we found on the road down to the Changuinola River in the foothills for Panama above Bocas del Toro. The mother is making a hammock for her baby. The baby was, typical for the young of any species, quite active (for a sloth). It was also very interested in us.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. Cropped and processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Ground Squirrel at Prayer :)
Ground Squirrel, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum , Tucson AZ
There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of Ground Squirrels on the grounds of the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum near Tucson. There might be that many in any equal sized area of Sonoran desert, but I suspect the population is inflated by easy access to the food put out for the other critters actually on display at the museum. If you have not been there, the AZ Sonoran Desert Museum is a cross between a botanical garden and a modern, natural habitat, zoo…with at least one important geological display. It is one of the best displays of the natural history of an area that I have ever seen. And, as I said, the Ground Squirrels seem to enjoy it too. 🙂
I really like the bokeh in this shot, and the pose. All in all it lends the Ground Squirrel a very “spiritual” aspect. Maybe the Ground Squirrels at the ASDM think of it as a monastery…but one that invites whole families. 🙂 Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Feisty Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
This might actually be the same Red Squirrel I encountered on the Laudholm Farms boardwalk a few weeks ago. It was certainly in about the same area. However, if you remember, on that encounter the squirrel was relatively shy, if determined. It would allow me to approach to within about 20 feet, and then it would lose its nerve and scamper on down the boardwalk to find another seed to eat further away. I moved it probably 150 feet down the boardwalk before it scampered off into the forest. This time, the squirrel seemed determined to defend its stretch of boardwalk. I felt like the Borlog and the squirrel was Gandalf. He would leap up to a tree and threaten me, than he would plant himself firmly on the little 3 inch tall rail of the boardwalk and glare a clear message “you shall not pass!” Then he would charge me. Me. He charged. The squirrel. Tail twitching. Ears erect. Eye to eye. He charged down the rail to within six feet of me before thinking better of it and flying off into the forest…only to land right back on his tree and then the rail where he had started: 20 feet from me and glaring.
Not only that, when I first saw him he was eating, relatively speaking, a log. You see it here. He was sitting up, holding this stick in his paws like a giant cob of corn, and was breaking it up and extracting something from the pulp. In his first few charges at me he carried the log with him, and even after he dropped it, it might have been what he was defending.
Eating his log like corn.
Finally, he had already been in the wars. When I got the images home, you can clearly see in many of them that there is a fresh wound in front of his right eye. I suspect he got it scrapping with other Red Squirrels, but it might have been from a unsuccessful predator attack (unsuccessful from the predator’s standpoint). I told you. A veritable borlog of a Red Squirrel! (Oh wait…he was supposed to be Gandalf 🙁
Wounded
The first two shots are with the Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. The last shot is with the Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view. I switched cameras because on his close approach the squirrel was inside the closest focus on the Nikon. 🙂 Processed in Lightroom.
Three-toed Sloth
Three-toed Sloth, Tranquilo Bay, Panama
The poor Sloth has gotten a bad name…or rather the Sloth’s name has be used to name one of the least desirable of human characteristics. I think. I would hate to think it was the other way around. Just imagine if the Sloth had been named the “Leisure” or the “Relax” or even the “Sleepy”…the Sleepy Bear…how great would that be! For the Sloth anyway. This Three-toed Sloth was high in the canopy at the local chocolate farm, across the channel from Tranquilo Bay Lodge…one of the regular tour destinations from the lodge for a variety of more mainland rainforest birds…birds that do not cross the water to Tranquilo Bay.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/80th @ ISO 800 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.