Elephant mothers carry their babies for nearly two years before giving birth. Then they ensure their babies get the best food, teach their children the most useful skills and show their children how to lead the herd during hard times.
Elephants learn how to pick the best plants for eating, how to defend against predators and how to navigate steep embankments — all from their mothers.
As we drove slowly through the large empty spaces of the Maasai Mara National Reserve, I was fortunate enough to perceive a spot of slightly different color in a small group of bushes.
It was difficult to really see what it was, luckily a little bit of photography gear material can help!
The African fish eagle is a large species of eagle found throughout sub-Saharan Africa wherever large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply occur, like lake Nakuru.
The adult is very distinctive in appearance with a mostly brown body with a white head like the bald eagle and large, powerful, black wings. The head, breast, and tail of African fish eagles are snow white, with the exception of the featherless face, which is yellow.
Some people say lions sleep 22 out of every 24 hours. It's true we often see them lying in the grass, sometimes yawning. But it doesn't mean they sleep when we're not there. “Lions lying sleeping in the shade on a hot day are […] conserving energy during the least energetically efficient time of the day. […] If the energy costs involved in an activity aren’t outweighed by its potential benefits, they simply won’t do it.” Clever.
Every once in a while the magic of modern travel blows my mind. This morning I was taking a walk around Lake Louise in Banff National Park, and snapped this photo.
And now I’m lying in my bed at home in San Francisco, almost as if it was just another day.
The ostriches of the Kenyan savannah have never been so prized: first by jockeys, who ride them to the delight of spectators, and then by meat lovers, their flesh being reputed to be healthy.
These birds, which can reach up to 2.60 meters and weigh a hundred kilos, can kill with a single blow of their legs.
The ban imposed at the end of 2003 on the sale of meat from wild animals, apart from ostrich and crocodile, has led to an increase in demand for ostrich meat, which is high in protein and low in cholesterol. Only the meat of the legs is marketed. Ostriches are slaughtered at the age of eight months to ensure that the meat is tender.
Ostriches have a life expectancy of 70 years and females can lay up to 35 eggs per clutch, some of which are never fertilized.
The Masai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchii), also spelled Maasai giraffe, also called Kilimanjaro giraffe, is the largest subspecies of giraffe. It is native to East Africa. The Masai giraffe can be found in central and southern Kenya and in Tanzania. It has distinctive, irregular, jagged, star-like blotches that extend to the hooves. A median forehead lump is usually present in bulls.
D'Arnaud's barbet is a small East African bird that feeds on insects, fruits, and seeds.
It grows to about eight inches, and is equally at home in trees or on the ground. A vertical tunnel two to three feet into the ground with a sideways and upward turn leads to the nest chamber.
In a striking dance the male and female face each on nearby twigs and twitch, bob and sing like mechanical toys.
The Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) in Évora, #Portugal. The words over the chapel entrance say "We bones that are here await yours." It is indeed a place for solemn contemplation of our mortality and the transient nature of existence. But I also found the place to be quite humerus.