Archive for the 'Photo safari' category

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Pink flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber, Flamant rose). Brazil, 2007.

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja, Spatule rosée). Brazil, 2007.

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Collared Plover (Charadrius collaris, Pluvier d’Azara). Brazil, 2007.

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus, Bécassin à long bec). Brazil, 2007.

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus, Tyran quiquivi). Brazil, 2007.

Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it

Guira Cuckoo (Guira guira, Guira cantara). Brazil, 2007.

Happy news here: I finally bought a lens I wanted for quite some time. I found and paid on eBay a Minolta APO G 400mm f/4.5 (Yes! The old white lens that is renowned so much for its optical and mechanical quality, while being nearly impossible to find in auctions).

It will go really well with the Giottos MT 8251 carbon tripod and the MH 1001-652 ball-head I bought a month ago in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.

Soon to arrive from Osaka, Japan. I can’t wait.

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Brown-hooded Gull (Larus maculipennis, Mouette de Patagonie). Brazil, 2007.

The largest gull of South-American continent, easily recognized from its plummage and the red spot on the inferior mandible of its yellow beak.

Click on the thumbnails image to enlarge them

Kelp gull (Larus dominicanus, Goéland dominicain). Brazil, 2007.

Note: These kelp gull photos are the beginning of a series of images I brought back from Brazil in last January. You will see here one post every two days with a new animal (mostly birds), with one or more photos. Keep visiting us.

A few top-quality images taken by James Pan. Felines, lovely big cats and other animals shot in perfect portraits.

(more…)

Source: http://www.coreybehnke.com/.

Elephants are -generally speaking- a species endangered in Africa. They have been vigorously hunted for the ivory of their tusks (sometimes for the mere pleasure of hunting big game) and poaching is still intense of many African countries (from de 1.5 million animals in 1970, we are now down to around 500,000 pachyderms). The largest share of this business goes to Asian countries but elephant ivory is appreciated in many other countries all over the world.

This is why 17 African countries signed a protocol to ensure their protection. The Bamako Declaration strenghten the decisions taken in June 2007 within the fourteenth conference of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).

However, protection of a species is not a simple business once Nature is off-balance. For example, in South Africa, the elephants are no longer considered as on the brink of extinction but are becoming a source of trouble and pertubation for their own environment. They have the strong tendency to break trees where they want to reach higher branches or roots. After trying several other solutions (including oral contraception for elephants), RSA Government finally decided to approve some selective kills for culling in an attempt to limit the local populations of elephants. They doubled their inital quotas and it is a matter of reducing the risks of over-population (environmental destruction and death by lack of food or water).

Source: Futura-Sciences.