View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
The documentary shots one gets late at night...
Please note: if you favourite this photo and your profile consists only of favourited pictures of girls you will just be blocked. Pervert.
There's no turning back.
Even while we sleep.
We will find you acting on your best behaviour.
Turn your back on Mother Nature.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
It's my own design.
It's my own remorse.
Help me to decide.
Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure.
Nothing ever lasts forever.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
There's a room where the light won't find you.
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down.
When they do I'll be right behind you.
So glad we've almost made it.
So sad they had to fade it.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
All for freedom and for pleasure.
Nothing ever lasts forever.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
Absolutely in love with Lorde's cover of 'Everybody wants to rule the World' at the moment. It just makes me want to get up and start a revolution.
Album Title: Exotic Behaviour
Model: 虹羚
Photographer: Edwin Setiawan
Place: 士林官邸
Date: 2009/07/12
Just about Photography: edwinsetiawan.wordpress.com
Edwin Setiawan Photography: www.edwinsetiawan.com
When some children are randomly selected and their teacher is told they are likely to bloom intellectually over the next few months, they do.
This is the self-fulfilling fulfilling prophecy.
(It happens probably because the teacher expects the child to learn faster so gives it more challenging tasks)
(Rosenthal, 1985)
CC image courtesy of: www.flickr.com/photos/doug88888/3010737565/
Peregrine pair (Falco peregrinus) shortly after copulation.
She called him back a little later but he wasn't tempted!
A stereotypy is a repetitive or ritualistic movement, posture, or utterance, found in patients with mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders, tardive dyskinesia, frontotemporal dementia and stereotypic movement disorder. Stereotypies may be simple movements such as body rocking, or complex, such as self-caressing, crossing and uncrossing of legs, and marching in place. Several causes have been hypothesized for stereotypy, and several treatment options are available.
Stereotypy is sometimes called stimming in autism, under the hypothesis that it self-stimulates one or more senses. Related terms include punding and tweaking to describe repetitive behavior that is a side effect of some drugs.
The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name. The people in the photograph have obviously been posed for the shot.
The card was posted in Chislehurst on Monday the 13th. March 1905 to:
Miss Moon,
The Gorse,
Manor Park,
Chislehurst,
Kent.
The left side of the divided back was left blank.
Mata Hari
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 13th. March 1905, Mata Hari first presented her sensational dancing act in Paris.
Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (born Zelle in 1876), better known by her stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during the Great War.
Despite having admitted under interrogation to taking money to work as a German spy, many people still believe that she was innocent, because the French Army needed a scapegoat. Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in France in 1917.
-- Mata Hari - The Early Years
Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born on the 7th. August 1876 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. She was the eldest of four children to Adam Zelle (1840–1910) and his first wife Antje van der Meulen (1842–1891). She had three younger brothers.
She was affectionately called "M'greet" by her family. Despite traditional assertions that Mata Hari was partly of Jewish, Malaysian, or Javanese descent, scholars conclude she had no Jewish or Asian ancestry, and both of her parents were Dutch.
Her father owned a hat shop, made investments in the oil industry, and became affluent enough to give Margaretha and her siblings a lavish early childhood that included exclusive schools until the age of 13.
Soon after Margaretha's father went bankrupt in 1889, her parents divorced, and her mother died in 1891. Her father remarried in Amsterdam on the 9th. February 1893 to Susanna Catharina ten Hoove (1844–1913).
The family fell apart, and Margaretha was sent to live with her godfather, Mr. Visser, in Sneek. Subsequently, she studied to be a kindergarten teacher in Leiden, but when the headmaster began to flirt with her conspicuously, she was removed from the institution by her godfather. A few months later, she fled to her uncle's home in The Hague.
-- Mata Hari and the Dutch East Indies
At 18, Zelle answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod (1856–1928), who was living in what was then the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and was looking for a wife.
Zelle married MacLeod in Amsterdam on the 11th. July 1895. He was the son of Captain John Brienen MacLeod and Dina Louisa, Baroness Sweerts de Landas. The marriage enabled Zelle to move into the Dutch upper class, and placed her finances on a sound footing.
She moved with her husband to Malang on Java, traveling out on the SS Prinses Amalia in May 1897. They had two children, Norman-John MacLeod (1897–1899) and Louise Jeanne MacLeod (1898–1919).
The marriage was an overall disappointment. MacLeod was an alcoholic, and regularly beat Zelle, whom he blamed for his lack of promotion. He also openly kept a concubine, a socially accepted practice in the Dutch East Indies at that time.
The disenchanted Zelle abandoned him temporarily, moving in with Van Rheedes, another Dutch officer. She studied Indonesian culture intently for several months and joined a local dance company during that time.
In correspondence to her relatives in the Netherlands in 1897, she revealed her artistic name of Mata Hari, the word for "Sun" in the local Malay language (literally, "Eye of the Day").
At MacLeod's urging, Zelle returned to him, but his behaviour did not change. She escaped her circumstances by studying the local culture. In 1899, their children fell violently ill from complications relating to the treatment of syphilis contracted from their parents, though the family claimed they were poisoned by an irate servant.
Jeanne survived, but Norman died. Some sources maintain that one of MacLeod's enemies may have poisoned their supper to kill both of their children. After moving back to the Netherlands, the couple officially separated on the 30th. August 1902. The divorce became final in 1906, and Zelle was awarded custody of Jeanne.
MacLeod was legally required to pay child support, which he never did. During a visit to Jeanne, MacLeod decided not to return her to her mother. Zelle did not have the resources to fight the situation and accepted it, believing that while MacLeod had been an abusive husband, he had always been a good father. Jeanne later died at the age of 21, also possibly from complications related to syphilis.
-- Mata Hari's Career
-- Paris
In 1903, Zelle moved to Paris, where she performed as a circus horse rider using the name Lady MacLeod, much to the disapproval of the Dutch MacLeods. Struggling to earn a living, she also posed as an artist's model.
By 1904, Mata Hari began to rise to prominence as an exotic dancer. She was a contemporary of dancers Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis, leaders in the early modern dance movement, which around the turn of the 20th. century looked to Asia and Egypt for artistic inspiration.
Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences, and was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet in Paris on the 13th. March 1905.
Mata became the long-time mistress of the millionaire industrialist Émile Étienne Guimet, who had founded the Musée. She posed as a Javanese princess of priestly Hindu birth, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood.
She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so. Some of these pictures were obtained by MacLeod and used to strengthen his case for keeping custody of their daughter.
Mata Hari brought a carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which garnered wide acclaim. The most celebrated segment of her act was her progressive shedding of clothing until she wore only a jewelled breastplate and some ornaments upon her arms and head.
She was never seen bare-chested as she was self-conscious about having small breasts. She wore a body stocking for her performances that was similar in color to her own skin, but that was later omitted.
Although Mata Hari's claims about her origins were fictitious, it was very common for entertainers of her era to invent colourful stories about their origins in order to enhance their image.
Mata Hari's act was successful because it elevated erotic dance to a more respectable status, and so broke new ground in a style of entertainment for which Paris was later to become world-famous. Her style and free-willed attitude made her a popular woman, as did her eagerness to perform in exotic and revealing clothing.
Mata posed for provocative photos, and mingled in wealthy circles. Since most Europeans at the time were unfamiliar with the Dutch East Indies, Mata Hari was thought of as exotic, and it was assumed that her claims were genuine.
One enthusiastic French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that:
"Mata Hari is so feline, extremely feminine,
majestically tragic, the thousand curves and
movements of her body trembling in a
thousand rhythms."
Another journalist in Vienna wrote after seeing one of her performances that:
"Mata Hari is slender and tall, with the flexible
grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair.
Her face makes a strange foreign impression."
However, critics began to opine that the success and dazzling features of the popular Mata Hari were due to cheap exhibitionism and lacked artistic merit. Although she continued to attend important social events throughout Europe, she was held in disdain by serious cultural institutions as a dancer who did not know how to dance.
By about 1910, myriad imitators had arisen.
Mata Hari's career went into decline after 1912. On the 13th. March 1915, she performed what would be the last show of her career. She had begun her career relatively late for a dancer, and had started putting on weight. However, by this time she had become a successful courtesan, known more for her sensuality and eroticism than for her beauty.
She had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries. Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Prior to the Great War, she was generally viewed as an artist and a free-spirited bohemian, but as war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman, and perhaps a dangerous seductress.
-- Espionage
During the Great War, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely. To avoid the battlefields, she traveled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Great Britain, and her movements inevitably attracted attention.
During the war, Zelle was involved in what was described as a very intense romantic-sexual relationship with a Russian pilot serving with the French, the 23-year-old Captain Vadim Maslov, whom she called the love of her life. Maslov was part of the 50,000 strong Russian Expeditionary Force that had been sent to the Western Front in the spring of 1916.
In the summer of 1916, Maslov was shot down and badly wounded during a dogfight with the Germans, losing his sight in both eyes, which led Zelle to ask for permission to visit her wounded lover at the hospital where he was staying near the Front.
As a citizen of a neutral country, Zelle would not normally be allowed near the Front. However, Zelle was met by agents from the Deuxième Bureau who told her that she would be allowed to see Maslov if she agreed to spy for France.
Before the war, Zelle had performed as Mata Hari several times before the Crown Prince Wilhelm, eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and nominally a senior German general on the Western Front. The Deuxième Bureau believed she might be able to obtain information by seducing the Crown Prince for military secrets.
In fact, his involvement was minimal, and it was German government propaganda that promoted the image of the Crown Prince as a great warrior, the worthy successor to the Hohenzollern monarchs who had made Prussia strong and powerful. They wanted to avoid publicising that the man expected to be the next Kaiser was in fact a playboy noted for womanising, partying, and indulging in alcohol, who spent much of his time associating with far right-wing politicians, with the intent of having his father declared insane and deposed.
Unaware that the Crown Prince did not have much to do with the running of Army Group or the 5th Army, the Deuxième Bureau offered Zelle one million francs if she could seduce him and provide France with good intelligence about German plans.
The fact that the Crown Prince had, before 1914, never commanded a unit larger than a regiment, and was now supposedly commanding both an army and an army group at the same time should have been a clue that his role in German decision-making was mostly nominal.
Zelle's contact with the Deuxième Bureau was Captain Georges Ladoux, who was later to emerge as one of her principal accusers.
In November 1916, she was traveling by steamer from Spain when her ship called at the British port of Falmouth. There she was arrested and brought to London where she was interrogated at length by Sir Basil Thomson, assistant commissioner at New Scotland Yard in charge of counter-espionage.
He gave an account of this in his 1922 book 'Queer People', saying that she eventually admitted to working for the Deuxième Bureau. Initially detained in Cannon Street police station, she was then released and stayed at the Savoy Hotel.
A full transcript of the interview is in Britain's National Archives and was broadcast, with Mata Hari played by Eleanor Bron, on the independent radio station LBC in 1980.
It is unclear if she lied on this occasion, believing the story made her sound more intriguing, or if French authorities were using her in such a way, but would not acknowledge her due to the embarrassment and international backlash it could cause.
In late 1916, Zelle traveled to Madrid, where she met with the German military attaché Major Arnold Kalle and asked if he could arrange a meeting with the Crown Prince. During this period, Zelle apparently offered to share French secrets with Germany in exchange for money, though whether this was because of greed or an attempt to set up a meeting with Crown Prince Wilhelm remains unclear.
In January 1917, Major Kalle transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy code-named H-21, whose biography so closely matched Zelle's that it was patently obvious that Agent H-21 could only be Mata Hari.
The Deuxième Bureau intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, identified H-21 as Mata Hari. The messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, suggesting that the messages were contrived to have Zelle arrested by the French.
General Walter Nicolai, the chief IC (intelligence officer) of the German Army, had grown very annoyed that Mata Hari had provided him with no intelligence worthy of the name, instead selling the Germans mere Paris gossip about the sex lives of French politicians and generals, and decided to terminate her employment by exposing her as a German spy to the French.
-- The Trial of Mata Hari
In December 1916, the Second Bureau of the French War Ministry let Mata Hari obtain the names of six Belgian agents. Five were suspected of submitting fake material and working for the Germans, while the sixth was suspected of being a double agent for Germany and France.
Two weeks after Mata Hari had left Paris for a trip to Madrid, the double agent was executed by the Germans, while the five others continued their operations. This development served as proof to the Second Bureau that the names of the six spies had been communicated by Mata Hari to the Germans.
On the 13th. February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris. She was put on trial on the 24th. July, accused of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers.
Although the French and British intelligence suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her. Supposedly, secret ink was found in her room, which was incriminating evidence in that period. She contended that it was part of her makeup.
Zelle's principal interrogator, who grilled her relentlessly, was Captain Pierre Bouchardon; he was later to prosecute her at trial. Bouchardon was able to establish that much of the Mata Hari persona was invented, and far from being a Javanese princess, Zelle was actually Dutch, which he was to use as evidence of her dubious and dishonest character at her trial.
Zelle admitted to Bouchardon that she had accepted 20,000 francs from a German diplomat in the Netherlands to spy on France, but insisted she only passed on to the Germans trivial information, as her loyalty was entirely to her adopted nation, France. In the meantime, Ladoux had been preparing a case against his former agent by casting all of her activities in the worst possible light, going so far as to engage in evidence tampering.
-- Mata Hari as a Scapegoat
In 1917, France had been badly shaken by the Great Mutinies of the French Army in the spring of 1917 following the failure of the Nivelle Offensive together with a huge strike wave, and at the time many believed that France might simply collapse as a result of war exhaustion.
In July 1917, a new government under Georges Clemenceau had come into power, utterly committed to winning the war. In this context, having one German spy on whom everything that went wrong with the war so far could be blamed was most convenient for the French government.
This made Mata Hari the perfect scapegoat, which explains why the case against her received maximum publicity in the French press, and led to her importance in the war being greatly exaggerated.
The British historian Julie Wheelwright stated:
"She really did not pass on anything
that you couldn’t find in the local
newspapers in Spain."
Wheelwright went on to describe Zelle as:
"An independent woman, a divorcée,
a citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan
and a dancer, which made her a perfect
scapegoat for the French, who were then
losing the war. She was kind of held up as
an example of what might happen if your
morals were too loose.”
Zelle wrote several letters to the Dutch Ambassador in Paris, claiming her innocence:
"My international connections are due
of my work as a dancer, nothing else ....
Because I really did not spy, it is terrible
that I cannot defend myself."
The most terrible and heart-breaking moment for Mata Hari during the trial occurred when her lover Maslov—by now a deeply embittered man as a result of losing his eyes in combat—declined to testify for her, telling her he did not care if she was convicted or not. It was reported that Zelle fainted when she learned that Maslov had abandoned her.
Her defence counsel, international lawyer Édouard Clunet, faced impossible odds; he was denied permission either to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or to examine his own witnesses directly. Bouchardon used the fact that Zelle was a woman as evidence of her guilt, saying:
"Without scruples, accustomed to making
use of men, she is the type of woman who
is born to be a spy."
Zelle has often been portrayed as a femme fatale, the dangerous, seductive woman who uses her sexuality to effortlessly manipulate men, but others view her differently: in the words of the American historians Norman Polmer and Thomas Allen she was "naïve and easily duped", a victim of men rather than a victimizer.
Mata Hari herself admitted under interrogation to taking money to work as a German spy. It is contended by some historians that Mata Hari may have merely accepted money from the Germans without actually carrying out any spy duties.
At her trial, Zelle vehemently insisted that her sympathies were with the Allies and declared her passionate love of France, her adopted homeland.
During her trial, Mata Hari stated:
"A harlot? Yes, but a traitress, never!"
In October 2001, documents released from the archives of MI5 (British counter-intelligence) were used by a Dutch group, the Mata Hari Foundation, to ask the French government to exonerate Zelle, as they argued that the MI5 files proved she was not guilty of the charges for which she was convicted.
A spokesman from the Mata Hari Foundation argued that at most Zelle was a low-level spy who provided no secrets to either side, stating:
"We believe that there are sufficient doubts
concerning the dossier of information that
was used to convict her to warrant re-opening
the case.
Maybe she wasn't entirely innocent, but it seems
clear she wasn't the master-spy whose information
sent thousands of soldiers to their deaths, as has
been claimed."
-- The Execution of Mata Hari
Zelle was executed by a firing squad of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on the 15th. October 1917. She was 41 years of age.
According to an eyewitness account by British reporter Henry Wales, she was not bound, and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.
A 1934 New Yorker article reported that at her execution:
"She wore a neat Amazonian tailored
suit, especially made for the occasion,
and a pair of new white gloves".
However another account indicates that she wore the same suit, low-cut blouse, and tricorn hat ensemble which had been picked out by her accusers for her to wear at trial, and which was still the only full, clean outfit which she had in prison.
Neither description however matches the photographic evidence. One observer recorded her death as follows:
"After the volley of shots rang out, slowly,
inertly, she settled to her knees, her head
up always, and without the slightest change
of expression on her face.
For the fraction of a second it seemed she
tottered there, on her knees, gazing directly
at those who had taken her life.
Then she fell backward, bending at the waist,
with her legs doubled up beneath her."
A non-commissioned officer then walked up to her body, pulled out his revolver, and shot her in the head to make sure that she was dead.
Mata Hari's body was not claimed by any family members, and was accordingly used for medical study. Her head was embalmed, and kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris.
However in 2000, archivists discovered that Mata Hari's head had disappeared. Curator Roger Saban has suggested that it could have disappeared as early as 1954, during the museum's relocation. Her head remains missing to this day.
Records dating from 1918 show that the museum also received the rest of the body, although none of her remains could later be accounted for.
Mata Hari's sealed trial and other related documents, a total of 1,275 pages, were de-classified by the French Army in 2017, one hundred years after her execution.
-- The Legacy of Mata Hari
The Frisian museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, contains a "Mata Hari Room". Included in the exhibit are two of her personal scrapbooks, and an oriental rug embroidered with the footsteps of her fan dance.
Located in Mata Hari's native town, the museum is well known for research into the life and career of Leeuwarden's world-famous citizen. The largest-ever Mata Hari exhibition was opened in the Museum of Friesland on the 14th. October 2017, one hundred years after her death.
Mata Hari's birthplace is located in a building at Kelders 33. The building suffered smoke and water damage during a fire in 2013, but was later restored. Architect Silvester Adema studied old drawings of the storefront in order to reconstruct it as it appeared when Abraham Zelle, the father of Mata Hari, had a hat shop there. In 2016, an information centre was created in the building displaying mementos of Mata Hari.
-- Mata Hari in Popular Culture
The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale.
Her life inspired a number of films, including:
-- Mata Hari (1920)
-- Mata Hari (1927), a German production
-- Mata Hari (1931), a Hollywood motion picture starring Greta Garbo
-- Mata Hari, Agent H21 (1964)
-- Up the Front (1972), a British comedy film in which Zsa Zsa Gabor portrays Mata Hari.
-- Mata Hari (1981), television-series
-- Mata Hari; The Magic Camera, an episode of Fantasy Island (1982)
-- Mata Hari (1985)
-- Mata Hari (2016)
-- Mata Hari (2017), short film
-- Mata Hari: The Naked Spy (2017)
Mata Hari's life has also inspired at least five stage musicals:
-- Mata Hari in 1967, starring Pernell Roberts and Marisa Mell
-- Mata Hari, by Lene Lovich, Judge Smith, and Les Chappell, premiered in 1982 at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
-- Mata!, with words and music by Stuart Brayson, received its World Premiere at Blackpool Grand Theatre in June 1995
-- Mata Hari at the Moulin Rouge, by Frank Wildhorn, which debuted in Seoul, South Korea in March 2016
-- One Last Night with Mata Hari, written by Craig Walker with music by John Burge, debuted at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, in Kingston, Ontario, in January 2017.
-- Final Thoughts From Mata Hari
"I am a woman who enjoys herself very
much; sometimes I lose, sometimes I win."
"In every woman there is always something
mysterious and interesting."
"I am a woman who knows what men
want, and I give it to them willingly."
"A woman who is not afraid to be herself
is a force to be reckoned with."
"I have been many things in my life, but
above all, I have always been true to myself."
"A woman's power lies in her ability
to seduce and captivate."
"Seduction is an art, and I have perfected it."
"Don't underestimate the power of a woman
who knows her worth."
"A woman's beauty is not limited to her physical
appearance; it is an essence that radiates from
within."
"I may have played many roles in my life,
but the greatest role I have ever played
is being myself."
"True liberation comes from embracing
and celebrating one's own sexuality."
"A woman who embraces her sensuality
has the power to change the world."
"Society may judge, but I refuse to be
defined by its standards."
"A woman's worth is not determined by
the number of men she conquers, but
by the strength of her character."
"I am a masterpiece in progress; ever
evolving, ever growing."
"Powerful ideas are just in your pocket."
"Love is not something to fear, but to
embrace with open arms."
"I may be a femme fatale, but I am also
a woman with a heart."
"In the game of life, you must be willing
to take risks and bet on yourself."
"A woman who embraces her own
desires is unstoppable."
"Life is too short to be bound by societal
norms; live boldly and without regret."
"The power of a woman lies in her ability
to be both vulnerable and resilient."
"The desire to be free is the
essence of living."
"A woman should never apologize for
being herself; she is a force of nature."
"I may be a temptress, but I never
claimed to be an angel."
"The world may judge, but I am not here
to please them; I am here to live my truth."
"Empowerment comes from embracing
and celebrating one's own femininity."
"A fearless woman is a force to be
reckoned with."
"I am a woman who dances to the beat
of her own drum."
Mute Swan - Courtship and Copulatory Behaviour
The Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is a species of swan native to much of Europe and Asia.This large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange bill bordered with black. The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. The population in the UK has increased recently, perhaps due to better protection of this species. Around 5,800-7,000 pairs breeding annually in UK.
Mayesbrook Park (Barking), Britain’s first climate change park, is an attractive nature reserve with a newly restored river landscape. The Mayes brook has been brought back into the park within a widened meandering river channel creating an attractive river landscape to help the park to cope with more extreme changes in climate including heavy rainfall and drought. This new river system, with a gravel river bed and banks, provides an ideal wetland habitat for wildlife and at times of high rainfall it is able to rise in a controlled and natural way within a newly created floodplain.
The southern section of the park features two large lakes which are rich in wildlife. Aquatic plants such as reeds and rushes have been planted in ponds and backwaters, creating a rich habitat for wetland species. With over 40 hectares of open space, the park recently received a Mayor of London Safer Parks Silver award for high standards of site safety and policing.
The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, and some American countries. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, but most likely represents the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo.
Two extant types of water buffalo are recognized based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of South Asia and further west to the Balkans, Egypt, and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The origins of the domestic water buffalo types are debated, although results of a phylogenetic study indicate that the swamp type may have originated in China and was domesticated about 4,000 years ago, while the river type may have originated from India and was domesticated about 5,000 years ago. Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, 2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo.
At least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more human beings depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle. The large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea, Tunisia, and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are also present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, and Uruguay.
CHARACTERISTICS
The skin of river buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark, slate-coloured skin. Swamp buffalo have a grey skin at birth, but become slate blue later. Albinoids are present in some populations. River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually. Their horns grow downward and backward, then curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built; the body is short and the belly large. The forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is comparatively long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest. Their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks. Height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have also been observed.
Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi.
The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes; the river buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur. Buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, and the embryos of such hybrids do not reach maturity in laboratory experiments.
The rumen of the water buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants. It contains a larger population of bacteria, particularly the cellulolytic bacteria, lower protozoa, and higher fungi zoospores. In addition, higher rumen ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) and higher pH have been found as compared to those in cattle
ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR
River buffalo prefer deep water. Swamp buffalo prefer to wallow in mudholes which they make with their horns. During wallowing, they acquire a thick coating of mud. Both are well adapted to a hot and humid climate with temperatures ranging from 0 °C in the winter to 30 °C and greater in the summer. Water availability is important in hot climates, since they need wallows, rivers, or splashing water to assist in thermoregulation. Some breeds are adapted to saline seaside shores and saline sandy terrain.
DIET
Water buffalo thrive on many aquatic plants and during floods, will graze submerged, raising their heads above the water and carrying quantities of edible plants. They eat reeds (quassab), a giant reed (birdi), a kind of bulrush (kaulan), water hyacinth, and marsh grasses. Some of these plants are of great value to local peoples. Others, such as water hyacinth, are a major problem in some tropical valleys, and water buffalo may help to keep waterways clear.
Green fodders are used widely for intensive milk production and for fattening. Many fodder crops are conserved as hay, chaffed, or pulped. Fodders include alfalfa, berseem and bancheri, the leaves, stems or trimmings of banana, cassava, fodder beet, halfa, ipil-ipil and kenaf, maize, oats, pandarus, peanut, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane, bagasse, and turnips. Citrus pulp and pineapple wastes have been fed safely to buffalo. In Egypt, whole sun-dried dates are fed to milk-buffalo up to 25% of the standard feed mixture.
REPRODUCTION
Swamp buffalo generally become reproductive at an older age than river breeds. Young males in Egypt, India, and Pakistan are first mated at about 3.0–3.5 years of age, but in Italy
they may be used as early as 2 years of age. Successful mating behaviour may continue until the animal is 12 years or even older. A good river male can impregnate 100 females in a year. A strong seasonal influence on mating occurs. Heat stress reduces libido
Although buffalo are polyoestrous, their reproductive efficiency shows wide variation throughout the year. Buffalo cows exhibit a distinct seasonal change in displaying oestrus, conception rate, and calving rate. The age at first oestrus of heifers varies between breeds from 13–33 months, but mating at the first oestrus is often infertile and usually deferred until they are 3 years old. Gestation lasts from 281–334 days, but most reports give a range between 300 and 320 days. Swamp buffalo carry their calves for one or two weeks longer than river buffalo. It is not rare to find buffalo that continue to work well at the age of 30, and instances of a working life of 40 years are recorded.
TAXONOMIC HISTORY
Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Bos and the water buffalo under the binomial Bubalis bubalus in 1758; the latter was known to occur in Asia and as a domestic form in Italy. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott treated the wild and domestic forms of the water buffalo as conspecifics whereas others treated them as different species. The nomenclatorial treatment of wild and domestic forms has been inconsistent and varies between authors and even within the works of single authors.
In March 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature achieved consistency in the naming of wild and domestic water buffalo by ruling that the scientific name Bubalus arnee is valid for the wild form. B. bubalis continues to be valid for the domestic form and applies also to feral populations.
DOMESTICATION AND BREEDING
Water buffalo were domesticated in India about 5000 years ago, and in China about 4000 years ago. Two types are recognized, based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and further west to the Balkans and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The present-day river buffalo is the result of complex domestication processes involving more than one maternal lineage and a significant maternal gene flow from wild populations after the initial domestication events. Twenty-two breeds of the river type water buffalo are known, including Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Surti, Jafarabadi, Anatolian, Mediterranean, and Egyptian buffalo. China has a huge variety of buffalo genetic resources, comprising 16 local swamp buffalo breeds in various regions.
Results of mitochondrial DNA analyses indicate that the two types were domesticated independently. Sequencing of cytochrome b genes of Bubalus species implies that the domestic buffalo originated from at least two populations, and that the river and the swamp types have differentiated at the full species level. The genetic distance between the two types is so large that a divergence time of about 1.7 million years has been suggested. The swamp type was noticed to have the closest relationship with the tamaraw.
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATIONS
The water buffalo population in the world is about 172 million.
IN ASIA
More than 95.8% of the world population of water buffalo are found in Asia including both river and swamp types. The water buffalo population in India numbered over 97.9 million head in 2003, representing 56.5% of the world population. They are primarily of the river type, with 10 well-defined breeds comprising Badhawari, Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Jafarabadi, Marathwada, Mehsana, Nagpuri, Pandharpuri, Toda, and Surti. Swamp buffalo occur only in small areas in the north-eastern part of the country and are not distinguished into breeds.
In 2003, the second-largest population lived in China, with 22.759 million head, all of the swamp type with breeds kept only in the lowlands, and other breeds kept only in the mountains; as of 2003, 3.2 million swamp-type carabao buffalo were in the Philippines, nearly three million swamp buffalo were in Vietnam, and 772,764 buffalo were in Bangladesh. About 750,000 head were estimated in Sri Lanka in 1997.
The water buffalo is the main dairy animal in Pakistan, with 23.47 million head in 2010. Of these, 76% are kept in the Punjab. The rest of them are mostly in the province of Sindh. Breeds used are Nili-Ravi, Kundi, and Azi Kheli. Karachi has the largest population of water buffalos for an area where fodder is not grown, consisting of 350,000 head kept mainly for milking.
In Thailand, the number of water buffalo dropped from more than 3 million head in 1996 to less than 1.24 million head in 2011. Slightly over 75% of them are kept in the country's northeastern region. The statistics also indicate that by the beginning of 2012, less than one million were in the country, partly as a result of illegal shipments to neighboring countries where sales prices are higher than in Thailand.
Water buffalo are also present in the southern region of Iraq, in the marshes. These marshes were drained by Saddam Hussein in 1991 in an attempt to punish the south for the uprisings of 1991. Following 2003, and the fall of the Saddam regime, these lands were reflooded and a 2007 report in the provinces of Maysan and Thi Qar shows a steady increase in the number of water buffalo. The report puts the number at 40,008 head in those two provinces.
IN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN
Water buffalo likely were introduced to Europe from India or other Oriental countries. To Italy they were introduced about the year 600 in the reign of the Longobard King Agilulf. As they appear in the company of wild horses, they probably were a present from the Khan of the Avars, a Turkic nomadic tribe that dwelt near the Danube River at the time. Sir H. Johnston knew of a herd of water buffalo presented by a King of Naples to the Bey of Tunis in the mid-19th century that had resumed the feral state in northern Tunis.
European buffalo are all of the river type and considered to be of the same breed named Mediterranean buffalo. In Italy, the Mediterranean type was particularly selected and is called Mediterranean Italian breed to distinguish it from other European breeds, which differ genetically. Mediterranean buffalo are also found in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, and the Republic of Macedonia, with a few hundred in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Hungary. Little exchange of breeding buffalo has occurred among countries, so each population has its own phenotypic features and performances. In Bulgaria, they were crossbred with the Indian Murrah breed, and in Romania, some were crossbred with Bulgarian Murrah. Populations in Turkey are of the Anatolian buffalo breed.
IN AUSTRALIA
Between 1824 and 1849, water buffalo were introduced into the Northern Territory from Timor, Kisar, and probably other islands in the Indonesian archipelago. In 1886, a few milking types were brought from India to Darwin. They have been the main grazing animals on the subcoastal plains and river basins between Darwin and Arnhem Land since the 1880s. In the early 1960s, an estimated population of 150,000 to 200,000 buffalo were living in the plains and nearby areas.
They became feral and are causing significant environmental damage. Buffalo are also found in the Top End. As a result, they were hunted in the Top End from 1885 until 1980. The commencement of the brucellosis and tuberculosis campaign (BTEC) resulted in a huge culling program to reduce buffalo herds to a fraction of the numbers that were reached in the 1980s. The BTEC was finished when the Northern Territory was declared free of the disease in 1997. Numbers dropped dramatically as a result of the campaign, but have since recovered to an estimated 150,000 animals across northern Australia in 2008.
During the 1950s, buffalo were hunted for their skins and meat, which was exported and used in the local trade. In the late 1970s, live exports were made to Cuba and continued later into other countries. Buffalo are now crossed with riverine buffalo in artificial insemination programs, and may be found in many areas of Australia. Some of these crossbreds are used for milk production. Melville Island is a popular hunting location, where a steady population up to 4,000 individuals exists. Safari outfits are run from Darwin to Melville Island and other locations in the Top End, often with the use of bush pilots. The horns, which can measure up to a record of 3.1 m tip-to-tip, are prized hunting trophies.
The buffalo have developed a different appearance from the Indonesian buffalo from which they descend. They live mainly in freshwater marshes and billabongs, and their territory range can be quite expansive during the wet season. Their only natural predators in Australia are adult saltwater crocodiles, with whom they share the billabongs, and dingoes, which have been known to prey on buffalo calves and occasionally adult buffalo when the dingoes are in large packs.
Buffalo were exported live to Indonesia until 2011, at a rate of about 3000 per year. After the live export ban that year, the exports dropped to zero, and had not resumed as of June 2013.
IN SOUTH AMERICA
Water buffalo were introduced into the Amazon River basin in 1895. They are now extensively used there for meat and dairy production. In 2005, the buffalo herd in the Brazilian Amazon stood at roughly 1.6 million head, of which 460,000 were located in the lower Amazon floodplain. Breeds used include Mediterranean from Italy, Murrah and Jafarabadi from India, and Carabao from the Philippines.
During the 1970s, small herds were imported to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Cayenne, Panama, Surinam, Guyana, and Venezuela.
In Argentina, many game ranches raise water buffalo for commercial hunting
IN NORTH AMERICA
In 1974, four water buffalo were imported to the United States from Guam to be studied at the University of Florida. In February 1978, the first herd arrived for commercial farming. Until 2002, only one commercial breeder was in the United States. Water buffalo meat is imported from Australia. Until 2011, water buffalo were raised in Gainesville, Florida, from young obtained from zoo overflow. They were used primarily for meat production, frequently sold as hamburger.[38] Other US ranchers use them for production of high-quality mozzarella cheese.
HUSBANDRY
The husbandry system of water buffalo depends on the purpose for which they are bred and maintained. Most of them are kept by people who work on small farms in family units. Their buffalo live in very close association with them, and are often their greatest capital asset. The women and girls in India generally look after the milking buffalo while the men and boys are concerned with the working animals. Throughout Asia, they are commonly tended by children who are often seen leading or riding their charges to wallowing places. Water buffalo are the ideal animals for work in the deep mud of paddy fields because of their large hooves and flexible foot joints. They are often referred to as "the living tractor of the East". It probably is possible to plough deeper with buffalo than with either oxen or horses. They are the most efficient and economical means of cultivation of small fields. In most rice-producing countries, they are used for threshing and for transporting the sheaves during the rice harvest. They provide power for oilseed mills, sugarcane presses, and devices for raising water. They are widely used as pack animals, and in India and Pakistan also for heavy haulage. In their invasions of Europe, the Turks used buffalo for hauling heavy battering rams. Their dung is used as a fertilizer, and as a fuel when dried.
Buffalo contribute 72 million tones of milk and three million tones of meat annually to world food, much of it in areas that are prone to nutritional imbalances. In India, river-type buffalo are kept mainly for milk production and for transport, whereas swamp-type buffalo are kept mainly for work and a small amount of milk.
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Water buffalo milk presents physicochemical features different from that of other ruminant species, such as a higher content of fatty acids and proteins. The physical and chemical parameters of swamp and river type water buffalo milk differ. Water buffalo milk contains higher levels of total solids, crude protein, fat, calcium, and phosphorus, and slightly higher content of lactose compared with those of cow milk. The high level of total solids makes water buffalo milk ideal for processing into value-added dairy products such as cheese. The conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content in milk ranged from 4.4 mg/g fat in September to 7.6 mg/g fat in June. Seasons and genetics may play a role in variation of CLA level and changes in gross composition of the water buffalo milk.
Water buffalo milk is processed into a large variety of dairy products:
- Cream churns much faster at higher fat levels and gives higher overrun than cow cream.
- Butter from water buffalo cream displays more stability than that from cow cream.
- Ghee from water buffalo milk has a different texture with a bigger grain size than ghee from cow milk.
- Heat-concentrated milk products in the Indian subcontinent include paneer, khoa, rabri, kheer and basundi.
- Fermented milk products include dahi, yogurt, and chakka.
- Whey is used for making ricotta and mascarpone in Italy, and alkarish in Syria and Egypt.
- Soft cheeses made include mozzarella in Italy, karish, mish, and domiati in Egypt, madhfor in Iraq, alghab in Syria, kesong puti in the Philippines, and vladeasa in Romania.
- The semihard cheese beyaz peynir is made in Turkey.
- Hard cheeses include braila in Romania, rahss in Egypt, white brine in Bulgaria, and akkawi in Syria.
- Watered-down buffalo milk is used as a cheaper alternative to regular milk.
MEAT AND SKIN PRODUCTS
Water buffalo meat, sometimes called "carabeef", is often passed off as beef in certain regions, and is also a major source of export revenue for India. In many Asian regions, buffalo meat is less preferred due to its toughness; however, recipes have evolved (rendang, for example) where the slow cooking process and spices not only make the meat palatable, but also preserve it, an important factor in hot climates where refrigeration is not always available.Their hides provide tough and useful leather, often used for shoes.
BONE AND HORN PRODUCTS
The bones and horns are often made into jewellery, especially earrings. Horns are used for the embouchure of musical instruments, such as ney and kaval.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
Wildlife conservation scientists have started to recommend and use introduced populations of feral domestic water buffalo in far-away lands to manage uncontrolled vegetation growth in and around natural wetlands. Introduced water buffalo at home in such environs provide cheap service by regularly grazing the uncontrolled vegetation and opening up clogged water bodies for waterfowl, wetland birds, and other wildlife. Grazing water buffalo are sometimes used in Great Britain for conservation grazing, such as in Chippenham Fen National Nature Reserve. The buffalo can better adapt to wet conditions and poor-quality vegetation than cattle.
Currently, research is being conducted at the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies to determine the levels of nutrients removed and returned to wetlands when water buffalo are used for wetland vegetation management.
However, in uncontrolled circumstances, water buffalo can cause environmental damage, such as trampling vegetation, disturbing bird and reptile nesting sites, and spreading exotic weeds.
RESEARCH
The world's first cloned buffalo was developed by Indian scientists from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. The buffalo calf was named Samrupa. The calf did not survive more than a week, and died due to some genetic disorders. So, the scientists created another cloned buffalo a few months later, and named it Garima.
On 15 September 2007, the Philippines announced its development of Southeast Asia's first cloned buffalo. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), under the Department of Science and Technology in Los Baños, Laguna, approved this project. The Department of Agriculture's Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) will implement cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer as a tool for genetic improvement in water buffalo. "Super buffalo calves" will be produced. There will be no modification or alteration of the genetic materials, as in genetically modified organisms.
On 1 January 2008, the Philippine Carabao Center in Nueva Ecija, per Filipino scientists, initiated a study to breed a super water buffalo that could produce 4 to 18 litres of milk per day using gene-based technology. Also, the first in vitro river buffalo was born there in 2004 from an in vitro-produced, vitrified embryo, named "Glory" after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Joseph Estrada's most successful project as an opposition senator, the PCC was created through Republic Act 3707, the Carabao Act of 1992.
IN CULTURE
Some ethnic groups, such as Batak and Toraja in Indonesia and the Derung in China, use water buffalo or kerbau (called horbo in Batak or tedong in Toraja) as sacrificial animals at several festivals.
- Legend has it that the Chinese philosophical sage Laozi left China through the Han Gu Pass riding a water buffalo.
- According to Hindu lore, the god of death Yama, rides on a male water buffalo.
- The carabao subspecies is considered a national symbol in the Philippines.
- In Vietnam, water buffalo are often the most valuable possession of poor farmers: "Con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp". They are treated as a member of the family: "Chồng cày, vợ cấy, con trâu đi bừa" ("The husband ploughs, the wife sows, water buffalo draws the rake") and are friends of the children. Children talk to their water buffalo, "Bao giờ cây lúa còn bông. Thì còn ngọn cỏ ngoài đồng trâu ăn." (Vietnamese children are responsible for grazing water buffalo. They feed them grass if they work laboriously for men.) In the old days, West Lake, Hà Nội, was named Kim Ngưu - Golden Water Buffalo.
- The Yoruban Orisha Oya (goddess of change) takes the form of a water buffalo.
FIGHTING FESTIVALS
- Pasungay Festival is held annually in the town of San Joaquin, Iloilo in the Philippines.
- Moh juj Water Buffalo fighting, is held every year in Bhogali Bihu in Assam. Ahotguri in Nagaon is famous for it.
- Do Son Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Vietnam, held each year on the ninth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar at Do Son Township, Haiphong City in Vietnam, is one of the most popular Vietnam festivals and events in Haiphong City. The preparations for this buffalo fighting festival begin from the two to three months earlier. The competing buffalo are selected and methodically trained months in advance. It is a traditional festival of Vietnam attached to a Water God worshipping ceremony and the Hien Sinh custom to show martial spirit of the local people of Do Son, Haiphong.
- "Hai Luu" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Vietnam, According to ancient records, the buffalo fighting in Hai Luu Commune has existed from the 2nd century B.C. General Lu Gia at that time, had the buffalo slaughtered to give a feast to the local people and the warriors, and organized buffalo fighting for amusement. Eventually, all the fighting buffalo will be slaughtered as tributes to the deities.
- "Ko Samui" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Thailand, is a very popular event held on special occasions such as New Year's Day in January, and Songkran in mid-April, this festival features head-wrestling bouts in which two male Asian water buffalo are pitted against one another. Unlike in Spanish Bullfighting, wherein bulls get killed while fighting sword-wielding men, Buffalo Fighting Festival held at Ko Samui, Thailand is fairly harmless contest. The fighting season varies according to ancient customs & ceremonies. The first Buffalo to turn and run away is considered the loser, the winning buffalo becomes worth several million baht. Ko Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand in the South China Sea, it is 700 km from Bangkok and is connected to it by regular flights.
- "Ma'Pasilaga Tedong" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival, in Tana Toraja Regency of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, is a very popular event where the Rambu Solo' or a Burial Festival took place in Tana Toraja.
RACING FESTIVALS
Carabao Carroza Festival is being held annually every May in the town of Pavia, Iloilo, Philippines.
Kambala races of Karnataka, India, take place between December and March. The races are conducted by having the water buffalo (he buffalo) run in long parallel slushy ditches, where they are driven by men standing on wooden planks drawn by the buffalo. The objectives of the race are to finish first and to raise the water to the greatest height and also a rural sport. Kambala races are arranged with competition, as well as without competition and as a part of thanks giving (to god) in about 50 villages of coastal Karnataka.
In the Chonburi Province of Thailand, and in Pakistan, there are annual water buffalo races.
Chon Buri Water buffalo racing festival, Thailand In downtown Chonburi, 70 km south of Bangkok, at the annual water buffalo festival held in mid-October. About 300 buffalo race in groups of five or six, spurred on by bareback jockeys wielding wooden sticks, as hundreds of spectators cheer. The water buffalo has always played an important role in agriculture in Thailand. For farmers of Chon Buri Province, near Bangkok, it is an important annual festival, beginning in mid-October. It is also a celebration among rice farmers before the rice harvest. At dawn, farmers walk their buffalo through surrounding rice fields, splashing them with water to keep them cool before leading them to the race field. This amazing festival started over a hundred years ago when two men arguing about whose buffalo was the fastest ended up having a race between them. That’s how it became a tradition and gradually a social event for farmers who gathered from around the country in Chonburi to trade their goods. The festival also helps a great deal in preserving the number of buffalo, which have been dwindling at quite an alarming rate in other regions. Modern machinery is rapidly replacing buffalo in Thai agriculture. With most of the farm work mechanized, the buffalo-racing tradition has continued. Racing buffalo are now raised just to race; they do not work at all. The few farm buffalo which still do work are much bigger than the racers because of the strenuous work they perform. Farm buffalo are in the "Buffalo Beauty Pageant", a Miss Farmer beauty contest and a comic buffalo costume contest etc.. This festival perfectly exemplifies a favored Thai attitude to life — "sanuk," meaning fun.
Babulang Water buffalo racing festival, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the largest or grandest of the many rituals, ceremonies and festivals of the traditional Bisaya (Borneo) community of Limbang, Sarawak. Highlights are the Ratu Babulang competition and the Water buffalo races which can only be found in this town in Sarawak, Malaysia.
Vihear Suor village Water buffalo racing festival, in Cambodia, each year, people visit Buddhist temples across the country to honor their deceased loved ones during a 15-day period commonly known as the Festival of the Dead but in Vihear Suor village, about 35 km northeast of Cambodia, citizens each year wrap up the festival with a water buffalo race to entertain visitors and honour a pledge made hundreds of years ago. There was a time when many village cattle which provide rural Cambodians with muscle power to plough their fields and transport agricultural products died from an unknown disease. The villagers prayed to a spirit to help save their animals from the disease and promised to show their gratitude by holding a buffalo race each year on the last day of "P'chum Ben" festival as it is known in Cambodian. The race draws hundreds of spectators who come to see riders and their animals charge down the racing field, the racers bouncing up and down on the backs of their buffalo, whose horns were draped with colorful cloth.
Pothu puttu matsaram, Kerala, South India, is similar to Kambala races.
WIKIPEDIA
Remarkable behaviour these birds have, when there is danger instead of flying away ythey freeze into place and, as long as you don't get too close, you can walk around them and observe them from all sides.
Ifaty, Madagascar
squirrel seems to be using a stick to jab at the earth, perhaps loosing the dirt so he can dig easier (to bury nuts)
I need a lover with a slow hand!
I need a lover with an easy touch...
Ok you can hum the other bits.😘
Album Title: Exotic Behaviour
Model: 虹羚
Photographer: Edwin Setiawan
Place: 士林官邸
Date: 2009/07/12
Just about Photography: edwinsetiawan.wordpress.com
Edwin Setiawan Photography: www.edwinsetiawan.com
The sight of a mobile speed camera van is sure to calm the traffic.
All of a sudden seat belts are fastened, speeds are reduced to below the limit, care and attention is paid, semi clothed Nymphs riding Unicorns roam freely scattering magic dust behind them...
To those who claim that these forms of enforcement are somehow unfair or a 'money maker'... when you start a vehicle you are agreeing to terms and conditions. Those terms and conditions are the rules of the road - including parking, speed limits, alcohol limits, duty of care for others and much more.
If you break the rules, then expect a sanction. Simple really.
This baby seal (Phoca vitulina) rubbed itself vigorously in kelp.
Dieser Baby-Seehund (Phoca vitulina) rieb sich lange in Tang.
Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) female and male behaviour (teaser).
Backus Woods, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada.
June 25, 2020.
Please view full screen for best quality. ;-)
I'm editing several interesting clips together, but wanted to share this one short clip right away. ;-)
Ebony Jewelwings have very sophisticated courtship and ovipositing rituals. Females line the stream banks to watch males "joust" for their attention. FEMALES pick their partner based on these competitions. That's rare in the dragon-damselfly world. Typically, the male literally grabs a female by the scruff of her neck and hope she cooperates! @@
The reason these jousting sessions are so important to the females is because the males "hover guard" the female they mated with, to ensure that HIS progeny's eggs are safely laid in the stream (they lay their eggs on partially submerged logs, twigs or leaves.) She depends on the male's ability to stand guard while she lays her eggs.
Ebony Jewelwings (Calopteryx maculata) prefer relatively clear, fast-moving streams. The male sentry butts heads and chases away any other male that tries to interfere while she's laying her (HIS) eggs underwater (their nymphs are aquatic). I got video of that behaviour too, but I'll save that for later.
This sneak preview is something I've never seen before. A rival male managed to slip past the hover-guarding male and tossed the egg-laying female right off her log!!
I always thought the competing male would just want to mate, but he seems to be more interested in interrupting the egg-laying process.
These beautiful and fascinating creatures never cease to amaze! ❤
Photographs, Text and Videos ©Jay Cossey, PhotographsFromNature.com (PFN)
All rights reserved. Contact: PhotographsFromNature@gmail.com
My second book, "Familiar Butterflies of Indiana and their Natural History" is now available!
Please check out my first book, "Southern Ontario Butterflies and their Natural History". :-)
www.flickr.com/photos/74102791@N05/32381163732/
My website: www.PhotographsFromNature.com
2xAB1600s in 80"x24" and 36"x24" softboxes at 1/4 and 1/16 power camera right and left. AB1600 in 36"x24" softbox above camera at 1/32 power as fill. Fired using Cybersync triggers.
Several Robins were in the area showing aggressive behaviour such as this head up stance to display the red breast.
‘I’m tired of being chained to it.’
The sentiments of the web’s most avid users who, in the last three years, have scaled back on their internet use
Jeffrey Cole, Director, Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California
www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/technology/14drill.html?_r=1&a...
Background image courtesy of: www.flickr.com/photos/markallanson/452840836. This citation appears in the top right of the image.
This is a metal and vinyl backed post card sized...thing I got at the 'antique mall' last weekend. It said "Indian public service cards" and came with that round thingy to hang it up with. I'm thinking the 'behaviours' are:
Sneezing or barfing at the dinner table, or possibly bulemia
Killing small animals while your sibling possibly falls in the river and drowns
Tripping a friend while playing ball in the street causing heinous vehicular injury
Beating up the kid you just played Texas Hold'em for lunch money and lost to
Dropping your leftover sugary cereal milk off the balcony and giving one of the strangely many passers-by crusty 'something about mary' hair
Touching someone's butt
I especially like the obvious consequences of the BAD BEHAVIOURS, like touching someone's butt will surely cause them to fall under the oncoming train.