A comment on the antics of Kate Moss ...

Taken at the Living Rainforest

Photos by Andy

 

It's great to see the Black Darters emerging en-masse at our local hot spot. I love darters, and this is my favourite. They're more on a par with a damselfly size wise, but behaviourally they're unmistakably a dragon. There were dozens about today, the males staking out prominent perches, and the females milling about in the reeds and surrounding heather, occasionally 3 or 4 perching in close proximity to each other.

 

Had to call it a day at 12:30 as we were beginning to cook! :-)

Too kool for skool

Human Behaviour

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.

 

Legong is a form of Balinese dance. It is a refined dance form characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated footwork, and expressive gestures and facial expressions.

 

An extremely basic definition of legong is a dance traditionally performed by pre-pubescent girls in the palaces of feudal Bali.

 

One translation is that the word is made up of two words. Lega meaning happy and Ing wong meaning person – put them together and you get: “something that makes people happy”. Another one is oleg meaning dance and gong meaning gamelan, the music that accompanies the dance.

 

Legong probably originated in the 19th century as royal entertainment. Today the most common legong dance is Legong Keraton, so named by the Sultanate of Keraton Surakarta when the music and dance composer and genius I Wayan Lotring from Kuta was invited to perform in the 1920s with his Gamelan Pelegongan group in the keraton (palace) in Surakarta.

 

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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Cromwell Bottom Nature Reserve

Re- edit of this one, was it really two years ago.

Hardcastle Crags.

Live at The Windmill Brixton London

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

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.

Purbeck mason wasp (Pseudepipona herrichii) excavating nest burrow on heathland. Dorset, UK.

 

photo.domgreves.com

Gaining balance in the windy conditions.

St Aidan's Nature Park.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_shrike

  

The great grey shrike, northern grey shrike, or northern shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a large songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the southern grey shrike (L. meridionalis), the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) and the loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus). Within the great grey shrike species itself, there are nine subspecies. Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts.

 

Breeding takes place generally north of 50° northern latitude in northern Europe and Asia (where it is known as the great grey shrike), and in North America (where it is known as the northern shrike) north of 55° northern latitude in Canada and Alaska. Most populations migrate south in winter to temperate regions.[2] The great grey shrike is carnivorous, with rodents making up over half its diet.

  

Taxonomy and systematics

  

The scientific name of the great grey shrike literally means "sentinel butcher": Lanius is the Latin term for a butcher, while excubitor is Latin for a watchman or sentinel. This refers to the birds' two most conspicuous behaviours – storing food animals by impaling them on thorns, and using exposed tree-tops or poles to watch the surrounding area for possible prey. Use of the former by Conrad Gessner established the quasi-scientific term lanius for the shrikes. Linnaeus chose his specific name because the species "observes approaching hawks and announces [the presence] of songbirds"[3] as he put it. This habit was also put to use in falconry, as fancifully recorded by William Yarrell later.[4]

 

The species was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of Systema Naturae under the current scientific name. His description is L[anius] cauda cuneiformi lateribus alba, dorso cano, alis nigris macula alba – "a shrike with a wedge-shaped white-bordered tail, back grey, wings black with white spot". At that time, none of the other grey shrikes – including the lesser grey shrike (L. minor), for which the description of the tail pattern is incorrect and which some authors already recognized as distinct – were considered separate species by Linnaeus, but that was to change soon.

 

Linnaeus' binomial name replaced the cumbersome and confusing descriptive names of the earlier naturalist books he gives as his sources: in his own Fauna Svecica he named it ampelis caerulescens, alis caudaque nigricantibus ("light-blue waxwing, wings and tail blackish"), while it is called pica cinerea sive lanius major ("ash-grey magpie or greater shrike") by Johann Leonhard Frisch, who in his splendid colour plate confused male and female. But most authors cited by Linnaeus – Eleazar Albin, Ulisse Aldrovandi, John Ray and Francis Willughby – called it lanius cinereus major or similar, which is a near-literal equivalent of the common name "great grey shrike". The type locality of Linnaeus is simply given as Europa ("Europe").

  

Vernacular name

  

Ulisse Aldrovandi, Conrad Gessner, John Ray and Francis Willughby also reported old folk names, mainly from Germanic languages: Wereangel or Wierangel from the Pennines of England (where the bird was noted as a vagrant) as well as Warkangel, Werkengel or Wurchangel in various German dialects (e.g. around Frankfurt/Main and Strasbourg) probably mean "choking angel" (cf. Standard German Würgeengel). These names are unlikely to significantly pre-date the times of Saint Boniface (c. 700 AD) because of their Christian connotation; the related Werkenvogel ("choking bird") might, however, do so. The English version, having become wariangle or weirangle, was eventually transferred to the native red-backed shrike (L. collurio) and lingered on into modern times in Yorkshire. Along the Upper Rhine, between Strasbourg and Heidelberg for example, Linkenom is attested; its origin is unclear. Low German Neghen-doer and Middle German Nünmörder were also used; this has today evolved into Neuntöter and specifically means the red-backed shrike, but could in earlier times refer to any native Lanius. It literally means "killer of nine [prey animals]" and refers to the food caches.

 

A falconer's name for the great grey shrike was mattages(s)(e), which is related to mat'agasse from the western Alps. These terms may mean "magpie killer", due to their use for luring carnivorous birds to hunters – but perhaps more likely "killer magpie", considering that the bird was believed to be a peculiar sort of magpie by Johann Leonhard Frisch and others, and that another vernacular English name was "murdering pie". Shrike, meanwhile, is of Germanic origin also and dates back at least to Middle or Early Modern English schricum. This is related to such words as Norwegian and Swedish skrika ("shriek, skrike"), German Schrei ("scream") or Icelandic shrikja ("shrieker"). But it seems to have become the dominant term only in rather recent times, for as late as the 18th century, the species was still widely known as "greater butcher-bird" in English, just like it was known as the boucher ("butcher") in the French Jura. A whimsical name – presumably from Scotland or nearby England – was "white wisky John" in reference to its wavy and somewhat unelegant flight, during which its large areas of light plumage are conspicuous.[6]

  

Relationships and evolution

  

The shrike family (Laniidae) is a member of the Corvoidea, the most ancient of the four large songbird superfamilies. Among its superfamily, the closest relatives of the Laniidae are probably the Corvidae (crows and allies). Little reliable data exists on its evolution; certainly (even though the supposed ancestral shrike "Lanius" miocaenus might not belong in the Laniidae, and probably does not belong in the same genus as L. excubitor) the genus dates back to Miocene times. A Lanius fossil from the Late Miocene Turolian age, c. 6 million years ago, has been found at Polgárdi, Hungary. Its relationship to the modern species is unclear. However, all things considered, the grey shrike lineage probably represents the Holarctic sister to the African radiation of fiscal shrikes. These two seem to have originated in a west- or southwestward expansion from the genus' origin, which (considering the biogeography of living Lanius lineages) was probably somewhere between Asia Minor and Central Asia. At the time of the Polgárdi fossil, it is rather likely that the grey shrikes were a distinct lineage already; given that they and the fiscals generally follow Bergmann's Rule, the smallish fossil makes an unlikely ancestor to the large grey shrikes even when taking into account the somewhat warmer Miocene climate.[7]

 

The grey shrike superspecies consists of L. excubitor and its parapatric southern relatives. As mentioned above, the other members of this group are the southern grey shrike (L. meridionalis), the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) and the loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus). The centre of this group's radiation is probably in the eastern Mediterranean region, and the southern grey shrike represents the basalmost form. The other three only diverged during the expansion into temperate regions. This must have happened fairly recently, because lineage sorting is not complete in the grey shrikes, and most of the present-day habitat of L. excubitor was uninhabitable during much of the Quaternary glaciation. Because of the phylogenetic uncertainties surrounding this close-knit group in the absence of a good fossil record, some refrain from splitting them up into distinct species; most modern authors do so however.

  

Subspecies

  

Within the great grey shrike species, nine subspecies can be recognized. They can be divided into three groups, occurring in western Eurasia, eastern Eurasia and North America, respectively:[9]

  

West Eurasian group

  

Lanius excubitor excubitor (including melanopterus – which may intergrade with sibiricus – and galliae) – temperate to subarctic continental Europe and eastern to western Siberia.

Medium grey above, pale grey hue below. Some white on primaries and sometimes secondaries.

 

Lanius excubitor homeyeri – temperate Black Sea coast east via Transcaucasia to western Siberia

Lighter grey than excubitor above, dull white below. More white on primaries and secondaries.

 

Lanius excubitor leucopterus – south western Russia along border to Kazakhstan to south western Siberia

Light grey above, white below. Considerable white on primaries and secondaries.

  

East Eurasian group

 

Lanius excubitor sibiricus – eastern Siberia to northern Mongolia

Browner above than excubitor, distinct but delicate banding below. Some white on primary bases only.

 

Lanius excubitor bianchii – Sakhalin and possibly southern Kuril Islands

Smaller and paler than sibiricus, banding below pale and indistinct. Some white on primary bases only.

 

Lanius excubitor mollis – Russian Altai Mountains, north western Mongolia

Browner than sibiricus above, banding below well-developed. Little white on primary bases.

 

Lanius excubitor funereus – Tian Shan and western China

Large; quite dark and brownish, below bluish-grey with almost black banding. Little white on primary bases.

  

North American group

 

Lanius excubitor borealis – Hudson Bay region of Ontario and Quebec

Similar to excubitor, but darker with faint barring below. John James Audubon called this subspecies the great American shrike in his book Birds of America.

 

Lanius excubitor invictus – northern Alberta west to northern Alaska, perhaps also Chukchi Peninsula region in extreme north east Siberia

Larger and paler than borealis, paralleling homeyeri compared to excubitor.

  

Description

  

An adult great grey shrike is a medium-sized passerine about as large as a big thrush, measuring from 22 to 26 cm (8.7 to 10.2 in) long. It typically weighs around 60 to 70 g (2.1 to 2.5 oz), although some subspecies are noticeably smaller or larger, and even in the nominate subspecies adult weights between 48 and 81 g (1.7 and 2.9 oz) are recorded. The wings are around 11.4 cm (4.5 in) and the tail around 10.9 cm (4.3 in) long in the nominate subspecies, its bill measures about 23 mm (0.91 in) from tip to skull, and the tarsometatarsus part of its "legs" (actually feet) is around 27.4 mm (1.08 in) long.[10] Wingspan can range from 30 to 36 cm (12 to 14 in).[11]

  

The general colour of the upperparts is pearl grey, tinged brownish towards the east of its Eurasian range. The cheeks and chin as well as a thin and often hard-to-see stripe above the eye are white, and a deep black mask extends from the beak through the eye to the ear coverts; the area immediately above the beak is grey. The scapulars (shoulder feathers) are white, and the wings are black with a white bar made up by the bases of the primary remiges, continuing slightly offset onto the bases of the secondary remiges in some regions. The tail is black, long, and pointed at the tip; the outer rectrices have white outer vanes. The underparts are white, slightly tinged with grey in most subspecies. In particular the breast is usually darker and sometimes browner than the rest of the light underside, and may appear as an indistinct band between the lighter belly and white throat. In the subspecies around the North Pacific in particular and in females elsewhere too, there may be faint brownish bars on the breast. The bill is large and hooked at the tip and coloured nearly black, but pale at the base of the under mandible (though the extent varies seasonally). The legs and feet are blackish.[12]

 

Males and females are about the same size, and do not differ conspicuously in appearance except by direct comparison. In the female the underparts are greyer and are usually visibly barred greyish-brown, and the white wing and tail markings are characteristically less in extent (though this is rarely clearly visible except in flight). Fledged young birds are heavily tinged greyish-brown all over, with barring on the upperside and indistinct buffy-white markings. The tips of the tertiary remiges and the wing coverts are also buffy, with a black band in the latter. In the North American subspecies borealis, the fledglings are tinged quite brown indeed on upperside and wings, and have sharp and dark underside bars. In Eurasia, fledglings moult into a female-like plumage with the tertiary bars usually remaining in autumn. Across its range, the young acquire the adult plumage in their first spring.[13]

  

Vocalizations

  

The male's song consists of short pleasant warbling strophes, interspersed with fluid whistles. The individual phrases may go like tu-tu-krr-pree-pree or trr-turit trr-turit.... To announce that it has become aware of someone straying into its territory – be it a female or male of its species or a large mammal – it gives long shrill raspy whistles like trrii(u) or (t')kwiiet. To announce to females, it often mixes these whistles with a strophe of song. A softer whistle goes like trüü(t). These whistles are also used in duets between mates in winter and neighbours in the breeding season. Various contact calls have been described as chlie(p), gihrrr, kwä or wuut. These are frequently heard during courtship, interspersed with song phrases as the harsh whistles are in pre-courtship. The song becomes softer and more warbling as the male shows the female around his territory, and at potential nest sites the male gives a lively chatter containing fluting tli-tli, prrr trills and kwiw...püh calls.[14]

 

When disturbed, its alarm note is a harsh jay-like k(w)eee, greee or jaaa, often repeated twice. The more excited the birds become, the higher and faster the calls get, via chek-chek-chek to a rattle trr-trr-trr or an explosive aak-aak-aak. A bird of prey alert is given with a whistle breezeek. Knuk calls are given by adults confronted with a potential threat to their young. To beg for food – young to adults or pairmembers to each other –, rows of waik calls are given. This species sometimes tries to attract small songbirds by mimicking their calls, so it may attempt to catch them for food.[15]

  

Similar species

 

Southern grey shrike

Lanius meridionalis

 

The southern grey shrike (L. meridionalis) was formerly included in the great grey shrike as subspecies. It occurs in south western Europe (Iberian Peninsula and France) southwards to Africa around the Sahara, and also in Central Asia. It prefers different habitat – lightly wooded grassland in the great, more arid shrubland in the southern grey shrike – and where the species' ranges overlap, they do not hybridize at present (though they may have done so in past millennia).[16]

  

Lesser grey shrike

Lanius minor

 

Loggerhead shrike

Lanius ludovicianus

Elsewhere, the southern parapatric relatives of the L. excubitor are the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) from East Asia and the loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus) from North America. The northern grey shrike is sympatric in winter quarters with each of its three close relatives at the north of their range. Their overall colouration is – apparently plesiomorphically – shared in sub-Saharan Africa by the somewhat more distantly related grey-backed fiscal (L. excubitoroides) which is found from the Sahel eastwards, and Mackinnon's fiscal (L. mackinnoni) of the Congo Basin region. The lesser grey shrike (L. minor, Balkans to Central Asia) seems to be quite distinct indeed and is sympatric with the grey shrike superspecies between Eastern Europe and Central Asia; it may be more closely related to the small brown shrikes and resemble the bold, aggressive and hard-to-catch grey shrikes because of Batesian mimicry.[17]

  

Grey-backed fiscal

Lanius excubitoroides

  

The southern grey shrike is clearer and usually darker grey above, and not tinged grey but often decidedly pinkish on the belly and particular breast; the white "eyebrow" extends to over the beak, which has typically a larger pale base. The barring pattern is less developed at all ages, hardly ever present even in females, and slighter in the otherwise very similar fledglings.[18]

 

East Asian L. excubitor are barely sympatric with the Chinese grey shrike. The latter is larger and generally differs from the northern species as the southern does, and in addition has much larger white areas in wings and tail.[19]

 

The loggerhead shrike is hard to distinguish, but the proportion of the head to the beak (which seems stubby in L. ludovicianus by comparison and is all-dark) is usually reliable. Indeed, the word loggerhead refers to the relatively larger head of the southern species.[20]

 

The lesser grey shrike is a smaller and comparatively short-tailed bird. It can best be recognized by the rather large black area above the bill, almost reaching to the forehead and without a white stripe above it. In flight, the wide instead of pointed black tail end of L. minor is characteristic. The African species are completely allopatric with L. excubitor; they lack white scapulars (grey-backed fiscal) or wingspots (Mackinnon's fiscal) and differ in some other details, particularly the tail pattern.[21]

  

Distribution and habitat

  

The great grey shrike occurs throughout most temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Generally, its breeding range is limited to areas north of 50° northern latitude in Eurasia, and north of 55° northern latitude in North America. In the high mountains of the Altai-Tian Shan region, it ranges south perhaps as far as 42° northern latitude. Its northern limit is generally 70° northern latitude, except in eastern Canada (Quebec) where it only reaches up to about 60° northern latitude. It is only found as a vagrant in Iceland, the British Isles, the Mediterranean region (excluding the Iberian Peninsula and perhaps Romania but including Cyprus), and Korea. There do not appear to be breeding records from the entire Kamchatka Peninsula; in Switzerland, the present day Czech Republic and southern Germany small populations were found in the mid-20th century but have declined or even disappeared since then.[22]

 

Except for the subspecies bianchii which is largely all-year resident, and subspecies excubitor in the temperate European parts of its range with their mild maritime climate, the species is a short-distance migrant. The migrations are triggered by scarcity of food and therefore, according to prey population levels, the winter range might little extend south beyond the breeding range, or be entirely parapatric to it. The populations of the Central Asian mountains mostly migrate downslope rather than southwards. Females are more prone to migration than males; they do not appear to migrate, on average, longer or shorter distances than males, and consequently are the dominant sex in many parts of the winter range. Birds leave for winter quarters a more or less short time after breeding – July to October, with most birds staying to September – and return to nest mainly in March/April, but some only arrive in May. In recent decades, the number of birds remaining on the breeding grounds all year has been noted to increase e.g. in Fennoscandia, whereas for example borealis seems to be as rare a winter visitor in northern Ohio as it was a century ago.[2][23][24]

 

The preferred habitat is generally open grassland, perhaps with shrubs interspersed, and adjacent lookout points. These are normally trees – at forest edges in much of the habitat, but single trees or small stands at the taiga-tundra border. In steppe, it will utilize any isolated perch, be it fence posts, power lines or rocks. In general, some 5–15 perching sites per hectare habitat seem to be required. It avoids low grassland with no lookouts and nesting opportunities (trees or large shrubs), as well as dense forest with no hunting ground. Apart from grassland, the birds will utilize a variety of hunting habitats, including bogs, clearings or non-industrially farmed fields. Breeding birds appear to have different microhabitat desires, but little detail is known yet.[25]

  

Behaviour

  

This species is territorial, but likes to breed in dispersed groups of a good half-dozen adults. It is not known to what extent the birds in such groups are related. In the temperate parts of its range, groups are perhaps 5 km (3.1 mi) apart, while individual territories within each group may be as small as 20 ha (49 acres) but more typically are about twice that size. In less hospitable climes, territories may be more than 350 ha (1.4 sq mi). Throughout the breeding season, in prime habitat, territories are held by mated pairs and single males looking for a partner. In less productive habitat, "floaters" hold territories more ephemerally. This leads to shifts in population density between regions, as "floaters" move between groups of territorial birds in search of a bountiful unclaimed territory to settle down and/or a partner to mate with. On the wintering grounds, pairs separate to account for the lower amount of food available at that time, but if both members migrate they tend to have their wintering grounds not far apart. As it seems, once an individual great grey shrike has found a wintering territory it likes, it will return there subsequently and perhaps even try to defend it against competitors just like a summer territory. Throughout the year, the birds regularly but briefly move through a range up to three times larger than their territory; this is tolerated by territory owners in winter more easily than in summer, and the parts of Europe where all-year residents and winter visitors co-occur typically have population densities around eight[verification needed] birds/km2 (about thirty[verification needed] per square mile) and occasionally more in winter.[26]

  

Before and after the nesting season, groups of breeding birds will sometimes initiate gatherings; these seem to occur at the boundary of the group's combined range or in the unclaimed land separating it from neighbouring groups. The initiation signal is a conspicuous display flight given by a bird surveying its territory: it spirals tens of meters/yards high into the air, usually briefly does a fluttering hover at the top of the spiral, and then glides down. Group neighbours will respond by performing the same type of flight, and eventually about half the group's members will depart to the meeting location where they will spend several tens of minutes – sometimes more than an hour – chattering, calling, duetting, and excitedly moving about the meeting site (which typically is some small tree or shrubbery). In winter, birds will often assemble in small groups and roost together, particularly to keep warm during the night; this is apparently not initiated with a specific assembly display however.[27]

 

The flight of the great grey shrike is undulating and rather heavy, but its dash is straight and determined. It is, as noted above, also capable of hovering flights, which last briefly but may be repeated time after time because of the birds' considerable stamina. It will usually stay low above the ground in flight, approaching perches from below and landing in an upward swoop. In social interactions, birds signal an aggressive stance by a bold upright posture, fanning and then flicking the tail and eventually the wings also as the bird gets more excited. It signals its readiness to strike at an intruder by shifting to a horizontal pose and fluffing its feathers, raising them into a small crest along the top of the head. Birds appease conspecifics by head-turns away from them (if close by), or by imitating the crouching fluttering pose and calls given by fledglings begging for food (if sitting father apart). The submission gesture to prevent an imminent attack by a conspecific is pointing the beak straight up.[28]

 

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.😘

Green Veined Whites

MALAWIN FOUND IN SIXTY THREE

 

THAT WHOLE PUNJAB DID MAKE IT'S OWN WINE

 

AND DRANK DAILY

 

AS A HABIT OF HUNDRED PERCENT FARMERS

 

CALLED OFF NOT TILL SEVENTY

 

WHEN HE DEVISED SONGS OF INSPIRING PEOPLE

 

TO CORRECT ACTIVITIES...IN RESPECT OF LIFE.UPGRADING THEMSELVES.TO RISE ABOVE ANIMALS.IN BEHAVIOUR..WHICH HAD BECOME IMPRESSED ON THEM IN THE HINDI HEARTLAND.FORCED BY THE HINDU.ON THE SIKH.AS THE FORCERS OF THE RELIGIONS .BRINGING THEM TO BE FINISHED.I GOD SEEING THEM SHORT OF WISDOM AND SUBSTANCE WAS GIVING WISDOM AND SUBSTANCE SO THEY THESE DUFFERS TO COME TO BE INTELLIGENT LEARNING SOMETHING FROM OTHERS WHO WERE SEEING LIFE MORE CLEARLY WHOM TIME TO TIME THEY WERE TAKING AS FAR ADVANCED.AND MAKING EFFORTS TO BRING THEM DOWN IN THEIR DENS WITH MEDICINES,MEDICINAL PLANTS,POISONS TO THEIR LEVEL AT WHICH THEY DO NOT SHOW THEIR MUSCLE AS THEY FELT IT WAS WHENEVER ANEW PRODUCT OR SUBSTANCE SHOWED UP THEY TOOK TO NO LAWS.THEY HAD NO IDEA A NATION IN A PLANET IS FREE ONLY IF OTHERS WISH IT FREEDOM.OR THAT A COUNTRY EXISTS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES TOO ON THE PLANET WHICH MAY BE TWO HUNDRED COUNTRIES.WITHIN WHICH THEY EXIST AND ARE EVER AT THE CORE CENTRE IF THEY ARE AGGRESSIVE AS THEY WERE ARE ARE GOING TO BE HAVING NO SENSE OF RESPECTING WORDS OF WISDOM CANCELLING WHAT I AM WRITING TIME AND AGAIN HERE IN THE FLICKER LIKE MOST LESS VISITED AND THAT TOO GENERALLY BY THOSE AS A ARE IN A MIND THAT NEEDS PICTURES TO COME OUT OF THE STATE OF BODY THAT IN MIND ESTABLISHES ITSELF THROUGH PICTURES AS IS IN A CHILD.BEING MOST INCAPABLE DRIVEN BY A DRIVER ADMINISTERING THEM A AGGRESSIVES TO BE A SUBSTANCE LIKE HYOSCYAMUS AND HEMMAMELIS-------A COMBINATION THAT DRIVES ANY MAD AS A FEEL IN THE THAT HE SHE IS SUPERIOR AS IS OUR BHUPINDER A SEX IN ZERO.........MADE BY SEVEN THOUSAND INTERCOURSES WITH MEN OF HER CHOICE .WE ARE DRIVEN BY A THINKER WHO FEELS IT IS PERTINENT NOT TO DISTURB THINGS AND THE NATURE IS SUCH THAT IF YOU DO IT TAKES A ROUTE ANOTHER BEING A POINT BECOME IN THE MIND SUCH THAT IT IS NOT EXACTLY AS THE TIME SPACE ALLOWS ENOUGH SPACE FOR IT TO FEEL EXPRESSED.AS A DOCTOR OF THE MIND AS AUTHOR PSYCHIATRY HE DID NOT LET HER FEEL THE HEAVEN DOES NOT EXIST AT ALL ANYWHERE ON THIS EARTH . SHE AS A SIKH DAUGHTER HAD A CHANCE TO EXIST IN THE DELHI AMONGST THE AGGRESSIVE SEXY ASSAULTER HABIT IN THE HINDUS WHO ASKED HER A TWO YEAR FROM AS A CHILD TO BARE HER GENITALIAS..TO ALL...MALES AS THEY PASS BY HER.........................MA LOVE MALAWIN TO TOO SHE OF THREE AND A HALF SHOWED IT BARING SELF IN A LATRINE BEFORE HE GOT IN AS A SEATS AS A FOUR IN IT AS A COMMON LAT AS WAS BY A SIKH DEVICED FOR SAFETY OF THEY THE GIRLS TOO TO COME AS A MANY GIRLS OR WOMEN IN THEIR TIME TO BE IN SAFETY OR SOMEONE STAND OUTSIDE SEEING NO FORCE BE------THE HOUSES WERE GIVEN BY MA LOVE MALAWIN WE THE GOD AS THE GOD IDENTIFIED................MAKING MARKETABLE THINGS SELLING AND BUYING WITH IT FOR THEM ALL IN THE INDIA A SECURE AS A COUNTRY AND FREEDOM WHICH HE FELT EVER EVERYONE ON ALL EARTHS MUST HAVE AS IS IN A JUNGLE AT LEAST TO HAVE A MIND OF ONE'S OWN.

  

THE WE SEE WE AS A DOCTOR DOCTORING A PLANET AS A SERVANT OF THEM SO IN GOT OTHERS INTERESTED IN SEEING HIM WHERE FROM HE COULD HELP THEM BRING UP AROUND THEM A STABLE HARMONY.AS THEY EVER HAD WANTED AS A FABLES IN THEIR LAND SAID FAIRIES WILL COME AND THEY AS A ANGELS WILL HAVE HEAVEN DANCE DANCE AND DANCE.

  

MALAWIN WAS FOR WHILE GOING TO QUTUB A STRUCTURE MADE IN THE THIRD EON NOT BUT THREE AS A AGO WAS HAVING ON IT AS MALAWIN SIR POINTED A LANGUAGE IN WRITTEN SOMETHING LOOKING LIKE URDU,ARABIAN OR A MUSLIM LANGUAGE AS ALL HINDUS POINT ASKING IT BE FELLED AS A SIGN OF THE SLAVERY FORCED ON WE BY THE FOREIGNER----------BUT IT ARE NOT THAT. JUST LOOK YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO MAKE CEMENT,LIME,CHARCOAL,BRICKS,ROADS,BUT HERE A PLACE AS A HALF A KILOMETER WE SEE SOME ORDER FROM WHICH WE CAN IN VIBRATING WITH IT AND IT''S ORIGINS COME TO MINDS THAT WERE THE ONES THAT CAUSED THESE STRUCTURES. HE HAD ASKED AS THE SOIL OWNER OF THE COUNTRY NOT TO DEMOLISH ANY THING THAT HAS BEEN OR IS OCCOURING........................BUT THESE POOR IN IMAGINATION AND MIND CONTENT COME TO BE BEHAVING AS A SNAKE DOES.MALAWIN'S STUDY ON SNAKES IS IMPORTANT SO TAKE IT UP.IN SOME HE FOUND WAS A DESIRE TO BE FONDLED AS A MOTHER DOES. IN OTHERS HE AVID PLAYER WITH LIVING THINGS FOUND THEY DID NOT LIKE EVEN TO BE GAZED.A FIXED MIND FIRMED UP IN ITSELF ON NOTHING AT ALL TILL IT ILL FELT AND WANTED TO STRIKE AT THE ONLOOKER.IN COBRA HE SAW IT YOU TOO ALL BY NOW EXPOSED BY HE IN THE PLANET ON THE ANIMALS ALL.WE HAD RAISED A DESIRE IN HE TO SEE NATURE AND FEEL IT.SO HE USED TO SIT IN A LAWN AWAY FROM A DILAP GIVEN TO HIM A SHED OF THE COUNTRY OF HINDUS WHO SAID TO THEMSELVES IT IS WE THE HIGHEST NUMBERS DUE FEAR OF WHO THE ENGLISH LEFT THE COUNTRY SO IT WE WHO WILL COMMAND THE THIS WHO IS BRAGGING OF HIS PURCHASE.OF A LAND OF SOME KING.CALLING THAT HE COUNTRY CREATOR CAN BE ON EARTH WHERE HE BUYING THE RIGHT OF ALL IN THE EARTH'S AS A OURS AS A HE OURS LAND ON IS IN WE ENGULFED WHAT CAN HE DO IF WE SMOOTHER HIM TOGETHER.IN LAWLESS SOCIETIES IT HAPPENS. THEY ARE TOO SHARP TEETHED AS A ANIMALS IN THE LEARNING FROM OTHER ANIMALS AS IS THAT THAT A MALAWIN FOUND AS A MAN WHO LEARNT THE ART OF PALPING MINDS...FROM THE VIBRANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL OOZED BY THE THEY IN THE AIR SOME WHERE THAT DID NOT EXPRESS ITSELF AS A ACTION OR THOUGHT OF THEY.HE WE PLACE TO YOU IN THE WE WAS ASA ONE FINDING HOW TO SET RIGHT THE THESE WHO IN THE QUTUB TOO HE SAW WERE LIFTING THE SKIRTS OF JAPANESE SAID BY A ONE IN A POLICE RECORD IN A POINTED BY WE AS A ASSAULT IN WHICH THEY KNIFED A GIRL AS A SIX THEY OF SIXTEEN PLUS AND HE OF FIVE SAYING DO NOT DO IT OR RUNNING TO A GARDENER AND HE SAYING I CAN NOT DO ANY AND IF THEY SAY COME WILL GO WITH THEM YOU RUN TO POLICE INSTEAD OF GETTING ME AND MY WIFE KILLED BY THEM BY THE EVENING.

  

SENDING IT THROUGH STUDENTS OF HIS FATHER IN PUNJAB LANGUAGE HE WAS MONITORING TO BE GOT APPROVED FROM CENTRE AS A STATE LANGUAGE AS A STATE WHICH HAD BEEN DIVIDED ON LANGUAGE BASIS FROM HUNDRED THIRTY THOUSAND SQUARE MILE INTO A ONE OF FIFTY SEVEN THOUSANDS AS A THIRD DIVISION....IN FIRST AS A SOLEOWNER TO CONTAIN IT WERE.IN SECOND TOO IT SO SO IN THIRD HIS RISE IRKED SOME POLITICAL WORKERS.HE HAD WON THE WORLD EVEN WORSE AS A OFFER TO HE OF TWENTY IN SIXTY SEVEN OF THIRTY SIX COUNTRY PRESIDENCY.HARJIT WAS HIS FIRST THIEF.A.S. BRAR AS A P.S.BALI SECOND.AS A JATINDER THIRD.AS A DARSHAN INDER FOURTH AS A CHARANJIT PUMMY FIFTH AS A SHANTOSH HUNDRED THIRTIETH.HE MADE IT A POINT TO BEAT INTO SUBMISSION ANY HOUSE HE PASSES BY.WAS A KILLER CAUGHT IN ACT OF KILLING EINSTEIN BUT LRFT.CAUGHT AS A WE AS A ONE AS A IN THE ACT OF DAG HAMMERSKJOLD' S MURDER IN WE' S GOT MADE AS A POLICE PROTETED BUT POLICE DID NOT PROTECT DOING IT'S TOLD DUTY IN CITY.THUS POLITICIANS OF DAY RESPONSIBLE BESIDES A.S. .AS ARE NOW.

 

GENERAL CHARLES DE GAULLE OF FRANCE ASKED HE TO COME TO HE FOR TRAINING IN THE ART OF POLITIC.SENT P.S. TOO NOT BUT A PERSONAL EMMISSARY TOO IN THE THEY AS A DESCRIBE WE TO CUT AS A CELEST OPPOSER.WE HAD DESCRIBED AS A HIS DESIRE TO SEE M.S. HIS CO-AUTHOR FRANCE AS A NAPOLEON ONE.HAVING IN FIFTY SIX EXCITED HE CONTACTING TO FREE HIS COUNTRY AS HIS PAPA SAY DID TO HE AS A SAY AS A TOO TO HE IF DOES AGAIN.SO.AND LATER FREEING HE FROM IT.AS A SOLE OWNER EARTH AND GOD IN BIRTH WAS CORRECT TO HAVE BEEN SO DOING.

 

IN NINETEEN SIXTY SIX HE SENT P.A. TO TOE HE PERSONALLY TO FRANCE IF DOES NOT WANT TO YET JOIN U.N. AS A INDIAN SAID IT ON PHONE ON HIS OWN TRYING TO TAKE OVER CHARGE OF JUSTIN BEING AN EMPLOYEE IN TELEPHONE DEPARTMENT AS A CLERK NOT PEON.BEING EXTREMELY CROOK.HAVING BEEN A DACOIT OBSERVING HUNDRED THOUSAND YOUR UPPER GRADESTS AS A HE AS A PHONE ARRIVALS OFF OTHERS IN IT AS A SETHIS DID IN THE FIFTY TO BE BECOMING A MINISTER IN CENTRE.HE HAD STUDIED SETHIS PERSONALLY. FELT IT HIS RIGHT TO SAY ANY TO ANY TO GET ANY.SUCH CLEVERNESS CAUSED LOSS TO WORLD OF THE MOST INTELLIGENT MAN EVER BORN ON THE EARTH. AND TO BE IN NEXT THREE TRILLION YEARS HERE.INDIA JOINED HE.IN AN AGREEMENT AS A PROPERTY SNATCH.

 

HE WE AS A WE AS A KABOOED =CONTROLLED AS A D.I.S. NEXT TO M.S IN THE FAMILY TILL OL STARTED CYANIDING MAKING HE ANNULLED AS TO MAKE HE BE HIS GOAT TOO THE IDEA GENERATOR TOO.THE CHEQUE HIS SNATCHER FROM HOME USING HIS BROTHER AND TAKING KEYS OUT OF HIS POCKET.WIFE TOO HER FATHER ,HIS FATHER ,HIS MOTHER TOO IN THE THEY AS A GANGSTERS IN LEAR OF SHARING GREAT ADVANTAGES THAT COULD BE BECAUSE INDIAN GOVERNMENT WAS NOT CARING OF HIS WELFARE THEN FAR AND NOW FAR AS A OWNER INDIA TWICE .PROPERTY HIS IS EVERY WHERE AND HE UNPROTECTED HOWE COULD PLAN IT'S SECURITY------SO KEPT SINCE HIS AGE ZERO AND FROM DATE GOD STATUS CAME TO HIM WHILE IT DID GO TO COURT TOO TO HAVE A DECREE WE. A COPY THEY TOOK IN IT NOT BUT ASKED LINIENT BE TO ANY LOOTING HE.HERE WE FEEL OPPOSED TO DACOITY BUILT BY INDIA.INTERESTED IN DEVOIDING HE OF PROPERTY AND SELLING IT TO EARN FOR SCHEME THEY FELT WOULD RUN AS MUCH AS THEY TEND TO OTHERWISE TAKING AS MUCH AS A THEIR OWN AS A LIKING.IN IT ANTI-GOD EVOLVES AS A THIS COUNTRY.

 

WE NAME HE CAUSE OF INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTATE TRADE IN ALCOHOL.HE TOOK DEEP INTEREST IN THE FERMENTATION SO ASKED TO CONTROL AS PFIZER.WHICH HARJIT ATE AS A WE AS A REPORTS CANCELLED AS A K.K.PAUL FALSELY.DESTROYING A MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY WE TOOK KEEN INTEREST IN PROTECTING AS WE DID IN COCA COLA AS A WE AS A M.S.KOHLII.TO THE EXTENT FIGHTING FOR THEIR EQUAL RIGHTS AS IS INTERNATIONALLY COMMITTED INVITING COMPANIES TO TRADE WE WITH OR IN..THAT THEY TOOK HE AS A PARTNER HERE GIVING RIGHTS HERE MARKETING AND A CELL ESTABLISH IN CHANDIGARH IN NINETEEN SIXTY EIGHT WHICH WAS PLUCKED BY THESE THREE.MUCH IS ON RECORDS BUT THEY WERE ABLE TO CHEAT ALL EITHER OR DRUG ALL AS THEY DID COUNTRIES.SO MY DECISION IN ERLIER BLOG ACCOMPANYING OUR INVENTIONS GIVEN FREE TO THE WORLD BY WE WITHOUT BEING A SLAVE TO ANY BUT THE THEY THESE THREE AND THEIR GANG CLAIMING IT TAKING OVER WORLD POLITY AND BUREAUCRACY.ALL VOLUNTARILY DECLARE THEIR INTERACTIVITY TO THE UNITED NATIONS.

 

THE GOVERNMENT FRANCE IN THEIR THREE WE AS A BROUGHT ON RECORD NEVER ERLIER THAN WE AS A SEER MADE HARJIT SINGH DOING IT TOO IN THE OUR NAME ONLY NOT HIS TOO IN IT AS A CREDIT HIS AS A FALSESTS AS. THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE WANTED TO KNOW WHY AND HOW WE ARE A SERVANT NOT OF THE PEOPLE FALSELY ASCRIBED TOO IS.IT IS NONE IN THE WORLD TO WHO WE AS A OUR AVTAR ARE TO BE A SERVANT.IT NEVER WERE.WILL NEVER BE.HE OUR AVTAR HAS AS MUCH RIGHT TO BE EQUATED TO AS IS HIS DESERVE.AS A PFIZER HE CHARGED NOTHING.ASA COCA COLA HE WAS PENALISED BY PUNJAB GOVERNMENT TAKING OVER COMPANY.POLICE HERE IS DEFUNCT.IN STATE AS WELL IN THE CENTRE TOO STATES TOO. NO ONE EVER PAID RESPECT OR MONEY TO M.S.KOHLII FAULTILY.TAKING AWAY HIS PROPERTY CAME TO BE A LAW SINCE TAKING OF HIS RADIO-PHONE.SEMI-CONDUCTOR IN FIFTY PERCENT FORCIBLY.ALL ON PHONE RECORDS TOO.TAKING AWAY HIS MAJOR GENERALSHIP TOO IN THE PHONE RECORDS.HE WE SAW AS A WE AS A ASSESS AS A CORRECT HIS ELEVATIONS AS A MAJOR FOUR STAR U.N. AS A MAJOR GENERAL TILL.INDIA WAS AS WELL CORRECT IN PUTTING HE IN CHARGE OF ARMY AS CHIEF OF STAFF BY PARLIAMENTARY DECISION.NUMBER THREE DATED THIRTY DECEMBER SIXTY NINE FOR LIFE IN SPECIFIC BUT HIS DRESS DISPOSED IN TWO HUNDRED BY K.K.PAUL AS A OFFICER DRUGGED BY SYNDICATE TO MAKE FUN OF THE DRUG AS A OPPOSED M.S.KOHLII WHO WANTED NO HOOKED TOO IN FORCE OF A SYNDICATE AS A SYNDICATE WANTED.A SYNDICATE CLEVERLY RULED WORLD USING RESOURCE OF WORLD FOR SIXTY THREE YEARS.TILL TODAY AS A I GOD NOW FIXING THEY IN ITCH ON LUN THEIRS AS A WE AS A INDICATING THEY THE AGGRESSIVES AS ALL.SO ARE IDENTIFIED AS A MALE PHALLUS TOUCHING ALL THE TIME.TO BE ELEMINATED IF A COMBING IS WHICH IS BOTH NECESSARY FROM ANGLE WORLD ECONOMY TO THEIR SUCK BE RETURNED TO MAKE IT DEVELOPING BE WHICH DUE OUR INCURSE OF EIGHTY SIX OCTILLION OF DOLLARS IS STILL FUNCTIONAL NOT AS A DEMOCRACY AS THE ENGLAND LEADS OTHERS IN DEVISING SCHEMES TO PLUCK IT..AS A WE AS A INDIA AS OPPOSING IT..TOO IN IT EATING TOO IN THE THEY AS A TILL ESTABILISHING A RAJ OF OURS.HAVING COLLECTED FROM FOREIGN SOURCES TWENTY THREE OCTILLION DOLLARS.AS A COLLECTION HOUSES TILL THROUGH THESE VOLUNS.THE THESE AS A ARE WE AS A SAYING TILL ILLING WE AS A RESOURCE.WE ACTUAL AT A NIL.AS A BANK .EXCEPT OUR ACCOUNTS WHICH WE ARE NOT BEING ALLOWED SINCE SIXTY SIX TO GO CLOSER HAVING HEARD WE TALK TO SHAH OF IRAN AND SHAH OF JORDAN ON BEHALF OF USA HAVING BEEN REQUESTED BY THEY TO CARRY ON A DIALOGUE BETWEEN USA AND THEY TO BRING A WORLD AGREEMENTS IN OIL PRODUCTION.HE THUS AUTHOR NOT AS HAD BEEN IT'S AS A SATELLITE SUGGESTED BY HE IN SIXTY,MOON BUGGY TOO AND ATMOSPHERE LIGHT AS A EIGHTEEN AS A FOUND.DUST AS I MADE HE SEE WE AS A EARTH MOON.ALL ON RECORD.HE GUIDING NASA AS A REQUEST OF LYNDON B. JOHNSON ON RECORD.AS A DATED THREE OF THE SIXTY SIX.GUIDING GLEN T. SEABORG AND PARTY AS A SEEN AS A HIS MIND'S EYE SO THEY HAVE TOO MUCH SCIENCE FROM HE.HE MADE WE A SINGLE CALL WE A THREE AS A THIRTY OTHER.ON THE NASA FRONT.THE IDEA OF FINDING MINERALS FROM PHOTO TAKEN FROM HIS DEVISED SATELLITES AS A PHOTO CAMERA HIS INVENTION PATENTED IN HIS NAME BY AGFA THE ORIGINAL PATENT AS WAS AS A IBM AS A HARD DISC AND MEMORY DEVISES IN COMPUTER TABLE TOP..OR HAND HELD TILL REDUCING SPACE BY THIRTY THREE THOUSAND AND INCREASING MEMORY BY TWO TRILLION TIMES.TAKING NIL SO FAR WHY.I ASK MICROSOFT TOO TO THINK WHY THEY WERE MISLED AND WHO DID SO IT BE IN FILE NOT OF C.I.S. OR IT.

 

THE PHOTO ABOVE IS OF CLEAR BENZENE NOT BUT TOO.BOTH DEFINED AS A HE AS A WE AS.SEEING THINGS AS A SEER.TOPMOST ASKING NO ONE ANY TILL DATE AS A CREDIT OR ANY APPRECIATION FOR HE HIMSELF WHILE DEVELOPING THIS UNDERDEVELOPED WORLD.SO A SUSPICIOUS AS ACTIVITY AS A SENATE USA LISTING HE AS A PRESIDENT EXTERNAL TO BE WHEN COUNTRY IS AT STAKE.WE ASK CHARGE AS A WE AS.TRUMP WE REJECTED LAST NIGHT AS A RAG-PICKER AS A DONATION OF TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO DEVELOPMENT OF NEW YORK..AS A UNDERDEVELOPED MADE EX MOST DEVELOPED BY THEY THESE THREE GANG AS.AS A INDIA AS A POLITICIANS ALL.IN GREED OF USING NATIONAL POSITIONS TO A MASS WEALTH.

  

Grey Heron on it's way to collect nest building material.

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.

grey heron (Ardea cinerea)

Graureiher (Ardea cinerea)

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

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

Skimming for insects.

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.

Behaviour Observations

 

Rufous Hummingbird RUHU (Selasphorus rufus)

were definitely enjoying the

Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium)

 

while Anna's were utilizing the (introduced) Foxglove flowers

Also Anna's were high up far from any human habitations

  

up

Goldstream Heights Vicinity

(South of Shawnigan Lake & west of "The Malahat" area on the #1 HWY)

Capital Region

Vancouver Island

British Columbia

 

DSCN2775

 

Chamaenerion angustifolium, known in North America as fireweed, in some parts of Canada as great willowherb,[1] and in Britain as rosebay willowherb,[2] is a perennial herbaceous plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae

 

‘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.

A few image captured of the behaviour between kingfishers

My first Barbican 'assignment' today! After work, my friend Charlotte and I headed over to the Barbican kitchen for some dinner, and then went to the Curve gallery to watch Ann Van den Broek's Loops of Behaviour. It was properly dark in there, so rather challenging, but there were lots of cool projections, and little mini stages outlined with light, which made for some interesting shots. I took over 200! Thankfully the majority were a bit rubbish, so it was easy enough to narrow down the selection.

 

To be honest, I thought it was all a bit arty farty to start with, but I did get into it after a while - and I certainly enjoyed photographing it. This was a private view ahead of it opening to the public; photography was generally not allowed, so I was given a special pass :)

 

Char and I stayed for a beer at the end. We ended up chatting to a dance photojournalist for a while, and then I met the woman I've been corresponding with at the Barbican. Had a quick chat with her, then headed home and Tim met me at the station.

Red-footed falcon (Falco vespertinus) hawking for flying insects. Surrey, UK.

 

I thought 1st summer males were supposed to be darker.

 

photo.domgreves.com

Blogged www.roxycreations.blogspot.com

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.

This photograph was taken from inside the train at Punto Metro station in Madrid.

What first caught my eye was the seated figure in the centre, absorbed in their phone. Then I realised everyone in the frame was doing the same thing. The three blurred figures walking past are all looking at their screens too. Even the viewer is implicated through the phone and hand in the foreground.

 

The movement of the crowd contrasts with the stillness of the seated figure, but their behaviour is identical. It is not about one person. It is about all of us.

 

I wanted this image to hold a mirror up to that quiet, almost invisible moment that repeats itself every day in cities across the world.

 

📍 Madrid, Spain

🚇 Street & Urban Documentary Photography

© Mark L Edwards

  

mindless behaviour

I revisited this wonderful building Sunday 19th May 2019, I pass it every day, it always looks resplendent and dominating, it's history intrigues me, unfortunately vandals have also visited and created some damage, their behaviour boils my blood .

 

Relocated a short distance from Old Aberdeen and Aberdeen University, due to retailers Marks And Spencer's building a new store at its original location, happily the company funded the relocation and it was re-built brick by brick.

  

History - Benholm's Lodge

 

Benholm's Lodge, which is also known as Wallace Tower, was built between 1610 and 1616 by Sir Robert Keith. He was a younger brother of George Keith, Earl Marischal and pressured his elder sibling to grant him land and property. Robert seized Ackergill Castle and this seemingly prompted the Earl to relent and grant him the Barony of Benholm.

 

To mark his new found status, Robert changed his surname to Benholm and built a new lodge to serve as his family seat. Despite its current position, the tower was originally located just outside of Aberdeen Town Walls adjacent to Netherkirkgate (near the intersection between Union Street and Market Street).

  

The castle took the form of a three storey (plus attic) Z-plan Tower House. It was constructed from rubble with some ashlar dressing and the whole structure was originally harled.

 

The main block was a rectangular structure with storage at ground level, a hall on the first floor and accommodation above. A circular stair tower provided access to all floors.

 

Sir Robert Benholm died in 1616 and the tower reverted to the Earl Marischal. He had little use for it so converted it into the residence for the Principal of new Marischal College. It later passed into the hands of William Hay and thereafter was owned by various city merchants. The structure was expanded circa-1789 when a new wing was added.

  

It remained a residence into the nineteenth century although the ground floor was converted into a Public House. In 1918 it was taken-over by the city council and thereafter was neglected. Between 1963 and 1971, the tower was dismantled brick-by-brick and relocated to Tillydrone, some 1.5 miles north of its original site.

 

Site Name Aberdeen, Benholm's Lodge

 

Classification Public House (20th Century), Tower House (17th Century)

 

Alternative Name(s) Old Aberdeen; Wallace Tower; Benholm's Lodging; Netherkirkgate; Wallace Neuk; Wallace Nook; Putachieside

 

BENHOLM’S TOWER, in the Nether Kirkgate of Aberdeen, was a unique building in the evolution of Scots medieval architecture for the reason that, despite unfortunate 19th-century alterations and subsequent neglect, it is the only example of a ‘toun ludging’ planned on the 3-stepped or Z-plan shape so much favoured by the fortress home and castle-builders of NE. Scotland from about 1560 on.

 

Generations of Aberdonians have named the house as the ‘Wallace Tower’ – evidently not a reference to the Scottish Patriot, but perhaps a corruption of the name Well-house (local pronunciation would be ‘Wall-hoose’) – from the pyramid Cistern ‘Wallie’ which formerly stood at the head of Carnegie’s Brae. The house was built by Sir Robert Keith of Benholm, probably after 1610 and certainly prior to 1616 when Sir Robert’s death is recorded. He was the brother of George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal – founder of Marischal College in 1593 – and the nephew of Robert Keith, Commendator of Deer, who in 1587 was designated Lord Altrie being that same year confirmed by charter in the lands and Barony of Benholm, a property in the Mearns he had acquired by marriage to Elizabeth Lundie, heiress of the ancient family of Lundie of Benholm.

  

During the last half of the 16th century the Keith family as Catholics had gained immense possessions up and down Scotland from what had been church property, and the Marischal’s brother Robert obviously intended to share in the family spoils. Benholm was knighted before 1612, and by 1613, in addition to his Mearns estate, he was in possession of several tenements and lands in and around Aberdeen, including Seaton (the Bishop’s Ward in pre-Reformation times) and properties in the Upper and Nether Kirkgates. Sir Robert had Benholm’s Tower built in what had been virtually open country in the early 17th century. The Z-plan Fortress house he erected for his Toun Ludging was a building capable of defence, for it is actually sited just outside the medieval burgh boundary, some 20 yds. West of the old Nether Kirkgate Port. Of the 2 round towers, one commanded the street leading to the Mither Kirk and the steep inclined city entrance (Carnegie’s Brae is now the only medieval cobbled street in Aberdeen) leading to the Green and the harbour quay, and the other tower overlooked the courtyard and gardens sloping to the bed of the old Loch outflow the Putachie Burn. The Knight of Benholm‘s town house, befitting his early violent life, had in the 17th century appeared a veritable Laird’s Castle.

 

The earliest record of Benholm’s Tower occurs in 1616, the year of Sir Robert’s death, when the property is described as a new house with its garden in the Nether Kirkgate outside the Port.

  

The original tower-house, with its central oblong block and diagonally-opposite round towers at NE. and SW. corners, has been subjected to inevitable alterations externally and internally over its long history of almost 350 years. But the basic plan remains: the central block is about 34 ft. long by 20 ft. 6 in. wide over walls generally 2 ft. 6 in. thick. The Court round tower is about 13 ft. 6 in. in diameter over a wall thickness of 27 in. The Street Tower is smaller – about 11 ft. in diameter, the wall varying from 15-18 in. thick. The lowest storey of the house, now the basement forming the cellar of the licensed premises, was in the 17th century the ground floor. The walled courtyard or court (now partly built over by the south wing added about 1785 was entered by a gateway – of which the chamfered jamb stones remain. From Carnegie’s Brae, and westwards, where the flagstoned Tower Court is now enclosed by high buildings on 3 sides, lay the Laird of Benholm’s garden. Where the court round tower forms an angle with the main block is the main entrance door, long locked up, but the fine roll-moulded jambs and lintel are still almost complete. Within the door on the left, the toothings of the original stone steps in the wall indicate the position of the original circular stair. In the south wall of the central block are the cheeks of the original cellar door flanked by 2 windows, now built up – the chamfered jambs of the east-most window have been re-used in the later slapping at the corner of the cellar.

 

The north wall has 2 narrow window slits: these are interesting as indicating that the street level of the Nether Kirkgate is now much higher than in the 17th century: the re-levelling took place following the formation of St Nicholas Street (1805) when the hollow of the Putachie Burn was filled up.

  

Of the 3 openings on the east wall, the central one is a door of later date, the other 2 being originally window positions.

  

The lowering of the level of the ground floor joists in more recent times and the consequent dropping of the earth floor of the cellar explains the exposure of the ‘foonds’ or stone footings on north and south walls, and the original window soffit heights.

 

From basement level there is no access to the street tower.

 

Above ground floor level in the Court stair tower, the late 19th century wooden stair now gives access from the Nether Kirkgate to the upper floors of the house. Of the windows lighting the original stone stair, the lowest remains, with indications of the chamfered sandstone jambs of the 2 upper windows underneath the present openings. Projecting from one side of the old middle window was the square bracket for the gas lamp which, from the mid-19th century had given light to the Tower Court and to the pend leading from Carnegie’s Brae. When the ground floor was drastically altered some 60 years ago, the ceiling was heightened, the upper south wall of the main block was carried on a beam and the whole floor (including the lobby access to the stair) was laid out on one level to form the public house.

 

These alterations removed visible traces of what had been the hall (and possibly kitchen) of the tower house, and of the wide arched fireplace which probably occupied the west wall. In the main house the upper floors show alterations of the late 18th century, contemporary with the south wing added during John Niven‘s ownership (c.1789),

 

The central stair had led up from a door from Netherkirkgate, but the lower flight was removed during the ground floor alterations.

 

The 2 chambers at 1st floor – on either side of this central stair – have wall panelling to dado height, the doors have characteristic 18th-century details, and the ceilings have heavy plasterwork.

 

The house was occupied by Dr Patrick Dun, (1581-1652) appointed Principal of Marischal College in 1621; Dun was head of the medical faculty. Following Dun’s death about 1652,

 

Benholm’s Tower was acquired by William Hay of Balbithan and thereafter it belonged successively to Andrew Logic, William Wemyss and to James Abernethie, merchant. After the latter’s death in 1768, the tenement of land called ‘Wallace Neuk‘ and close was disposed to John Niven, a snuff and tobacco merchant.

  

By 1789, Niven had ‘lately erected’ the wing fronting Carnegie’s Brae, thus building over the old courtyard, and in that year the property passed to James Coutts.

 

Subsequent owners were John Donald Taylor from 1851-78, thence to his heirs until 1895, when James Pirie, Spirit Dealer of 59 Nether Kirkgate, h. 6 Forbesfield Rd acquired the property – at this time the basement and ground floor were converted into licensed premises.

  

Standing 27 ft. high from street to eaves, the tower has the subtle batter which is a characteristic of Scots military architecture, while the roof has a definite bell-cast lip round the eaves.

 

The original lead gutters were still in position at the wallhead of both circular towers.

 

The small turret projects out on 4 corbel courses resting on a carved spurstone terminating the roll-moulded stringcourse which encircles the tower at first floor level: linked to this by a similar surrounding moulding, smaller in scale, is the recess with the statue on the NE. face of the tower .

 

The recess is 5 ft. 7 in. high by 2 ft. 11 in. wide by 15 in. deep at the top. The stones forming cheeks and lintels are tied in to the tower walls and have every appearance of being original work.

 

The statement, attributed to Andrew Jervise, that the figure itself was taken from a tomb in St Nicholas kirkyard and set up in the recess by John Niven, may explain this extremely interesting piece of sculpture.

 

However, despite the accumulation of paint and patching on the statue, close inspection reveals that the dress and armour are contemporary with that of the first decade of the 17th century: the theory cannot be dismissed that here we have a portrait in sculpture of the founder of the building, Sir Robert Keith of Benholm. Also at 1st floor level, and facing west along Nether Kirkgate, is an armorial panel displaying two coats-of-arms.

 

The upper shield (there are no supporters or crest) is now indecipherable but there is the possibility that it bore the cross of St John below the simple motto ‘Pro Fide’: the Knights of St John, although disbanded at the Reformation, retained the superiority of several properties in Aberdeen.

  

The larger part of the heraldic panel has the shield of the Keiths – argent, on a chief paly of 6, or and gules with crest and supporting stags, all under the motto ‘Veritas Vincit’ (Truth Conquers).

  

The whole panel is completely overpainted and requires expert cleaning. Of the weapon-holes which must originally have defended the tower-house, only one is now visible – a fine example of a gunport of the quatrefoil type.

 

Thanks to the magnificent Wikipedia and Doric Columns for the history facts on this great building .