View allAll Photos Tagged SaniProject2017.
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. follow us on our Facebook page.
Photo from Sani lodge bordering Yasuni National park, Ecuadorian Amazon.
Photographed in Sani lodge, Yasuni national park, Ecuador.
See more luminous #FungiofSani
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Ask. Observe. Question.
Always
The #SaniProject2017 - An exploration into the beauty of boundless biodiversity
Follow us at #DestinationEcuador #Paulbertner #Sanilodge
Spiny devil katydid (Panacanthus cuspidatus) from Sani Lodge Principal, Ecuador.
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EE Legend
-Health injury/stress levels (scale 1-10-->☠️)
👣-Translocation
⏳-time in captivity
📷 -in situ
-studio
🎨 -Use of cloning or extensive post processing
↺ -Image rotation
🎼 -Playback
You might say. "Hey, you've already posted a picture of Hypsiboas punctatus! Why, in the endless diversity that is #Sanilodge are you giving us the same old $h*t!?!"
To which I first respond, "Why you ungrateful little $^#$%#"
Then after a moment's self-reflection and brutal honestly I come to the epiphany... I need the likes, the shares. The dopamine rush of your support and adulation, these lowly cockroach posts just aren't doing it for me!
This also just so happens to illustrate the transition in time from green to red in a single individual. But you know, mostly the star, fandom thing.
See more amazing #amphibiansofSani.
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. Follow us at Destination Ecuador #paulbertner.
Photo from Sani lodge, bordering Yasuni national park, Ecuador.
Thanks to Bernhard Jacobi for the ID.
What's in a name?
A brown vine or liana snake, or is it a common sharp-nosed snake? Common names pose an inherent danger of mis-communication. They often rely on physical characteristics that may or may not be polymorphic within a population, and thus your green vine snake and brown vine snake may be one and the same species. Moreover, different cultures, languages, geographical ranges, etc... a huge variety of obfuscating factors make common names unreliable, which is why whenever possible the binomial latin name is preferred. Philodryas argentea, ah, much clearer...Or is it Xenoxybelis argenteus...hmmmm...
Taxonomy isn't necessarily a field that you would think experiences revolutionary advances, however, to a discipline which once relied on observation, physiological determinants, natural history and more recently, advances in microscopy, genetics has done just that. However, this has also opened up a whole new set of questions and dilemmas. Reconciling earlier identifications with new genetic analyses which may not square. Genetics is not just an additional tool in the kit of scientific methodology, it is a usurper, and many other perfectly valid, and important tools have fallen out of favour as a result.
Moreover, the definition of species, ironically, seems to be evolving with our new tools. The old definition of a distinct population which lives, and reproduces together to produce viable offspring is under attack. Genetic homologies are finding more and more support. And yet, the variability of the gene pool within a breeding population is a difficult thing to separate from marker genes for a species. To a certain extent, this is a line in the sand.
There is no argument that genetics is a valuable and powerful tool which can parse out differences and provide a degree of exactitude beyond morphological observation, to the very base-pair essence of an individual. This is reductionism. It is amazing the degree of detail it can provide, but it is dangerous, and its risks are glossed over in academia in the pell-mell pursuit down the rabbit hole to publish, always something new, always new knowledge (regardless of its merit). As one starts describing genes, quarks, gluons, the stuff that make up life, one becomes gradually more and more removed from what life actually is. Are we more than the sum of our parts? Perhaps in our quest for knowledge, our dissection of life, we have killed the patient and our post-mortem is not as close to "Truth" as we thought. Nowadays, specialization, often to an absurd degree is the norm. Rare is the renaissance man, the polymath. Nature doesn't have separate classrooms for physics, biology, chemistry, etc...it is all in the open air, messy and wonderful.
And so what's in a name? - Apparently a convoluted history of contending ideologies, convictions, descriptions, and emotions.
See more amazing #reptilesofSani.
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. Follow us at @destinationecuador #Sanilodge #paulbertner.
A colourful tortoise orbweaver (Encyosaccus sexmaculata). A morphological variant of the same species displaying orange and black colours (previously posted as a halloween themed post) has several potential toxic models in the area, amongst the leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae). Though Mullerian mimicry is not to be ruled out, my bet is on mimicry.
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. Follow us at Destination Ecuador #Sanilodge #Paulbertner.
Possession is 9/10ths of the law, and male rainfrogs (Pristimantis acuminatus) are very aware of this. Fertilization is all external, thus any frog could potentially usurp and father the next generation. Enter amplexus, the anuran's effective if slightly inelegant solution. Amplexus is essentially a non-reproductive, long-term hug in which the smaller male is well positioned to fertilize the female's eggs as they are laid.
So, is this a sweet adorable hug amongst lovers? Or is it a jealous, domineering male exerting his will over a tyrranized and vulnerable female? Chill out, and stop anthropomorphizing, it's just amplexus and they all do it, Geeze! See more #amphibiansofSani.
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. Follow us at Destination Ecuador #Sanilodge #paulbertner.
Photo from Sani lodge, Ecuador.
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EE Legend
-Health injury/stress levels (scale 1-10-->☠️)
👣-Translocation
⏳-time in captivity
📷 - in situ
- studio
🎨 - Use of cloning or extensive post processing
The mouse opossum (Marmosa sp.) can appear like it is all face; huge eyes, large whiskers, and a powerful nose, a triumvirate of sensation.
And, when you live in the world of the senses, amplified and concentrated, you can get a little twitchy! Probably why it is not the hissing, odorous, rodent of ill-repute many have come to know and fear when doing their spring cleaning. Rather, it is shy, nocturnal and eschews human contact.
An opportunist and a prolific breeder, It is a survivor and as such, one of the most commonly encountered nocturnal mammals here at #Sanilodge.
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. Follow us at Destination Ecuador #Paulbertner.
Photo from Sani lodge, Ecuador.
Thanks to Doug Yanega for the ID.
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EE Legend
-Health injury/stress levels (scale 1-10-->☠️)
👣-Translocation
⏳-time in captivity
📷 -in situ
-studio
🎨 -Use of cloning or extensive post processing
↺ -Image rotation
🎼 -Playback
"I scream, you scream, we all scream because we're in f#$%#$ pain!"
One of my least favourite shots from Sani lodge which now serves as a constant reminder of poor practice to me. This subject was one of many subjects collected by a herpetology group working on a photographic field manual of Herps in Ecuador. There were more than 30 different individuals all held in sub-standard conditions over the course of days. Held in plastic and cloth bags, they were stressed out, mishandled, at least one died to my knowledge, and at the end they were released far from where they were caught. Although I wasn't involved in the project, or capture, I still photographed some of the species, and offered my logistical help to them on where they could find other species. It's one of those unfortunate incidents which was an eye-opener for me, and really forced me to look at my own practices and question them, even those small actions or subjects. They may appear small or insignificant, but it speaks to an overall respect for nature, and it can be a slippery slope into poorer and poorer practice. The tacit approval I gave amounted to an endorsement and I consider myself as much to blame as those doing the collecting. These practices are rife within macrophotography, and one should not expect experience, professionalism or status to be an indicator of a person's ethical standards. Always question whether something needs to be done and if it doesn't, don't support it.
EE Legend
- Health injury/stress levels (scale 1-10-->☠️)
👣-Translocation
⏳-time in captivity
📷 - in situ - studio
🎨 - Use of cloning or extensive post processing
For those curious about the EE and scale you can refer to my earlier post (tinyurl.com/y7vvoxv3)
The glass frogs are a thing of beauty. To see a beating heart, the movement of the internal organs, it is a laboratory dissection without the blood and without the fainting of one's classmates. There is awe and fascination and they rightly deserve a place in nature's pantheon of incredible creatures.
And the glass cockroach? "The what now?" Oh why have you faded into obscurity? Equally fascinating. Equally beautiful. A marvel of nature. You are so amazing in fact that you deserve your own hashtag... see more #CockroachesofSani (It sounds bad, I know. But continuity across groups and all).
Photographed for the #SaniProject2017. Follow us at Destination Ecuador #Sanilodge #paulbertner.