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A fin whale (or two) off the Alaska Peninsula. The state ferry isn't really a whale watching vessel, but we did get to see a few whales along the way. Watching whales is always fun!
Enchantedlearning.com: The fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus, is a huge baleen whale. It is the second largest animal on Earth (the blue whale is the biggest). This whale is sometimes called the "greyhound of the sea" because of its fast swimming speed; it can swim up to 23 mph (37 km/hr) in short bursts.
There are three separate populations of fin whales, one in the northern Pacific, one in the North Atlantic, and one in the Southern Hemisphere; they do not interbreed. This whale usually swims in pods of 3-7 whales but larger groups (up to 300 animals) may form at rich feeding grounds or while migrating.
Fin whales grow to be about 59 to 72 1/4 feet (18-22 m) long and weigh about 30 to 80 tons. The females are slightly larger than the males, as with all baleen whales. Calves weigh about 2 tons at birth.
Fin whales are carnivores that filter-feed plankton (tiny crustaceans like krill, copepods, pteropods, etc.) and small fish from the water. They have very fine grey-black baleen that traps very small particles of food. Each side of the upper jaw has 350-400 baleen plates.
acsonline.org: The fin whale's speed, plus the fact that they prefer the vastness of the open sea, gave them almost complete protection from the early whalers. With modern whaling methods, however, finback whales became easy victims. As blue whales became depleted, the whaling industry turned to the smaller, still abundant fin whales as a replacement. As many as 30,000 fin whales were slaughtered each year from 1935 to 1965. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) placed them under full protection in 1966 beginning with the North Pacific population. Precise estimates are unavailable today, but it is thought that present populations are about 40,000 in the northern hemisphere and 15,000-20,000 in the southern hemisphere, a small percentage of the original population levels.
The Thar Desert of Rajasthan is situated partly in India and partly in Pakistan. Bordering the desert on four sides are, Indus plains to the west, Aravalli Range to the southeast, Rann of Kutch to the south, and Punjab plains to the north and northeast.
... equally precious in the desert landscape.
see other images of thar desert @ www.flickr.com/search/?q=thar+desert&m=tags&w=431...
Momentos anteriores a la caída del sol en el desierto de Thar, en la región del Rajastán. Nikon F50. 2005.
This picture is like a Where's wally book! You have to find:
1) The little neighbour girl snooping the foreigners.
2) The camel eating something that sholdn't
3) The boy with an object totally out of place in a desert (no matter that 2 days later the whole place flooded :S)
4) The hurted guys in pain on their most noble parts.
I slept out here on this dust and sand one night in February 2011, amongst a bunch of camels, and I can tell you that deserts can also very cold and wet. In the morning, all the bedding was wet and heavy after an early morning fog, but as soon as the sun comes out, the desert heats up rather quickly and promises to give another nice long day of warm sunshine. I can also tell you that camels don't smell very good, and smell more like dogs than, say, horses or cows. It's a noisy night out sleeping together with them as they spend their whole time (between their intervals of sleep) farting, chewing, peeing, pooing and whining.
in a small village in thar desert, she was extremely warm and full of energy, she also seemed to be the head of the family
After shooting sunrise on Crater Lake I scrambled to the car and made m way to the coast. I had a long day or two planned to hit the coast and stop at just about anything that looked interesting. The first thing I came too that's post worthy was located in Cape Perpetua. Unfortunately, the tide was low which dampered the wave action on one of my targets called The Devils Churn, but all was not lost. Also located in this area is one of the coasts spouting horns which is a hole in rock which allows the waves to blast out and then the surround water to drain into. A truly majestic sight to my eyes though unfortunately I was there at the wrong time of day for photography.
Like many before me, I began to shoot this from at what I considered to be a safe distance, but soon began my trek to get closer and closer. I found the line like most as a wave from the surrounding rock area came crashing against the rocks, bringing it up above my head by 20 feet and down on top me. Fortunately, I saw it out of the corner of my eye and was able to take the brunt with my body and save the camera. After a few more risky shots, I moved to another closer but seemingly safer vantage.
This shot is a composite between one shooting through and another back out. I wanted to show both in one to highlight the power and beauty. While I like the way it came out, I’m not sure how good an idea it was. If you feel one way or another about it, let me know.
Below are a couple unaltered for comparison taken just after I got pummeled by the wave.
it was astounding watching the geysirs at Geysir-did you know the English word geysir comes from this remarkable place and event?
The Nilgiri Tahrs
- the friends in the ranges
The western Ghats run along the West coast of South India. It comes in many different names at various places along the mountains – the Anamalais, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris, the High Ranges and the Cardamom hills. Along the Southern parts of these ranges is the abode of the Nilgiri Tahr - Hemitragus hylocrius. In the district of Iddukki, Eravikulam, near Munnar is the home of Nilgiri Tahr(mountain goat). The tahrs that exist in the High Ranges in kerala are a friendly lot. They are quite at ease with tourists who gather to catch a glimpse of them, at times even permitting a friendly pat. The credit goes to Walter Mackay who first befriended the Nilgiri Tahr. Mackley was the general manager at Rajamalai tea estate in the early 1950s. He was a lover of wildlife and a conservator of environment.
When you are ready with your camera to click a super shot of the animal thinking he is unaware, he will turn and pose for you and go back to do its business. And you would have got the friendliest shot of the mountain goat ever.
Tahrs belong to the family Bovidae which also includes other even-toed, horned ungulates such as cattle and antelope. They are considered primitive cousins of true goats (Capra spp.) They possess certain characteristics of primitive goat-antelopes such as a similarity of horn size in both males and females and certain other features that characterise true goats, such as striking coat colour differences between the sexes, and the presence of odoriferous glands.
The Nilgiri tahr was first named Kemas hylocrius by Ogilby (1838). However, in 1845 Gray re-christened the Nilgiri tahr Capra warryato, changing this to Kemas warryato in 1852 (Lydekker, 1913). Warryato is an English rendition of the Tamil term for the Nilgiri tahr. In 1859 Blyth included the Nilgiri tahr in the genus Hemitragus, naming it H. hylocrius (Lydekker, 1913).The current view is that there are three species of tahr, the Himalayan tahr (Henitragus jenlahicus), the Nilgiri tahr (H. hylocrius), and the Arabian tahr- (H. jayakari; Corbett, 1978; Honaki et al„ 1982; Novak and Paradise, 1983) There is some variation in the spelling of the English name for this genus, it appears both as "tahr" and "thar". Both are an Anglicized form of the Nepali term for serow (Capricornis sumatraensis; Green, 1978). This apparent misidentification notwithstanding, "tahr" is the accepted spelling for the Himalayan species, and is the only spelling used in reference to the Nilgiri and Arabian species. However, English speaking South Indians rarely refer to Nilgiri tahr, but rather use the term "ibex" or "Nilgiri ibex". The Tamil name for Nilgiri tahr is "varai ad" or "varai adoo" which translates to "cliff goat". The comparable Malayalam term is "mala adu" (Prater, 1965). Interestingly, Ogilby (1838) based the original name for Nilgiri tahr, (Kemas hylocrius) on the understanding that it's local name was "jungle sheep" (jungle or wood corresponding to the root "hyla" and the Greek "krios" which means ram). However, in the English speaking community in the High Range, "jungle sheep" refers to the barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), whereas "ibex" is the longstanding name for Nilgiri tahr (Jerdon, 1874; Fletcher, 1911). Due to this misidentification, Gray's (1842) "warryato" is a much more appropriate name, but Ogilby's (1838) remains as the standard one by rules of precedence.
Physical characteristics
Male: A fully grown male Nilgiri tahr stands about 100 cm at the shoulder and weighs about 100 kg (Schaller, 1971). The overall coloring is a deep chocolate brown. This is particularly dark almost black on the front of the fore- and hind legs, the shoulder, the side of the abdomen, side of the face and the front of the muzzle. This contrasts sharply with the white facial stripe which drops from the forehead towards the corners of the mouth just anterior to the eyes, the white carpal patches on the front and outside of the forelegs, and the silvery saddle. The side of the neck where it meets the shoulder is also sometimes lightened as is the flank posterior to the saddle, and an area around the eye. Long black hairs form a mane and mid-dorsal stripe.
The horns (in both sexes) curve uniformly back, and have twist. The outside and inside curves are constant. The tips diverge slightly due to the plane of the horn being divergent from the body axis posteriorly, and tilted slightly so as to converge dorsally. This means that the tips continue to diverge the more the horns grow. The inside surface is nearly flat, and the back and outside are rounded. There is a distinct rib where the inside and front of the horns meet and the horn surface covered with numerous fine crenulations amidst the more slightly more evident annual rings. The horns of males are heavier and longer than those of the females reaching a maximum length of about 40 cm.
Female: Female Nilgiri tahr are shorter and slighter than their male counterparts. In contrast to the striking pelage of the male, the female is almost uniformly gray. The carpal patch is black against this light background. The facial markings are present, but only faintly, and the area around the eye and the cheek below it are brown. The mane and mid-dorsal stripe are also present, but much less conspicuous. The horns are slimmer and shorter, reaching a maximum length of about 26 cm.
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The Nilgiri Tahrs
- the friends in the ranges
The western Ghats run along the West coast of South India. It comes in many different names at various places along the mountains – the Anamalais, the Sahyadris, the Nilgiris, the High Ranges and the Cardamom hills. Along the Southern parts of these ranges is the abode of the Nilgiri Tahr - Hemitragus hylocrius. In the district of Iddukki, Eravikulam, near Munnar is the home of Nilgiri Tahr(mountain goat). The tahrs that exist in the High Ranges in kerala are a friendly lot. They are quite at ease with tourists who gather to catch a glimpse of them, at times even permitting a friendly pat. The credit goes to Walter Mackay who first befriended the Nilgiri Tahr. Mackley was the general manager at Rajamalai tea estate in the early 1950s. He was a lover of wildlife and a conservator of environment.
When you are ready with your camera to click a super shot of the animal thinking he is unaware, he will turn and pose for you and go back to do its business. And you would have got the friendliest shot of the mountain goat ever.
Tahrs belong to the family Bovidae which also includes other even-toed, horned ungulates such as cattle and antelope. They are considered primitive cousins of true goats (Capra spp.) They possess certain characteristics of primitive goat-antelopes such as a similarity of horn size in both males and females and certain other features that characterise true goats, such as striking coat colour differences between the sexes, and the presence of odoriferous glands.
The Nilgiri tahr was first named Kemas hylocrius by Ogilby (1838). However, in 1845 Gray re-christened the Nilgiri tahr Capra warryato, changing this to Kemas warryato in 1852 (Lydekker, 1913). Warryato is an English rendition of the Tamil term for the Nilgiri tahr. In 1859 Blyth included the Nilgiri tahr in the genus Hemitragus, naming it H. hylocrius (Lydekker, 1913).The current view is that there are three species of tahr, the Himalayan tahr (Henitragus jenlahicus), the Nilgiri tahr (H. hylocrius), and the Arabian tahr- (H. jayakari; Corbett, 1978; Honaki et al„ 1982; Novak and Paradise, 1983) There is some variation in the spelling of the English name for this genus, it appears both as "tahr" and "thar". Both are an Anglicized form of the Nepali term for serow (Capricornis sumatraensis; Green, 1978). This apparent misidentification notwithstanding, "tahr" is the accepted spelling for the Himalayan species, and is the only spelling used in reference to the Nilgiri and Arabian species. However, English speaking South Indians rarely refer to Nilgiri tahr, but rather use the term "ibex" or "Nilgiri ibex". The Tamil name for Nilgiri tahr is "varai ad" or "varai adoo" which translates to "cliff goat". The comparable Malayalam term is "mala adu" (Prater, 1965). Interestingly, Ogilby (1838) based the original name for Nilgiri tahr, (Kemas hylocrius) on the understanding that it's local name was "jungle sheep" (jungle or wood corresponding to the root "hyla" and the Greek "krios" which means ram). However, in the English speaking community in the High Range, "jungle sheep" refers to the barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak), whereas "ibex" is the longstanding name for Nilgiri tahr (Jerdon, 1874; Fletcher, 1911). Due to this misidentification, Gray's (1842) "warryato" is a much more appropriate name, but Ogilby's (1838) remains as the standard one by rules of precedence.
Physical characteristics
Male: A fully grown male Nilgiri tahr stands about 100 cm at the shoulder and weighs about 100 kg (Schaller, 1971). The overall coloring is a deep chocolate brown. This is particularly dark almost black on the front of the fore- and hind legs, the shoulder, the side of the abdomen, side of the face and the front of the muzzle. This contrasts sharply with the white facial stripe which drops from the forehead towards the corners of the mouth just anterior to the eyes, the white carpal patches on the front and outside of the forelegs, and the silvery saddle. The side of the neck where it meets the shoulder is also sometimes lightened as is the flank posterior to the saddle, and an area around the eye. Long black hairs form a mane and mid-dorsal stripe.
The horns (in both sexes) curve uniformly back, and have twist. The outside and inside curves are constant. The tips diverge slightly due to the plane of the horn being divergent from the body axis posteriorly, and tilted slightly so as to converge dorsally. This means that the tips continue to diverge the more the horns grow. The inside surface is nearly flat, and the back and outside are rounded. There is a distinct rib where the inside and front of the horns meet and the horn surface covered with numerous fine crenulations amidst the more slightly more evident annual rings. The horns of males are heavier and longer than those of the females reaching a maximum length of about 40 cm.
Female: Female Nilgiri tahr are shorter and slighter than their male counterparts. In contrast to the striking pelage of the male, the female is almost uniformly gray. The carpal patch is black against this light background. The facial markings are present, but only faintly, and the area around the eye and the cheek below it are brown. The mane and mid-dorsal stripe are also present, but much less conspicuous. The horns are slimmer and shorter, reaching a maximum length of about 26 cm.