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Humpback Whale Breaching
Personal Note: Having moved several years ago to the Monterey Bay Area in Northern California, I decided to teach myself wildlife photography and concentrate on Marine Mammals of the Monterey Bay, which was self-published as a photo essay book. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is one of the most abundant marine sanctuaries in the World with extensive academic research facilities studying its inhabitants and health.
One of the species I have concentrated my efforts on has been the highly intelligent and entertaining Humpback Whale. For two years I am been trying to capture them breaching out of the water. With two flips of their flukes they can propel 35 to 50 tons of mammal completely out of the water! Prior to July 6, 2015 I have only been able to photograph them breaching from a distance.
Over the next two weeks I will be posting a series of images from this incredible experience.
Here are some of the photographic issues:
•They never stop moving, even when they place half of their brain on "rest" while the other half navigates for them. When that half has enough rest, the other half takes over.
•Your Whale Boat is moving about 80% of the time. If the Bay is choppy that means it is rocking back and forth as it propels itself forward.
•Other Whale Boats are positioned around the best sites and can ruin your shot.
•We can tell when a breaching Humpback is going to dive. What we cannot tell is if they are going to keep breaching or just feed on the bottom?
•Normally they breach once or twice and stop. The Blue Ocean Whale Watch boat captain has seen Humpbacks breach as many as 70 times. They are based in Moss Landing and I highly recommend them. You can book a trip at: blueoceanwhalewatch.com/contact.
•Therefore, you do not know how long they are going to stay under the water (5-7 mins. is normal) or WHERE OR WHEN THEY ARE GOING TO COME UP, which is always in a different place.
•I keep my camera under my chin and watch over the top of the lens. Once they start to breach, you have 3-5 seconds to find them in your viewfinder and squeeze off a series of shots. If they are less than 1/3rd of my viewfinder I know they are too far away.
•On the way back to port, three different whales did a "Lunge Feed" in unison just like in the Olympic synchronized swimming events. It was extraordinary, but It took us all by surprise and I could not even raise my camera in time.
•We all know whales communicate with each other, but this was an extraordinary example. The three whales dove together, communicated with each other and then raced to the surface side by side with their mouths wide open! They then captured the sardines, anchovies and or krill, filtered out the water, swallowed and dove again. They can take in enormous amounts of water (up to 70% of their body weight) filter out the fish and krill and eject the water.
•It is hard to describe, but three huge whales surfacing with their mouths open, side-by-side, perfectly in unison takes your breath away. I literally snapped my sunglasses in half during the whole breaching experience, but it was a small price to pay. If anyone had gotten a sharp image of these three whales, it would have been a cover story.
•Humpback whales (belong to the class of marine mammals known as rorquals that feed through extraordinarily energetic lunges during which they engulf large volumes of water equal to as much as 70% of their body mass. (Source: Marine Mammal Science)
For those of you that would like to know more about these incredible creatures please read below or visit the source: (www.marinemammalcenter.org/)
HUMPBACK WHALE: Megaptera novaeangliae (meaning of scientific name: (Large-Winged of New England)
BEHAVIOR: Acrobatic humpbacks regularly breach (jump out of the water), stroke each other, and slap the water with their flippers and flukes. Scientists believe these activities are forms of communication because they create a great deal of noise, which can be heard at long distances under water. Humpbacks swim in groups or pods of up to a dozen at calving grounds, and in smaller groups of three to four during migration. Unlike other baleen whales, they can often be seen feeding cooperatively.
DESCRIPTION: The humpback whale was given its common name because of the shape of its dorsal (back) fin and the way it looks when the animal is diving. Its scientific name, Megaptera, means, "large-winged" and refers to its long, white, wing-like flippers that are often as long as one-third of the animal's body length. Humpbacks are gray or black, except for the flippers, parts of the chest and belly, and sometimes the underside of the tail flukes. Each whale has its own unique pattern on the underside of its tail flukes, which can be used like "fingerprints" to identify individual whales. Unique to humpbacks are wartlike round protuberances (bumps or tubricales) that occur on the head forward of the blowhole and on the edges of the flippers. Humpbacks are baleen whales that have 14 to 35 long throat pleats that expand when the whale takes in water while feeding.
Northern Hemisphere humpbacks reach an average length of 49 to 52 feet (15-16 m), and southern humpbacks reach 60 feet (18 m). Females are generally larger than the males. The average weight for a mature adult is 35 to 50 tons.
RANGE/HABITAT: Humpbacks are found in all oceans to the edges of polar ice, and follow definite migration paths from their summer feeding grounds to warmer waters in the winter. In the North Pacific, where their populations reach 15,000, humpbacks feed in the summer along the coast from California to Alaska. In the winter, they migrate to breeding grounds off of Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Japan. The population in California migrates to Mexico and Costa Rica, whereas the Alaskan population migrates to Hawaii.
In feeding, they use baleen plates to strain other small fish such as krill or herring, and plankton out of the water. Their 270-to-400 baleen plates are dark and each is about two and a half feet long. Humpbacks use several different feeding methods. While "lunge feeding," they plow through concentrated areas of food with their huge mouths open, swelling with large quantities of food and water. During "bubble net feeding," which is unique to humpback whales, one or several whales blow a ring of bubbles from their blowholes that encircle a school of krill or fish. The whales then swim through the "net" with their mouths agape, taking in large amounts of food.
Humpbacks are best known for their haunting vocalizations or "singing." They have a rich repertoire that covers many octaves and includes frequencies beyond the threshold of human hearing. These songs, apparently sung by males, last as long as 20 minutes, after which they are repeated, often with slight changes. Each year, the song undergoes changes from the year before, but all males sing the same song. When a whale is singing, it floats suspended in the water, head down and relatively motionless. Behavior such as dominance, aggression, and mate attraction may be related to singing.
MATING AND BREEDING: Females give birth every two or more years. Pregnancies last for 12 months. The calves nurse for eight to eleven months. When weaned, the calves are 24-27 feet (8-9 m) long.
STATUS: Humpbacks are among the most endangered whales and less than 10% of their original population remains. However, in recent years, humpbacks have been observed more and more frequently feeding along the California coast. Nearly 1400 humpbacks feed along the California Coast in the summer and fall. The current word population is estimated between 35-40,000.
The Marine Mammal Center has helped several humpback whales over the years. One famous patient was Humphrey the humpback, who we helped twice. First in 1985, he swam up the Sacramento River, and then in 1990 he was stuck on a mudflat in San Francisco Bay. Both times, we successfully got him back out into ocean. In 2007, a mother and calf pair called Delta and Dawn, received world-wide attention as they swam 75 miles inland up the Sacramento River (going farther than Humphrey). Both had severe wounds from a ship strike. After antibiotics were administered to these free-swimming whales, a first in marine mammal history mom and calf returned to the ocean.
This big beautiful beetle has a peculiar agitated behavior with much pumping up and down accompanied by threatening squeaks.
La sociabilidad en reptiles no es algo muy común, por lo regular son organismos solitarios o si a caso se presentan en parejas o un macho y varias hembras. Sin embargo en algunos reptiles existe la conducta particular de agregarse. Esta foto representa la agregación de lagartijas durante el invierno y donde pueden convivir más de 25 lagartijas incluyendo machos y hembras, adultos y jóvenes en una misma grieta.
...model of "Monument with Standing Beast", a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet in front of the Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center
Look, I completely believe in freedom of expression and I abhor rude and violent behavior by fans at sporting events. BUT, when you're sitting in the right field bleachers and you're in Philly and you're cheering for the other team and holding up a big, obnoxious sign that insults everyone around you AND Barry Bonds just hit his 713th career home run (never mind that the Phillies were leading and still won the game), you are BEGGING for trouble. I wonder what happened next?".
People from "San Fran" by the way, think it's really uncool to refer to their great city as "San Fran" as much as they hate when people call it "Frisco." If, Jerry Garcia, one of the coolest people ever from San Francisco saw this sign, he would probably say, "Dude, that is not cool." I'll cut the guy some slack; "San Francisco" is a very big word and he probably couldn't spell it--especially after those 19 beers in the parking lot. Even Barry Bonds probably doesn't like this guy. Bonds didn't hit the ball to him, he made sure that #713 went sailing about 70 feet over this guy's head into the upper deck. Nice glove, though. They probably could have used you on the field.
Eila Roberts, a graduate student in psychology, collects behavioral data on a family group of geladas in the early morning. Image credit: Clay Wilton
www.justwalkedby.com/2011/12/traffic-behavior-education/
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A worker adjusts an exhibit inside a new museum about Palestinian life in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Read more: www.time.com/time/picturesoftheweek/0,29409,1973306_20894...
Source: SAIF DAHLAH / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
Via: TIME's Pictures of the Week
With apologies to James Thurber's The Bloodhound and the Bug*.
TL- Dog notices bumble bee that landed upside down in a fall from a flower.
TR-Dog tastes bee.
BL-Dog spits out bee and gives it a whack.
BR-Dog walks away, licking wounds. (Off camera-bee flies away)
* For those unlucky enough to have never been introduced to James Thurber in an American Literature class-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thurber
Nagi Noda, Shinji Konishi, and Asami Nemoto's "Animal Behavior" hair hat exhibition at the Marunouchi House floor of the Shin Marunouchi Building. It runs until May 6.
Wild Horse (Equus ferus) stallion with ears laid back as he telegraphs his dominance to anyone who would understand. Image taken in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.
Raccoons are fascinating creatures with a range of interesting behaviors. Here are some key aspects of their behavior:
Nocturnal Habits
Active at Night: Raccoons are primarily nocturnal, meaning they are most active during the night. They have excellent night vision, which helps them forage in the dark.
Diet and Foraging
Omnivorous Diet: They are omnivores, eating a variety of foods including fruits, nuts, insects, small animals, and even human garbage.
Dexterous Paws: Raccoons have highly dexterous front paws, which they use to manipulate objects and open containers. This makes them very effective foragers.
Social Structure
Solitary but Social: While raccoons are generally solitary animals, they do sometimes form groups, especially females with their young.
Communication: They communicate through a range of vocalizations, body language, and scent markings.
Intelligence
Problem Solvers: Raccoons are known for their intelligence and problem-solving abilities. They can remember solutions to tasks for several years.
Curiosity: Their curiosity often leads them to explore new environments and investigate unfamiliar objects.
Habitat
Adaptability: Raccoons are highly adaptable and can live in a variety of environments, from forests to urban areas. They often make their dens in hollow trees, abandoned burrows, or even attics and basements in human dwellings.
Seasonal Behavior
Winter Dormancy: In colder climates, raccoons enter a state of torpor during the winter months, reducing their activity but not fully hibernating.
This image is best viewed in large screen.
I appreciate your visit and any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated!
~Sonja