View allAll Photos Tagged incisors
After being diagnosed with maloccluded incisors, the vet removed Tetney's 4 front incisors. This is him just a few hours after getting home. Very soon after hopping out of his vet-cage, he headed to his favourite corner, ate some coriander and started pooping. He isn't too pleased and became a bit more displeased when the pain killers wore off. Now, this was a few days ago and since then he is much happier. In fact, I've never seen a rabbit eat so much hay with so much enthusiasm. He was a little annoyed at first as he had to re-learn how to pick up food but soon got the hang of it.
The Pokhot live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and in Uganda.
There are two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The first group consist of the Hill Pokot who live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south, and are mainly farmers and pastoralists. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who live in dry and infertile plains, with their cattles. A homestead is composed of one or more buildings for a man, his wife and children; eventual co-wives live in separate houses. The role of the community in teaching children ethical rules. Most of the Pokot are nomadic and thus have interacted with different peoples, incorporating their social customs.The Pokot are very proud of their culture. The Songs, storytelling, and decorative arts, especially bodily decoration, are very appreciated. They adorn the body with beads, hairstyling, scarification, and the removal of the lower central incisors. Pokot girls wear a beaded necklace made of the stems of an asparagus tree. Most Pokot have some knowledge of herbal medicine, so they often use these treatments along with those of the hospitals. They belong to the Kenya's Nilotic-speaking peoples. .
For the Pokot, the universe has two realms: the above is the realm of the most powerful deities—Tororot, Asis (sun), and llat (rain); and the below is the one where live humans, animals, and plants. Humans are responsible for the realm that they inhabit, but they rely upon divinities to achieve and maintain peace and prosperity. They worship many deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.The Pokot communicate with their deities through prayer and sacrifice. They perform it during ethnic festivals and dances. Oracles are responsible for maintaining the spiritual balance within the community. They are superstitious and believe in sorcery, so sometimes they call on shielding lucky sorcery. They have prophets, either male or female, who foresee advise, usually by the means of animal sacrifices. His or her ability is considered as a divine gift. Clan histories recount the changes of location, through poetry and song, emphasizing the vulnerability of humans and the importance of supernatural powers to help them overcome hunger, thirst, and even death. Ceremonies mark the transitions in the people's social lives. Among these are: the cleansing of a couple expecting their first child; the cleansing of newborn infants and their mothers; the cleansing of twins and other children who are born under unusual circumstances; male and female initiation; marriage; sapana, a coming-of-age ceremony for men; and summer-solstice, harvest, and healing ceremonies. The most important rite of passage for most Pokot is circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. These rites consist of a series of neighborhood-based ceremonies, emphasizing the importance of having a good behavior. When boys are circumcised, they acquire membership in one of eight age sets. Women do not have age-sets. After excisions, for several months, girls have a white painting on their face and wear a hood made of blackened leather with charcoal and oil. This means they are untouchable until the lepan ceremony, that marks the passage to womanhood. Unlike other tribes, the Pokot keep the affiliation to their clan throughout their lives, there is no disruption with marriage. Surprisingly, the agreement before marriage is made by gift giving, from the groom and his family to the bride and her family, often over a period of years (and not the contrary). It often implies the gift of a combination of livestock, goods, and cash to the bride's family, and the allotment of milk cows and rights to land to the bride. The bond between a husband and wife lasts for 3 generations, after what marriages can take place again between the two groups. Polygamy exists but is not prevalent among men before 40. The spirits of the elder anticipate reincarnation in their living descendants: when a child is said to resemble the elder, the same name is given. Disputes are resolved in neighborhood councils and in government courts. Some of the sanctions include shaming, cursing, and bewitching.
© Eric Lafforgue
Caucasian squirrels breed twice yearly from December to January and August to September. Caucasian squirrels mate in the winter and spring.
Like most red squirrels, spotting a Caucasian Squirrel is definitely becoming a rare sight. Climate change affects nature differently in every corner of the world.
The last time I came across the local squirrels was at the beginning of July. Due to the extreme heat in the region, Caucasian Squirrels are certain to spend very hot hours in their nests. Because I haven't been seen them around very often for more than 2 months.
Today, it was cloudy weather in the North Aegean Region of Turkey, the strong North wind was shaking the olive branches. I was walking in an olive grove and I was patiently waiting to see the Caucasian Squirrel. After waiting for about an hour, the reward came, a group of squirrels were playing around the pomegranate trees 100 meters in front of me. I was waiting under the olive tree with a wide trunk. I didn't move, waiting for them to climb the centuries-old olive trees and retreat to their den inside the follow in the middle of the tree. I saw the Mr & Mrs Caucasian Squirrel couple enter their century-old olive tree hollow.I started to wait next olive tree trunk, which is about 7 meters away.I had already begun to wait silently for 30 minutes when the male Caucasian Squirrel noticed my presence immediately. Curious male took out his head first, then his half body, checked and after making sure then Female followed him.The moment I had been waiting for a long time happened 7 meters in front of me. Even though I was wearing a camouflage cover, they were aware of my presence.
I had to use 1.4 TC for close-up when the light was enough. Today they made me very happy. I hope you wouldn't mind 14 series of Caucasian Squirrel photos and you'll like it just as much as I do.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description -
Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description -
Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - With Nikon TC 14E II - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f8 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
Myocastor coypus - Beverrat - Nutria - Swalmp beaver - Coypu
Caught this creature on July 17 of the year 2006 in a nature area across the border (Brüggen, Germany)
It has orange teeth and that seems to be natural. I read it in the description of the following site:
www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th1f.htm
A large rodent, nearly as large as a beaver but with long, rounded, scaly, ratlike tail; hind feet webbed; incisors orange-colored; female with mammae along each side of back, not on belly; upperparts reddish brown; the underfur dark slaty; tip of muzzle and chin white. External measurements of adults average: total length, 800-900 mm; tail, 350-400 mm; hind foot, 130-140 mm. Total length may reach 1.4 m. Weight, normally 8-10 kg.
Throughout much of their natural range in South America, nutria prefer a semiaquatic existence in swamps, marshes, and along the shores of rivers and lakes. In southern Chile and Tierra del Fuego they are found mainly in the channels and bays separating the various islands off the coast. Here, their habitat seems to be mostly in the estuaries of glacier-fed streams, and colonies of nutria are often seen swimming among the floating ice blocks in the vicinity of glaciers. Apparently, the nutria is equally at home in salt and fresh water.
De beverrat is eigenlijk geen rat. Ook is dit knaagdier niet verwant met de bever. Hij is meer verwant aan de cavia en het stekelvarken. Hij wordt ook wel nutria genoemd: Spaans voor 'otter' (een roofdier, waarmee dit knaagdier uiteraard nog minder verwant is). De beverrat komt oorspronkelijk uit de zuidelijke helft van Zuid-Amerika: Argentinië en Chili. Ze zijn echter in diverse landen ingevoerd om hun bont. In Europa komen beverratten nu ook op veel plekken in het wild voor, doordat ontsnapte dieren hier prima kunnen leven en zich snel voortplanten. Beverratten leven in kolonies en maken uitgebreide woontunnels op droge plekken langs het water. In ons land worden ze vaak als een plaag beschouwd, omdat ze bij het maken van hun holen dijken ondergraven.
The Pokhot live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and in Uganda.
There are two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The first group consist of the Hill Pokot who live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south, and are mainly farmers and pastoralists. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who live in dry and infertile plains, with their cattles. A homestead is composed of one or more buildings for a man, his wife and children; eventual co-wives live in separate houses. The role of the community in teaching children ethical rules. Most of the Pokot are nomadic and thus have interacted with different peoples, incorporating their social customs.The Pokot are very proud of their culture. The Songs, storytelling, and decorative arts, especially bodily decoration, are very appreciated. They adorn the body with beads, hairstyling, scarification, and the removal of the lower central incisors. Pokot girls wear a beaded necklace made of the stems of an asparagus tree. Most Pokot have some knowledge of herbal medicine, so they often use these treatments along with those of the hospitals. They belong to the Kenya's Nilotic-speaking peoples. .
For the Pokot, the universe has two realms: the above is the realm of the most powerful deities—Tororot, Asis (sun), and llat (rain); and the below is the one where live humans, animals, and plants. Humans are responsible for the realm that they inhabit, but they rely upon divinities to achieve and maintain peace and prosperity. They worship many deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.The Pokot communicate with their deities through prayer and sacrifice. They perform it during ethnic festivals and dances. Oracles are responsible for maintaining the spiritual balance within the community. They are superstitious and believe in sorcery, so sometimes they call on shielding lucky sorcery. They have prophets, either male or female, who foresee advise, usually by the means of animal sacrifices. His or her ability is considered as a divine gift. Clan histories recount the changes of location, through poetry and song, emphasizing the vulnerability of humans and the importance of supernatural powers to help them overcome hunger, thirst, and even death. Ceremonies mark the transitions in the people's social lives. Among these are: the cleansing of a couple expecting their first child; the cleansing of newborn infants and their mothers; the cleansing of twins and other children who are born under unusual circumstances; male and female initiation; marriage; sapana, a coming-of-age ceremony for men; and summer-solstice, harvest, and healing ceremonies. The most important rite of passage for most Pokot is circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. These rites consist of a series of neighborhood-based ceremonies, emphasizing the importance of having a good behavior. When boys are circumcised, they acquire membership in one of eight age sets. Women do not have age-sets. After excisions, for several months, girls have a white painting on their face and wear a hood made of blackened leather with charcoal and oil. This means they are untouchable until the lepan ceremony, that marks the passage to womanhood. Unlike other tribes, the Pokot keep the affiliation to their clan throughout their lives, there is no disruption with marriage. Surprisingly, the agreement before marriage is made by gift giving, from the groom and his family to the bride and her family, often over a period of years (and not the contrary). It often implies the gift of a combination of livestock, goods, and cash to the bride's family, and the allotment of milk cows and rights to land to the bride. The bond between a husband and wife lasts for 3 generations, after what marriages can take place again between the two groups. Polygamy exists but is not prevalent among men before 40. The spirits of the elder anticipate reincarnation in their living descendants: when a child is said to resemble the elder, the same name is given. Disputes are resolved in neighborhood councils and in government courts. Some of the sanctions include shaming, cursing, and bewitching.
© Eric Lafforgue
© Eric Lafforgue
It takes 2 days driving in an all wheel drive from Nairobi to arrive in Loiyangalani on the Turkana lake shores… you have never heard about this place? And yet it’s here that they filmed « The Constant Gardener » with Ralph Fiennes.
The Lake Turkana region presents a lunar landscape, somewhat desert, covered in black volcanic rocks. It’s an extremely inhospitable environment for humans and their livestock. There is no potable water and limited pastures. The rainfall averages is less than 6 inches a year. During the day the high temperatures (up to 45°C) are come with strong winds (up to 11 meters per second), pushing dust. But it’s just a magical place on earth !
No human should be able to live in these conditions and yet 250,000 Turkana people are living here. Their territory extends to northern Kenya around Lake Turkana, and on the boundaries with south Sudan and Ethiopia. In 1975, the lake (400 km long, 60 large) was named after them.
Herders Above All Else : The importance of livestock
They are a traditionally pastoralist tribe, moving their livestock (goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and donkeys) and their homes to search water for their animals. Turkana have not been affected by western civilization yet and live in a very traditional way. The number of animals and the diversity of the herd are closely linked to a family’s status in the community. The herds are their bank account.
They depend on the rain to provide grazing for their animals, and on their animals for milk and meat. Because water is so hard to find in the area, they often fight with other tribes like Dassanech. Their main concerns are land and how to win it or to keep it!
The Turkana place such a high value on cattle that they often raid other tribes to steal animals. These razzias have become more dangerous as they now use guns. As the Turkana are one of the most courageous groups of warriors in Africa, fights are serious!
After a raid, the robbers ask some friends from neighboring villages to keep some cows. Their herd is scattered between several places to reduce the risk of being stolen the whole.
The Turkana choose their good friends as neightbors more so than people they share kinship ties with. The clans (ekitela), 28 in number, no longer have a social function. Each clan owns water wells dug in the dried river beds. Unless an explicit request is made, the community can deny water to those passing by.
Even today, the Turkana never kill their livestock to sell their meat. They only kill for celebrations. The Turkana need their animals since they use them as currency in marriage or various social transactions. If a man loses his livestock to drought, he is not only impoverished but shamed. In these cases, NGOs often help get him back on his feet but he can’t reclaim his pride until he has reestablished his herd.
The animals are given very poetic names which the owners often take on as well. It’s common to call a good friend the name of his favorite bull. The Turkana even write songs for their favorite animals. Once a young man has selected his favorite bull, he shapes its horns into bizarre forms to make it stand out. Many tribes use to do this in the area.
The Fish is Taboo for the Herdsmen
Turkana people traditionally do not fish and do not eat fish. But during the droughts, Turkana people are encouraged to fish to get some food. Fishing has been regarded as something of a taboo, a practice reserved for the very poorest in Turkana society.
Social Structure
The Turkana are organized into generational classes. All males go through three life stages (child, warrior, and elder).
To become a man, the turkana teen must go through a ceremony where he will have to kill an animal with a spear, but he must kill it in one throw! Once done, the old men will open the stomach of the animal and put the content on the body of the new adult. It is the way they bless him.
For women, the process is different. They become adult when they reach puberty. Unlike many other tribes in Kenya, the Turkana do not practice FGM and circumcision.
The Turkana live in small households. Inside live of a man, his wives !as he can marry more than one), their children and sometimes some dependent old people. The house is called « awi ». It is built with wood, animal skin, and doum palm leaves. Only the women build the houses!
Herding is a family affair. The father assigns various tasks to his children depending on their age. It’s common to see kids walking long distances with the cattle. Later they will take care of sheep and goats. The girls carry water and collect wood.
Newborns receive their names in a unique way. They take the name of a parent who has huge prestige and add the name of the most beautiful animal in the herd.
Parents learn very early to the kids the taboos: you must not lie, be coward, steal, neglect elders…
Turkana have their own justice and the revenge system is working well: if a crime is committed, the family of the victim will try to kill the murderer or someone from its close family. They also can steal to the suspect a large amount of cattle. Usually, the elders try to make a reconciliation ceremony. It is an never ending story as the family will also want to make a vandetta of the vendetta !
If the homicide was an accident, it can be solved by giving a daughter in marriage.
Marriage
When a man wants to marry a girl, he must ask his own parents if they agree. His mother will have to check if the girl he wants is a good worker! The blood relationship between the families is forbidden, so the elders will check the family links before any agreement.
The man must pay the bride parents (30 cattle, 30 camels and 100 small stock minimum, sometimes a gun is added). It means that a man cannot marry until he has inherited livestock from his dead father. It also means that he collects livestock from relatives and friends. This strengthens social ties.
Daily life
Cattle dungs are used as fuel to cook the food, the urine is used as soap for washing when chemical soap is not available. I saw people using the urine to wash the milk containers, so I always refused to drink milk!
Camels are used for transportation of goods and are well adapted to the very arid climate of Turkana and the lack of water. They are also used in transactions for weddings, or economics deals.
Donkeys have a special status in Turkana tribe: the people do not drink its milk. They use them to carry their houses when they move or weak people with a special wood saddle. But even if donkeys are very useful, they are mocked by the turkana people. Donkey meat is eaten only in the Turkana, where it is savored as a delicacy while others tribe hate it!
They like chewing tobacco and often walk around with a chewed up ball of it on their ear. They also like snorting powdered tobacco.
Danses and songs are important in the social life. Dances allow the people to meet and to flirt. Circle dances are are performed by group of young unmarried girls. The men and young girls join hands and the circles move around. The men may then jump into the centre of the circle raising their arms to imitate the cow horns.
Spirituality, Superstitions, Beliefs
In 1960, a famine started in Turkana area, and so the « Africa Inland Mission » established a food-distribution centre in Lokori, bringing also christianity. But conversion did not meet a huge success (5 % may be converted) as Turkana are nomadics and still have strong believes in their own god. Some Turkana elders even told me :
« I wear a christian cross around my neck and go to the church to get an access to the help provided by the the missionaries for food and clothes! »
The majority of the Turkana still follow their traditional religion. There's one supreme God called Akuj, who is associated with the sky. If God is happy, he will give rain. But if he is angry with the people, he will punish them. In the old believings, giraffes were supposed to tickle the clouds with their high heads, and make the rain come !
Four million years ago, the Lake Turkana bassin may have been the cradle of mankind. You can spot some very nice engraving sites showing a mixture of giraffes and geometrics patterns made around 2000 years ago close to the lake.
Deviners, called the « emuron » are able to interpret or predict Akuj's plans through their dreams, or through sacrificed animal's intestines, tobacco, and through the tossing of …sandals ! Sandals are very important for the oracle. He blesses the sandals by spitting on them. He throws them up into the air and gives a meaning to the patterns they create when they fall on the ground.
When someone dies, the Turkana only hold funerals and burry the body. In the old times, people were were not given a burial, but were abandoned to hyenas.
As I was taking pictures of an old Turkana lady, after 3 pictures, she asked me to stop, and started to shout : « You’re sucking my blood, you make me feel weak » and she left. I was explained by a young boy that the old people believe that pictures are taking their blood away.
Medecine
Scarifications on the belly are made by traditional doctors to cure ill people: it is a way to put out the illness from the body. Scarification is practiced for aesthetic reasons too. Scars are a sign of beauty or to show how many people he has killed, if he is a man.
The skin is cut with an acacia or a sharp razor blade that may be shared by the people and bring diseases.
Turkana believe that a person who experienced illness and recovered from it can treat someone else who’s suffering from the same illness. This means that everybody can be a doctor ! If this does not work, they say that the animal slaughtered was the wrong one.
A good Turkana tip : if you suffer from a severe headache, you just have to take out the brain from a living animal, like a goat, and put it on your head !
Or, another solution : to lift a sheep over the patient, to cut the throat so that the blood strickles on the patient’s head.
The Turkana have the highest instance in the world of echinoccocus (7%) due to their proximity with dogs, who live and defecate everywhere. The dogs lick up blood and vomit and the women use the dog’s excrement as a lubricant for the necklaces that touch their neck.
This parasite has three hosts : sheep, dogs, and humans. In Turkana, these three species live very close, surrounded by little else in the vast desert, ideal conditions for the proliferation of the parasite. The diease causes huge cysts that can be removed by surgery. The locals believe that this "disease of the large belly" is due to a spell cast by the neighboring enemy tribe: the Toposa.
Beauty
Turkana girls and women love to adorn themselves with a lot of necklaces. Beads can be made of glass, seeds, cowry shells, or iron. They never remove them! This can only happen when they are ill or during a mourning time. It means they sleep with those huge necklaces… A married Turkana woman will also wear a plain metal ring around the neck. This is a kind of wedding ring (alagama). A Turkana man will do all he can to make sure that his women folk are dressed in beads of class. Even if some are not able to take their girls to school, they will still ensure that they have beads. By the quantity and style of jewelry a woman wears, you can guess her social status.
Beads colors have specific meaning. Yellow and red beads are given to girl by a man when they are fiancé. If a woman wears only white beads, it means she is a widow. Little girls wear few beads, usually given to them by their mothers, but the older ladies and women wear many, which are in sets rows.
A woman who cannot move her neck is envied! The big necklaces are heavy, like 5 kilos.
A woman without beads is bad, men will ignore her. « You look like an animal without beads! »
Young children only wear a simple strand of pearls. Adolescents wear small articles of clothing to cover their sex. These articles are often decorated with mulitcolored pearls or ostrich egg shells. They wear more and longer clothing as they approach puberty.
NakaparaparaI are the famous ear ornaments. They are made by the men of the tribe in aluminium most of the time and look like a leaf.
Men love to make an elaborate mudpack coiffures called emedot. It is a kind of chignon: the hairstyle takes the shape of a large bun of hair at the back of the head. They decorate it with ostrich feathers to show they are elders or warriors. 2 ostrich feathers costs 1 goat.
Men use a wood pillow (ekicolong) to sleep on it and protect the bun. It can last 2 months and must be rebuild after.
Tattooing is also common and usually has special meaning. Men are tattooed on the shoulders and upper arm each time they kill an enemy — the right shoulder for killing a man, the left for a women.
Lower incisors are removed in childhood, with a tool called « corogat », a finger hook. The origin of this practice was against tetanus, as people are lock-jawed, so they can feed them with milk through the hole. It is also a way to force the teeth at the top to stand out and not interfere with the labret many put on the lower lip. The is useful to spit through the gap of the teeth, without even opening the mouth. The Turkana enjoyed to have labrets, but nowadays, only the elders can be seen with on. They used to put an ivory lip plug, then a wood one, and for some years, they use a lip plug made of copper or even with plaited electric wires.The hole between the lower lip and chin is pierced using a thorn.
The finger hook is also used as a weapon, for gouging out an ennemy’s eye !
Hygiene
Since water is so rare, it’s used only for drinking, never for washing. The Turkana clean themselves by rubbing fat all over their skin.
Turkana women put grease paint on their bodies which is made from mixing animal fat with red ochre and the leaves of a tree to have nice perfume. They say it is good for the skin and it protects from the insects.
Women also put animal fat all around their neck and also on their huge necklaces to prevent from skin irritation.
They also use dog shit as a medicine and lubrificant for their neck.
Both men and women use the branch of a tree called esekon to clean their teeth. You can see them using it all day long…The Turkana people have the cleanest bill of dental health in the country.
For long, Turkana people did not use latrines because it is a taboo for men and women to share same facilities like a latrine. Campaigns have now been initiated to sensitize people on the importance of using latrines for hygiene.
Animal fat is considered to have medicinal qualities, and the fat-tailed sheep is often referred to as "the pharmacy for the Turkana. »... when they do not grill it to eat it!
Futur
Recently, oil has been found on their territory… many fear Turkanas people may loose their traditions, but the Turkana succeeded in maintaining their way of life for centuries. Against all odds they manage to raise livestock in the confines of the desert. Their knowledge allows them to live where most humans could not.
The recent discovery of massive groundwater reserves in the ground (3 billion cubic meters, nearly three times the water use in New York City) could allow them to keep their traditions for a long time.
The brown-throated sloth is of similar size and build to most other species of three-toed sloths, with both males and females being 42 to 80 cm (17 to 31 in) in total body length. The tail is relatively short, only 2.5 to 9 cm (1.0 to 3.5 in) long. Adults weigh from 2.25 to 6.3 kg (5.0 to 13.9 lb), with no significant size difference between males and females. Each foot has three fingers, ending in long, curved claws, which are 7 to 8 cm (2.8 to 3.1 in) long on the fore feet, and 5 to 5.5 cm (2.0 to 2.2 in) on the hind feet.[4]
The head is rounded, with a blunt nose and inconspicuous ears. As with other sloths, the brown-throated sloth has no incisor or canine teeth, and the cheek teeth are simple and peg-like. They have no gall bladder, cecum, or appendix.[4]
The brown-throated sloth has grayish-brown to beige-color fur over the body, with darker brown fur on the throat, the sides of the face, and the forehead. The face is generally paler in color, with a stripe of very dark fur running beneath the eyes.[4]
The guard hairs are very coarse and stiff, and overlie a much softer layer of dense under-fur. The hairs are unusual in lacking a central medulla, and have numerous microscopic cracks across their surfaces. These cracks are host to a number of commensal species of algae, including Rufusia pillicola, Dictyococcus bradypodis, and Chlorococcum choloepodis. The algae are generally absent in the hair of young sloths, and may also be absent in particularly old individuals, where the outer cuticle of the hair has been lost.[4] Sloth hair also harbours a rich fungal flora.[5]
Over parts of its range, the brown-throated sloth overlaps the range of Hoffmann's two-toed sloth. Where this overlap occurs, the three-toed sloth tends to be smaller and more numerous than its relative, being more active in moving through the forest and maintaining more diurnal activity.[6]
Poem.
Childish excitement travelling from east to west in late winter.
You know soon, very soon, the West Coast “Munros” will gleam like incisor teeth above the forested landscape.
Forcan, left, and The Saddle, right, are such peaks that advertise the thousand metre micro-climate of semi-Alpine splendour.
Spin-drift sweeps off the upper slopes to accumulate in layers like royal icing.
The snowy back-cloth forms a pleasing contrast to the pastel tans and greens of the bracken and forest of the lower slopes of this historic Glen.
The West Coast beckons.
Such a grand mountain corridor befits the momentous land and seascapes that lie in prospect.
They belong to the New World camels.
With them an anatomical peculiarity in comparison to other New World camels : the lower incisors grow back constantly, as with rodents - something comparable does not exist among other cloven-hoofed animals.
They live here at altitudes between 3500 - 5500m .
Nature is camouflaging within itself - The Caucasian squirrel's body reaches a maximum of 25 cm, their total weight is no more than 430 grams, they are small and the colors match the centuries - old olive bark. It is impossible to notice on an olive tree from a distance of 15 meters.
Caucasian squirrel is a tree squirrel, they sleep in their nests are usually found in the tree hollows in the centuries-old olive trees. When the temperature drops, they go out to feed again and when the sun goes down they go back to their nests. When I talked to the local people, I learned that Caucasian squirrel kittens are showing up a lot this year. Caucasian squirrel are now an endangered species. I hope tomorrow or after tomorrow I will come across this year's Caucasian squirrel kittens and share their photos with you.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description - Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description - Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use. Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
The female watched me intently and waited without moving. For some reason, Male didn't come out of his nest much and didn't show himself. I didn't get a chance to take different photos of what I believe are a young Caucasian Squirrel couple. Their ears are like radar. I had to move very slowly on the monopot. I can't say that they like the shutter sound very much. They suddenly dive into their nests and come back out of their nests very slowly in a controlled manner. Today, I spent about 4 hours patiently sitting in the olive groves from time to time.
Patience was the first thing I learned in nature photography. Good luck if there is a reward after long hours. It is possible to say that today was a lucky day for me.
Climate change affects nature differently in every corner of the world. The last four weeks have been extremely windy in the North Aegean region and the last few days have been rainy. Like most red squirrel populations, spotting a Caucasian Squirrel is definitely becoming a rare sight. Extreme heat has not started in the region yet and I see them less than last year. I know that Caucasian Squirrels spend the hottest hours of the day in their nests built in centuries-old olive trees.
Today, the weather in Turkey's North Aegean Region was cloudless and 30 degrees Celsius. The century-old olive tree hollow of Mr. and Mrs. Caucasian Squirrel couple Near the olive tree, about 3 meters away, they were aware of my presence even though I was wearing camouflage.
I hope you'll enjoy the my Caucasian Squirrel series as much as I enjoyed taking them.
The Caucasian squirrel lives in the hollows of centuries-old olive trees. The number of Caucasian squirrels in the North Aegean region is decreasing every year, noticeably.
Like most red squirrels, spotting a Caucasian Squirrel is definitely becoming a rare sight. Climate change affects nature differently in every corner of the world.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description -
Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description -
Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
Cape hyrax or rock hyrax (Procavia capensis). Gansbaai, South Africa. April 2022.
The first time I saw this animal on the rocks of the coast, up close, I didn't know how to react. The first impression is that care bear appearance, but when I saw the incisors I kept my distance, and decided to apply the rule with wildlife of knowing the distance that the animal requires to remain without stress, and find out where the curiosity goes to be alert. They are truly unique animals, with 4 toes on their front legs and three on their back, those two large incisors and molars like rhinoceroses, the curiosity of having a very thin layer of longer hairs that can be seen bristling (one every 2 -3 cm), and when they are in a group they warn with a sound similar to that of herbivores such as deer or gazelles.
Lower Manhattan, 9:28 PM. The air is muggy, ensured by a constant drizzle that pelts the brick and mortar labyrinth. On a particular branch of this urban stretch sits a defunct sauna which, in outward appearance, is of no more import than its neighbors.
Through the natural drum of the downpour, a series of unorganized whirs and clanks can be identified, and then, a disproportionate shape lurches out of the grey veil and stalks along the parking lot on tall, winding stabilizers. It is a man riding atop them, his torpid state in opposition with the arms’ erratic lunging. They allow him to descend gradually as he reaches the awning outside the dead establishment, and the ensemble of flesh and machinery bobs to a standstill.
With an efficiency gained through repetition, Doctor Otto Octavius commands a tentacle to pluck the damp trilby from his head, resulting in a few droplets tagging his neck. He huffs, and sways a little like he wishes a bed would catch him. Then his lower-left pincer punches the lock out of the door and he lumbers inside.
Rain patters against the panes and roof. The sauna’s interior is even heavier than it is out in the streets; clearly, the back rooms are not out of service, nor locked. The light implements, on the other hand, are characteristically dark.
“Sauron!” barks the arrival. “It’s a dungeon in here! … Even Warren’s lairs aren’t this repellent…”
Over the din of the weather, a response slithers to Octavius’ ears:
“I hear now that thou wouldst barter with me. What is thy price?”
“Quoting the Silmarillion, hmph. So you do take your name from Tolkien,” a blasé Octavius verifies. “I happen to be aware of the swift betrayal met by the character offered the same. Come to think of it, it was the undoing of his companions as well. Showing our hand a tad early, are we?”
“As if.”
Sounding like a heavy tarp being splayed, something unfolds from the rafters above the waiting room, to Octavius’ left. It swoops down, and across to the reception area. Octavius sizes up the wide figure; its only prominent features in the gloom are three points, devilishly crowning its shoulders and head.
“Plead your case, Doctor, and I, Sauron, will be the godsend to your campaign.”
One of Octavius’ claws snips at the air. “It’s you who needs to impress me, Doctor.”
“Bah!” Sauron screeches. “You were not already satisfied by my resume?!”
“As for my ‘price’,” Octavius reprimands, “I submit to you a part to play in removing the thorn in our sides: Spider-Man. My end of the bargain was final; your contribution is what we will be reviewing.”
This ruffles Sauron. “I just wanted to say the quote, damn you!”
Octavius, frowning, flips open the dossier provided by a tentacle rooting through his trench coat. “Firstly, you claim a kill on one of the X-Men operatives. ‘Cannonball’.”
“Yes. Full disclosure: He came around.”
“From dying.”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t it just the way?” Octavius muses, continuing. “Flight capabilities. Energy-draining touch. Expertise in genetic modification. Professional hypnotherapist, and by extension, able to turn desired targets against one an-“
“FFFFIRE-breathing!” reminds Sauron, as he belches out a cone of flame over the duo’s heads. His form—that of an anthropomorphic pteranodon—is brilliantly exposed for an instant.
Octavius rubs the indentations on his nose, made by his shades. “I have a man that flies. I expect to be bringing in more that specialize in illusions and biological weapons. Should I become truly desperate, I do, regrettably, know a particularly intolerable vampire. With ALL of these candidates, in fact, I have greater familiarity, than I do you. Bearing this in mind… tell me why I might have need of you.”
“Did I not breathe fire before your mammalian eyes?!”
“I’m enthralled,” Octavius snarls. “You have thoroughly wasted my time. Good night!”
“I have the Spider-Man’s true name!” Sauron squawks after his departure.
“YOU-“ Octavius’ arms rattle, and he slams the door shut, jerking back around. “LEAD WITH THAT! BLAZES, MAN!”
Sauron hops over to a specific drawer in the front desk, crestfallen. “Just once I would like fire-breath to seal the deal.”
“How on Earth could you know the man behind the wall-crawler’s mask?”
“As it were: By saving his life. My other half did, that is.”
Octavius looks at his claws. They look back. “Your marital partner..?”
“What?” Sauron blinks softly, then shakes his beak. “… No, my former identity, Karl Lykos; that veritable pheasant! He banished himself to the Savage Land, allowing himself no interaction with superpowered persons, that which must be consumed to bring forth my glorious form!”
He produces a videotape from the drawer, and motions for Octavius to follow him to the flatscreen intended for patrons. There, Sauron had seemingly brought his own cassette player. Octavius’ lower-right tentacle sighs.
Sauron pops in the tape. “But much to Lykos’ dismay, the Savage Land beckoned adventurers. Spider-Man arrived and, unprepared for the trials that awaited him, was transformed, by the mutant Brainchild, into a feral arachnoid beast-“
“Why couldn’t he have contacted me?..” laments Octavius.
“-and was set loose upon the nobler natives of the Savage Land. Lykos prevented a massacre by sapping the false mutation from the Spider-Man, but at the cost of unleashing me! Lykos witnessed the vigilante’s face as he reverted… and I was freed.”
“And you managed to put the face to a name, how? Lykos knew his alter-ego?”
Sauron tuts. “Now now, if I told you everything, it would take no time at all for a man of your acuity to piece things together… and—my usefulness expired—you would cast me off.”
“Like a broken. Crayon,” says Octavius darkly.
“In that event, I shall keep my leverage! Ah, it wasn’t rewound.” Sauron pecks at his remote, and the VCR begins complaining.
“Armed with this secret,” Sauron resumes, “I made my way to New York. The brief ’taste’ I got of the Spider-Man’s power told me that he was… an individual kind of delicacy; the likes of which, I have found in only the most astonishing of X-Men. A full meal of one such person… I imagine it could facilitate my control over Lykos for years. A decade, even.”
“The X-Men, again,” Octavius notes the recurring topic, unsure. “Are you yourself, categorically, a ‘mutant’?”
“A titan among mortals, created by a metamorphic virus carried by apex organisms that were thought to be long-extinct!” boasts Sauron. “Oh yes, but ‘mutant’ will do. Blasphemy! Lumping me in with the same barbarians that…”
Sauron irascibly tosses around more cables.
“‘That’, what?” Octavius presses.
“Never mind, you! See here, my near-triumph over our common enemy!”
On cue, the display’s fuzzy picture and static subsides into the rustling of foliage. The camera was being pushed in short bursts through dense grass. Narrating the footage was an extraordinarily phony English accent; it was Sauron’s.
“It is here, in the undergrowth, where we will have a chance-“
Sauron grunted from behind the camera, likely performing a leopard crawl.
“-to spot Ka-Zar’s courtship ritual with the She-Devil.”
Sauron—not in the video—starts mashing buttons feverishly. Octavius grimaces.
“Never before has this unique mating behavior been documented to be released to the general… oh. Oh balls.”
The choppy audio picks up the far-off bellows of a woman, then those of a man. The camera view is shown shuffling for a moment, when a wooden spear embeds itself in the muck, inches from the lens. The visuals blur, and flapping can be heard. Then a very deep, feline snarl. Then a girlish yawp from Sauron. The last image is of two rows of pure-white incisors, when present-day Sauron finally locates the fast-forward feature.
The rain still beats down while the tape zips along.
“I was feeling silly.”
“You are detestable.”
“Yes, well… never let it be said that Sauron, Master of Malice, was too much the Boy Scout!” the villain recovers. “NOW, see here…”
The video plays at regular speed, and one of Sauron’s hands is seen clutching a mason jar, turning it over to agitate the sizable arachnid it houses. The creature has an atypically vibrant exoskeleton, and repeatedly attacks the glass at the slightest upset of its prison. The chuckling of both Saurons harmonizes.
“Before stowing aboard a ship braving the Drake Passage, I stowed with me a deadly specimen: One of many ready-made weapons housed by the Savage Land,” Sauron explains proudly. “Aggressive on her best days, and positively bloodthirsty when she’s carrying her young.”
A zoom-in showcases scores of fibrous pouches speckle the animal’s abdomen.
“My plan was direct. Elegant. No extraneous moving parts… so to speak.”
The perspective cuts to Sauron’s feet lighting on the uppermost ledge of an apartment building.
Octavius shoves past Sauron to absorb every pixel on the monitor. “This is where he lives? Where is this??”
Sauron ignores him. “The first snag came up before I even began. Spider-Man somehow saw me coming.”
Doctor Octopus’ concentration on identifying any landmarks on the skyline is broken. He squints at Sauron, almost disgusted. “That’s half of his act: Sensing things. I’m sorry, how many times did you say you actually fought-“
“Watcha doin’ up here, bud? Migration been rough this year?”
Sauron rack-focused to Spider-Man, on the adjacent ledge.
“Orchestrating your demise, morsel. You and I have a dinner engagement.”
Sauron smiles approvingly at his own delivery in the video. “I had that one written beforehand.”
Spider-Man tilted his head. “Oh hey, you’re recording this? Hi future-me, who’s going to be looking at this and finding all of bird-man’s embarrassing shower karaoke.”
“Lord above, he doesn’t shut up for anyone,” Octavius mutters.
The screen rocks from Sauron hobbling to a ventilation duct. “Mock your doom. Mock Sauron the Unspeakable! But YOU will be the one caught in a web this time.”
Sauron brandished the jar containing his spider.
“Awww…” Spider-Man cooed at it, wiggling a finger playfully. “Here’s the thing: I don’t have your Ring of Power or whatever you’re here for, but I’m going to have to insist you round up any and all Shelobs you have on your person and hit the road. I’m telling you, they’ve got a serious policy about pets, the guy two doors down from me had to have a friend look after his chinchilla for-“
“Quit your drivel! I am antagonizing you!”
“-of course Ms. Rasmussen has an emotional-support dog, that’s really the only exception! Hey! If your spiders help you detect low blood-sugar, you may be able to convince the landlord-“
“Enough!” Sauron crowed. His wicked smile could practically be heard through the recording. “They’re waking up.”
“That’s ominous,” Spider-Man decided. “‘kay I’ll take that now.”
The vigilante’s web-shooters both fired; the left, snaring the spider’s glass, and the right tangling around Sauron’s wing, and part of the camera’s lens. Before Spider-Man could reel in his catch, Sauron coughed up a fiery jet that snapped the sticky band leading to the jar, then dashed the vessel straight through the grating of the duct beside him.
The eyes on Spider-Man’s mask enlarged. “Oh god!”
He sprang after the lost jar, but the camera swirls and Sauron’s great wingspan blindsided the hero back onto the gravel at the far end of the roof. Sauron jabbed through the remaining webbing as his adversary rolled upright. Spider-Man didn’t try for the vent again; he flipped over the ledge, calling,
“Storks are really supposed to deliver babies wrapped in blankets! Just sayin’!”
Sauron pursued, capturing the image of Spider-Man swinging himself through a window two stories below.
“This,” Octavius commentates, “is not… entirely uninspired. Having him chase thousands of tiny tasks with minds of their own…”
“… so that he’s too distracted and tired to stop my killing stroke,” Sauron finishes.
The escapade carried on with Sauron peaking into the apartment. Spider-Man had interrupted a family of four’s board game.
“I’m real sorry but I need you to call the hospital,” he appealed to the parents, “tell them there might be a whole bunch of people with venomous spider bites at this location! You need to help me get everyone… where’s all the vents in-“
A clump of infant spiders dropped out of the hallway air conditioning system and spread like water across the wood flooring. The family screamed, and Spider-Man yanked a bookcase off the wall to spin one-hundred-and-eighty degrees on its corner and flatten the horde. He then webbed over the vent.
“REALLY sorry,” he apologized again. “Please go, bang on doors, and don’t let these things get on you!”
Spider-Man perked up as if he heard something, and immediately launched through the front door. Sauron clambered inside, trailing the family as they too exited. From the apartment entryway, the mic picked up Spider-Man’s cries for the building to be evacuated. Bouncing from one room to the next, he would pound on and occasionally break open the door in order to block off the endless invasion of hatchlings. Soon after multiple tenants had become wise to the situation, the fire alarm was activated.
Sauron kept his distance all the while, observing Spider-Man’s fatigue from his unabating alertness. The hero traversed the walls; back and forth he sped, several minutes into fighting the disaster and only just now moving on to clear the next floor of danger. Back and forth, for all the good he could do. His shouts had grown hoarse. Back and forth.
“EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET OUT! … -J’s going to burn me at the stake when this story makes the ne… ‘-ider-Man unleashes minions on unsuspecting families!’… -lding that dumb coffee mug, and using that voice, too!”
Doctor Octopus appears bored with the uncut footage. “Let’s cut to the chase, yes?”
“This… is the chase… Oh, very well,” Sauron begrudgingly conforms, realizing Octavius’ limbs are poising threateningly.
The tape skips, and Spider-Man—defending a male resident—is facing a kitchen teeming with the newborn killers. Sauron had been gradually encroaching on his prey as the exertion took its toll on the web-slinger’s faculties, and had now barged through the home’s entrance, meters away.
To make an example, the monstrous hybrid roasted some of the furnishing to his left, then pointed the camera back to Spider-Man.
“Are you quite through?”
“Running late, dear,” Spider-Man shot back unenthusiastically.
He bumped the civilian out the window to their backs, hastily calculating and fastening to the poor man a web that would rappel him to the street. The hero salvaged his own fall with three fingertips on the sill, shifting his momentum with a kick that would send him into the next apartment over. Sauron, anticipating the maneuver, crossed his room with a combative glide and ripped down the dividing wall, right onto the arriving Spider-Man, who was pummeled by insulation, a metal stud and a full china cabinet.
Sauron put the heat on his opponent by slicing his shin. Spider-Man retaliated with more webbing, but his larger rival shielding himself with the backs of his wings, then subsequently pulled the young man—and his left-hand web-shooter—into his waiting beak, which wedged into the gadget, rendering it inoperative. This was followed up by a stab to the do-gooder’s abdomen, pinning him to the carpet for agonizing seconds. The villain then gripped Spider-Man by the throat, a portion of which was no longer even negligibly protected by red and blue spandex, due to a tear. The captive choked and flailed. As his very life-force was being stripped, Sauron relished his prize off-camera.
“Ah. As good as I remembered.”
Spider-Man built up some vitality, and cracked him over the jaw. Sauron’s taloned foot put the second web-shooter out of the fight.
“Rest now,” Sauron chided. “Rest. It’s possible you saved them all; isn’t that a lovely thought? And you can always hope the first-responders are prepared. The spider’s toxicity is of a most exotic variety, however…”
Spider-Man’s words were strangled. “You endangered all these people… AAUGH… to get to me. Big…”
One hand tore free from Sauron’s trap,
“BIG”
and then the other.
“Mistake,” he said ferociously, as though possessed by an unrevealed, primal side of himself.
He took Sauron’s webbed wings in each fist, shredding palm-sized sheets out of them. Now it was Sauron who screamed. The image quakes violently from a wild blast of fire. The screen then goes blue.
The sauna is again silent; even the rain has moved on. Sauron hangs his head.
Octavius starts at the blank display, feeling cheated. “Well?”
“I fled! Time had run out, and there was no leeway in my plan for trading blows. It was only for his incomplete commitment to rescuing the building that the Spider-Man gave me up.”
Sauron hits “Eject”.
“I failed to factor in that his concern for bystanders might be as emboldening, as much as detrimental, to him.”
“There is much to repurpose with this course of action. Your efforts are commendable,” Octavius praises, but seems perturbed. “… In all my years, trying to best him, I’ve never seen him use his adhesion so… ruthlessly.
“It wasn’t that alone,” Sauron corrects. “It burned. Enough to undermine my own hold. These mutants, they’re full of such surprises. Tricky little devils.”
Octavius’ demeanor is made irritable in an instant. “No… now this has been avoided far too long: Your obsession with the mutants. You mean to tell me you’ve thought Spider-Man is one of their kind??”
“Naturally. They worked side-by-side in the Savage Land-“
Octavius’ upper-right tentacle squeaks as a pained rodent would. The doctor’s face nearly glows red. “Know-nothing! … inept layman! You almost killed the Spider-Man, robbing the rest of us... when you have no quarrel with him?!”
“Do not try to disillusion me, Octopus!” Sauron rebukes. “You wish to get rid of me, but recycle my genius! Spider-Man is one of the Brotherhood, and I-“
“He is neither an X-Man nor part of that supremacist cabal… THOSE are separate entities too, you might be interested to learn!” growls Octavius, pacing as he does so. “They wear uniforms and start wars! Spider-Man helps old ladies with their grocery bags and throws the same three puns at you when you happen to be given the name ‘Octopus’ by the news!”
The gears turn in Sauron’s brain. “… I would… still very much like to feast on his energies…”
Octavius roars, hurling a magazine rack. “You’ve been cutting in on our vendetta… the TRUE foes of Spider-Man! How could you be so blinded to the obvious? What did the Brotherhood do to you warrant this utter lapse in reasoning??”
Sauron squirms, like a child caught fibbing. “Nothing. Nothing of-“
“WHAT, you boob?!” Octavius demands.
“They killed my wife!”
…
“They wanted my power, and they used me to kill my… my Tanya. Oh…”
Sauron burrows into the waiting room’s sofa, weeping.
Knee-deep in the exceedingly awkward interlude, Otto Octavius finds himself whisked into the past: An unprecedented, reflective condition for him, since having chosen this sinister path. A fateful day pierces the villain’s psyche. A particular laugh embraces a small, brackish heart, confronting him with a name he had hoped yet hated to drown.
“Mary.”
Sauron slurps up some snot. “Who?”
Octavius’ resentment of Sauron transitions to momentary pity. Pity, to envy. Envy, right back to resentment.
Octavius stares down at him. “Maybe there’s less distinction between you and Lykos than you’d care to admit, or maybe there never was a distinction. Whatever the case, whichever of you is in there, I’m speaking to a lovesick idiot! And your wife lies dead, waiting for you, still!”
“I-I don’t…”
“YOU SHOULD FEEL BLESSED! Having faces to put to the injustice! That she wasn’t taken from you by an accident, and all you have left is an abyss to yell into! You have the opportunity to exact your pound of flesh! Find the ones that wronged you… Get it RIGHT this time, and end them! Let your wife rest!”
“You…” Sauron sits up. “You should really see someone about these types of things.”
Octavius gnashes his teeth, and stomps toward the VCR player.
“What are you doing?”
“Collecting my compensation!” Octavius jiggles the device, unsure of how to dislodge the halfway-expelled cassette. “If you insist on being a useless dolt, I will use this tape to extract any and all clues to Spider-Man’s identity!”
Sauron dives for the tape, snatching it away and defensively backing into a potted fern. “No! My home movies are on there too!”
“Out of my way!”
Sauron’s mouth glows like a forge. “Never!”
Octavius curses in frustration. Weighing the odds, he gives it up and storms off once more through the parking lot.
Sauron peeks out from the business’ entrance. “W-where are you going?”
“To rethink EVERYTHING to do with how I will find competent applicants! Never, I repeat, NEVER contact me. And I do mean ‘ever’!”
The doctor’s lower-right tentacle waves a goodbye to Sauron. Octavius keeps grumbling, well out of earshot of his bane.
“Four hours walking through sewers… for this. Never again. They’ll come to me. I’m in charge. A nice office to work from… yes…”
***
“Aaaaalllright, so you’ve got your account’s password, bio, all of that how you want it?”
“I believe so,” Sauron acknowledges, nibbling on a claw.
“Great! You can click the ‘Complete’ button; it’ll be green,” Screwball instructs over the video chat.
Sauron complies. “… There are little hearts raining down.”
“That should mean you’re all set, let me refresh. Ooh, sweet PFP my guy!”
The icon shows Sauron lounging in a wingback chair, with a derby hat precariously positioned on his crest.
“Oh, yes, well-“ Sauron blushes.
“On. Fleek.”
“I really should repay you in some way,” maintains Sauron.
“Listen, you hold onto Spider-Boy’s real name for me if I’m ever hurting for views, and that’s payment enough.”
Sauron glances over his desk to at a folded Daily Bugle newspaper, preserved from years past: The last piece he had needed, to the puzzle of the person behind Spider-Man’s mask. In an undeservedly small article, abruptly detailed is an expedition, taken by the socialite Warren Washington III, into the mystifying, Antarctic region dubbed “the Savage Land”. As photographed, accompanying Washington had been the column’s own author: An unassuming journalist named Peter Parker. His was the face Lykos had seen appear on the monster that he stopped all that time ago, just before Lykos himself had become another monster needing to be cured.
“Certainly, but,” Sauron taps his mousepad, evaluating. “you’re sure you wouldn’t like me to put in a word for you with this alliance Octopus is convening?”
Screwball sticks her tongue out. “They’re way too mainstream, my audience would think I’m getting desperate. But hey, if you ever get back into a crime kick, I could always use a camera with wings!”
“My leave from supervillainy will be… quite extended. Recent events have caused me to, well, reconsider where I may find fulfillment.”
“C’est la vie. Caaatch you later, dino-dude!”
Screwball’s feed closes out.
“They’re not dinosaurs…” Sauron protests, but returns to his new media platform.
“A match, already? … ’madamedracheXO : 33, mutant : Self-made entrepreneur : Flexible with long-distance relationships, fire-breathing is big plus.’ Hmm.”
***
~ DOCTOR OCTOPUS’ nefarious exploits will return in INTERVIEW WITH AN OCTOPUS: BLACK CAT! ~
This big guy with a gold tooth looks like a villain right out of a James Bond movie. The tooth tuned gold with the setting sun.
By far the most impressive feature of the hippo is its enormous head, with its mammoth mouth opening to reveal a set of long, razor-sharp teeth.
The mouth of an adult hippo is roomy enough for 36 teeth, including tusks that can grow up to 2 feet long. Incisors and bottom incisors thrust vertically to the front of the mouth to stab foes. More commonly, male hippos size one another up by opening their mouth up to 150 degrees, stretching it to its full four to five feet length.
(Source: Jodi Thornton O'Connell)
The wild boar (Sus scrofa), also known as the wild swine or Eurasian wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia, North Africa, and the Greater Sunda Islands. Human intervention has spread its range further, making the species one of the widest-ranging mammals in the world, as well as the most widely spread suiform. Its wide range, high numbers, and adaptability mean that it is classed as least concern by the IUCN and it has become an invasive species in part of its introduced range. The animal probably originated in Southeast Asia during the Early Pleistocene, and outcompeted other suid species as it spread throughout the Old World.
As of 1990, up to 16 subspecies are recognised, which are divided into four regional groupings based on skull height and lacrimal bone length. The species lives in matriarchal societies consisting of interrelated females and their young (both male and female). Fully grown males are usually solitary outside the breeding season. The grey wolf is the wild boar's main predator throughout most of its range except in the Far East and the Lesser Sunda Islands, where it is replaced by the tiger and Komodo dragon respectively. It has a long history of association with humans, having been the ancestor of most domestic pig breeds and a big-game animal for millennia.
Boars are typically social animals, living in female-dominated sounders consisting of barren sows and mothers with young led by an old matriarch. Male boars leave their sounder at the age of 8–15 months, while females either remain with their mothers or establish new territories nearby. Subadult males may live in loosely knit groups, while adult and elderly males tend to be solitary outside the breeding season.
The breeding period in most areas lasts from November to January, though most mating only lasts a month and a half. Prior to mating, the males develop their subcutaneous armour, in preparation for confronting rivals. The testicles double in size and the glands secrete a foamy yellowish liquid. Once ready to reproduce, males travel long distances in search of a sounder of sows, eating little on the way. Once a sounder has been located, the male drives off all young animals and persistently chases the sows. At this point, the male fiercely fights potential rivals, A single male can mate with 5–10 sows. By the end of the rut, males are often badly mauled and have lost 20% of their body weight, with bite-induced injuries to the penis being common. The gestation period varies according to the age of the expecting mother. For first time breeders, it lasts 114–130 days, while it lasts 133–140 days in older sows. Farrowing occurs between March and May, with litter sizes depending on the age and nutrition of the mother. The average litter consists of 4–6 piglets, with the maximum being 10–12. The piglets are whelped in a nest constructed from twigs, grasses and leaves. Should the mother die prematurely, the piglets are adopted by the other sows in the sounder.
Newborn piglets weigh around 600–1,000 grams, lacking underfur and bearing a single milk incisor and canine on each half of the jaw. There is intense competition between the piglets over the most milk-rich nipples, as the best fed young grow faster and have stronger constitutions. The piglets do not leave the lair for their first week of life. Should the mother be absent, the piglets lie closely pressed to each other. By two weeks of age, the piglets begin accompanying their mother on her journeys. Should danger be detected, the piglets take cover or stand immobile, relying on their camouflage to keep them hidden. The neonatal coat fades after three months, with adult colouration being attained at eight months. Although the lactation period lasts 2.5–3.5 months, the piglets begin displaying adult feeding behaviours at the age of 2–3 weeks. The permanent dentition is fully formed by 1–2 years. With the exception of the canines in males, the teeth stop growing during the middle of the fourth year. The canines in old males continue to grow throughout their lives, curving strongly as they age. Sows attain sexual maturity at the age of one year, with males attaining it a year later. However, estrus usually first occurs after two years in sows, while males begin participating in the rut after 4–5 years, as they are not permitted to mate by the older males.The maximum lifespan in the wild is 10–14 years, though few specimens survive past 4–5 years. Boars in captivity have lived for 20 years.
Emilio Vedova (Venezia, 9 agosto 1919 – Venezia, 25 ottobre 2006) è stato un pittore e incisore italiano.
Formatosi sull'espressionismo, operò inizialmente in contatto con il gruppo di Corrente (1942-43).
la foto NON E' mia ma della mostra cui ho assistito.
Nel dopoguerra fu tra i promotori del Fronte nuovo delle arti. Proprio in questo periodo, nel 1949-1950, Emilio Vedova aderì al progetto della importante collezione Verzocchi (avente a tema "Il lavoro nella pittura contemporanea" ed attualmente conservata presso la Pinacoteca civica di Forlì), inviando, oltre ad un autoritratto, l'opera "Interno di fabbrica".
Successivamente, fece parte del gruppo degli Otto (Afro, Birolli, Corpora, Santomaso, Morlotti, Vedova, Moreni, Turcato) di Lionello Venturi (1952), passando dal primo neocubismo delle "geometrie nere" a una pittura le cui tematiche politico-esistenziali hanno trovato via via espressione in una gestualità romanticamente automatica e astratta.
Nel 1961 collaborò con Luigi Nono per la scenografie dell'opera Intolleranza '60.
Nel 1971 fu tra i firmatari del documento pubblicato sul settimanale L'Espresso contro il commissario Luigi Calabresi.
Emilio Vedova è morto a Venezia all'età di 87 anni, a poco più di un mese dalla scomparsa della moglie, Annabianca.
fonte:wiki
Wolves can communicate visually through a wide variety of expressions and moods ranging from subtle signals, such as a slight shift in weight, to more obvious ones, such as rolling on their backs to indicate complete submission.[82]
* Dominance – A dominant wolf stands stiff legged and tall. The ears are erect and forward, and the hackles bristle slightly. Often the tail is held vertically and curled toward the back. This display asserts the wolf's rank to others in the pack. A dominant wolf may stare at a submissive one, pin it to the ground, "ride up" on its shoulders, or even stand on its hind legs.
* Submission (active) – During active submission, the entire body is lowered, and the lips and ears are drawn back. Sometimes active submission is accompanied by muzzle licking, or the rapid thrusting out of the tongue and lowering of the hindquarters. The tail is placed down, or halfway or fully between the legs, and the muzzle often points up to the more dominant animal. The back may be partly arched as the submissive wolf humbles itself to its superior; a more arched back and more tucked tail indicate a greater level of submission.
* Submission (passive) – Passive submission is more intense than active submission. The wolf rolls on its back and exposes its vulnerable throat and underside. The paws are drawn into the body. This posture is often accompanied by whimpering.
* Anger – An angry wolf's ears are erect, and its fur bristles. The lips may curl up or pull back, and the incisors are displayed. The wolf may also arch its back, lash out, or snarl.
* Fear – A frightened wolf attempts to make itself look small and less conspicuous; the ears flatten against the head, and the tail may be tucked between the legs, as with a submissive wolf. There may also be whimpering or barks of fear, and the wolf may arch its back.
* Defensive – A defensive wolf flattens its ears against its head.
* Aggression – An aggressive wolf snarls and its fur bristles. The wolf may crouch, ready to attack if necessary.
* Suspicion – Pulling back of the ears shows a wolf is suspicious. The wolf also narrows its eyes. The tail of a wolf that senses danger points straight out, parallel to the ground.
* Relaxation – A relaxed wolf's tail points straight down, and the wolf may rest sphinx-like or on its side. The wolf may also wag its tail. The further down the tail droops, the more relaxed the wolf is.
* Tension – An aroused wolf's tail points straight out, and the wolf may crouch as if ready to spring.
* Happiness – As dogs do, a wolf may wag its tail if in a joyful mood. The tongue may roll out of the mouth.
* Hunting – A wolf that is hunting is tensed, and therefore the tail is horizontal and straight.
* Playfulness – A playful wolf holds its tail high and wags it. The wolf may frolic and dance around, or bow by placing the front of its body down to the ground, while holding the rear high, sometimes wagged. This resembles the playful behavior of domestic dogs.
Today's story and sketch "by me" we are at Mabs Mabooti's
Duty-Free-Tiki-Stop. Located conveniently near the enter exit stargate
(Worm Hole 9 Portal), near the Playa Beautimus Retirement Resort,
in the sunny Mohave desert. Mabs has the only duty free tiki store on Earth, making it a popular stop for intergalactic tourists who have seen "Mabs Tiki's Videos", as she is chewing away on palm tree stumps to create the most beautiful and unique Tiki's in the Galaxy. Mabs is very shy and hid from view while I was doing today's sketch. She is very conscientious of her huge incisor front teeth. Mabs was originally from the Planet Orgon where she met and began dating Rescue Randy, (the most interesting living tissue crash test dummy, bounty hunter, playboy in the Universe). Randy was on the Planet Orgon hunting a dangerous Martian desperado, when he first noticed Mabs the four foot tall Organian beauty gnawing on a Tiki, he was so impressed with the way Mabs could clear a small forest in a mater of days, and at the same time create beautiful Tiki's. After Randy captured the Desperado, he began dating Mabs and invited her to come with him back to Earth, and partner up selling her Tiki's at one of his Duty free shops at the Playa Beautimus Resort. Be sure and watch a U-Tube video of Mabs as she chews
away on a stump, until next time taa ta
the Rod Blog
Male watching and listening position.
Like most red squirrels, spotting a Caucasian Squirrel is definitely becoming a rare sight. Climate change affects nature differently in every corner of the world.
The last time I came across the local squirrels was at the beginning of July. Due to the extreme heat in the region, Caucasian Squirrels are certain to spend very hot hours in their nests. Because I haven't been seen them around very often for more than 2 months.
Today, it was cloudy weather in the North Aegean Region of Turkey, the strong North wind was shaking the olive branches. I was walking in an olive grove and I was patiently waiting to see the Caucasian Squirrel. After waiting for about an hour, the reward came, a group of squirrels were playing around the pomegranate trees 100 meters in front of me. I was waiting under the olive tree with a wide trunk. I didn't move, waiting for them to climb the centuries-old olive trees and retreat to their den inside the follow in the middle of the tree. I saw the Mr & Mrs Caucasian Squirrel couple enter their century-old olive tree hollow.I started to wait next olive tree trunk, which is about 7 meters away.I had already begun to wait silently for 30 minutes when the male Caucasian Squirrel noticed my presence immediately. Curious male took out his head first, then his half body, checked and after making sure then Female followed him.The moment I had been waiting for a long time happened 7 meters in front of me. Even though I was wearing a camouflage cover, they were aware of my presence.
I had to use 1.4 TC for close-up when the light was enough. Today they made me very happy. I hope you wouldn't mind 14 series of Caucasian Squirrel photos and you'll like it just as much as I do.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description -
Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description -
Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - With Nikon TC 14E II - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f8 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
Male is very confident!
Like most red squirrels, spotting a Caucasian Squirrel is definitely becoming a rare sight. Climate change affects nature differently in every corner of the world.
The last time I came across the local squirrels was at the beginning of July. Due to the extreme heat in the region, Caucasian Squirrels are certain to spend very hot hours in their nests. Because I haven't been seen them around very often for more than 2 months.
Today, it was cloudy weather in the North Aegean Region of Turkey, the strong North wind was shaking the olive branches. I was walking in an olive grove and I was patiently waiting to see the Caucasian Squirrel. After waiting for about an hour, the reward came, a group of squirrels were playing around the pomegranate trees 100 meters in front of me. I was waiting under the olive tree with a wide trunk. I didn't move, waiting for them to climb the centuries-old olive trees and retreat to their den inside the follow in the middle of the tree. I saw the Mr & Mrs Caucasian Squirrel couple enter their century-old olive tree hollow.I started to wait next olive tree trunk, which is about 7 meters away.I had already begun to wait silently for 30 minutes when the male Caucasian Squirrel noticed my presence immediately. Curious male took out his head first, then his half body, checked and after making sure then Female followed him.The moment I had been waiting for a long time happened 7 meters in front of me. Even though I was wearing a camouflage cover, they were aware of my presence.
I had to use 1.4 TC for close-up when the light was enough. Today they made me very happy. I hope you wouldn't mind 14 series of Caucasian Squirrel photos and you'll like it just as much as I do.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description -
Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description -
Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - With Nikon TC 14E II - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f8 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
A three month old fallow deer fawn nibbling hay in Newcastle, Texas. He was moving the stalk around into various positions, working on it with his incisors and molars. He was ignoring me until I whistled, which produced this "surprised" expression.
100-7084
The Pokhot live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and in Uganda.
There are two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The first group consist of the Hill Pokot who live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south, and are mainly farmers and pastoralists. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who live in dry and infertile plains, with their cattles. A homestead is composed of one or more buildings for a man, his wife and children; eventual co-wives live in separate houses. The role of the community in teaching children ethical rules. Most of the Pokot are nomadic and thus have interacted with different peoples, incorporating their social customs.The Pokot are very proud of their culture. The Songs, storytelling, and decorative arts, especially bodily decoration, are very appreciated. They adorn the body with beads, hairstyling, scarification, and the removal of the lower central incisors. Pokot girls wear a beaded necklace made of the stems of an asparagus tree. Most Pokot have some knowledge of herbal medicine, so they often use these treatments along with those of the hospitals. They belong to the Kenya's Nilotic-speaking peoples. .
For the Pokot, the universe has two realms: the above is the realm of the most powerful deities—Tororot, Asis (sun), and llat (rain); and the below is the one where live humans, animals, and plants. Humans are responsible for the realm that they inhabit, but they rely upon divinities to achieve and maintain peace and prosperity. They worship many deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.The Pokot communicate with their deities through prayer and sacrifice. They perform it during ethnic festivals and dances. Oracles are responsible for maintaining the spiritual balance within the community. They are superstitious and believe in sorcery, so sometimes they call on shielding lucky sorcery. They have prophets, either male or female, who foresee advise, usually by the means of animal sacrifices. His or her ability is considered as a divine gift. Clan histories recount the changes of location, through poetry and song, emphasizing the vulnerability of humans and the importance of supernatural powers to help them overcome hunger, thirst, and even death. Ceremonies mark the transitions in the people's social lives. Among these are: the cleansing of a couple expecting their first child; the cleansing of newborn infants and their mothers; the cleansing of twins and other children who are born under unusual circumstances; male and female initiation; marriage; sapana, a coming-of-age ceremony for men; and summer-solstice, harvest, and healing ceremonies. The most important rite of passage for most Pokot is circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. These rites consist of a series of neighborhood-based ceremonies, emphasizing the importance of having a good behavior. When boys are circumcised, they acquire membership in one of eight age sets. Women do not have age-sets. After excisions, for several months, girls have a white painting on their face and wear a hood made of blackened leather with charcoal and oil. This means they are untouchable until the lepan ceremony, that marks the passage to womanhood. Unlike other tribes, the Pokot keep the affiliation to their clan throughout their lives, there is no disruption with marriage. Surprisingly, the agreement before marriage is made by gift giving, from the groom and his family to the bride and her family, often over a period of years (and not the contrary). It often implies the gift of a combination of livestock, goods, and cash to the bride's family, and the allotment of milk cows and rights to land to the bride. The bond between a husband and wife lasts for 3 generations, after what marriages can take place again between the two groups. Polygamy exists but is not prevalent among men before 40. The spirits of the elder anticipate reincarnation in their living descendants: when a child is said to resemble the elder, the same name is given. Disputes are resolved in neighborhood councils and in government courts. Some of the sanctions include shaming, cursing, and bewitching.
© Eric Lafforgue
Island Of Madagascar
Off The East Coast of Africa
Palmarium Reserve
Click On Image To Enlarge.
Endangered lemur photographed at night aided by a guide holding a spotlight.
The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger.
It is the world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unusual method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood using its forward slanting incisors to create a small hole in which it inserts its narrow middle finger to pull the grubs out.
From an ecological point of view the aye-aye fills the niche of a woodpecker, as it is capable of penetrating wood to extract the invertebrates within.
The aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus Daubentonia and family Daubentoniidae. It is currently classified as Endangered by the IUCN.
The aye-aye is an arboreal animal meaning that it spends most of its life high in the trees. Aye-ayes sleep, eat, travel and mate in the trees and are most commonly found close to the canopy where there is plenty of cover from the dense foliage.
Rusty came to us last Fall as an "intact" stray who tested positive with Feline FIV. He was thin and pretty beat up. One of his front canine teeth had a broken tip from cat fights. I had noticed the other day that his small incisors didn't look too good...so today he is at the vet getting his teeth cleaned and extractions if needed.
He should feel better after the dental work. I always worry about my pets when they are anesthetized and have any kind of procedure done. I'm sure he'll be fine though...he's in good hands.
Update:
Vet called to say the cleaning was over....they had to pull some front teeth that were loose and needed to come out. Feline FIV is the culprit for his bad teeth. sigh. He is awakening from the sedation and can come home at 2pm.
Poem.
Childish excitement travelling from east to west in late winter.
You know soon, very soon, the West Coast “Munros” will gleam like incisor teeth above the forested landscape.
Forcan, left, and The Saddle, right, are such peaks that advertise the thousand metre micro-climate of semi-Alpine splendour.
Spin-drift sweeps off the upper slopes to accumulate in layers like royal icing.
The snowy back-cloth forms a pleasing contrast to the pastel tans and greens of the bracken and forest of the lower slopes of this historic Glen.
The West Coast beckons.
Such a grand mountain corridor befits the momentous land and seascapes that lie in prospect.
The skull of a small mammal (opossum or raccoon) found in our backyard. The canines and incisors are missing from the upper jaw.
Taken for the "Smile on Saturday!" theme of 4/13/2024: SMILE AND SHOW YOUR TEETH.
Nature is camouflaging within itself - The Caucasian squirrel's body reaches a maximum of 25 cm, their total weight is no more than 430 grams, they are small and the colors match the centuries - old olive bark. It is impossible to notice on an olive tree from a distance of 15 meters.
Caucasian squirrel is a tree squirrel, they sleep in their nests are usually found in the tree hollows in the centuries-old olive trees. When the temperature drops, they go out to feed again and when the sun goes down they go back to their nests. When I talked to the local people, I learned that Caucasian squirrel kittens are showing up a lot this year. Caucasian squirrel are now an endangered species. I hope tomorrow or after tomorrow I will come across this year's Caucasian squirrel kittens and share their photos with you.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description - Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description - Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use. Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
Commentary.
Amazing Suilven changes in form
as we circumnavigate it.
From the west, a sugar-loaf dome, near vertical.
From others, a giant elephant.
West peak, its rump.
Central col, a dip in its backbone.
Easterly peak, a sharper point to the top of its skull.
From yet others it appears like an incisor tooth,
thrusting up from an undulating, rocky base
of “Knock and Lochan” or small hill and lake.
The mountains of Sutherland don’t reach 1,000 metres.
But because of their stark, isolated rise,
they seem double their actual height.
They arrest one’s attention.
They demand focus.
They bemuse, by constantly changing form, shape and character,
and none more so, than the captivating,
iconic, monolith known as Suilven!
Nutria ....this rodent like animal with twenty back teeth and four HUGE orange incisors flashed me a smile the other day while at the wildlife refuge. [Ooops, forgot to post the second pix under this one~ you'll have to scroll down to see]. Happy Furry Friday!
Poem.
Childish excitement travelling from east to west in late winter.
You know soon, very soon, the West Coast “Munros” will gleam like incisor teeth above the forested landscape.
Forcan, left, and The Saddle, right, are such peaks that advertise the thousand metre micro-climate of semi-Alpine splendour.
Spin-drift sweeps off the upper slopes to accumulate in layers like royal icing.
The snowy back-cloth forms a pleasing contrast to the pastel tans and greens of the bracken and forest of the lower slopes of this historic Glen.
The West Coast beckons.
Such a grand mountain corridor befits the momentous land and seascapes that lie in prospect.
Goats lack upper incisors. Instead, a hard dental pad on the frontal part of the upper jaw serves in place of teeth. (She's not getting bitten!) Goats do have teeth on the top and bottom of their jaws further back in their mouths. These back teeth help them to chew their cud.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description -
Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description -
Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - With Nikon TC 14E II hand held - Monopod and SPORT VR on. Aperture is f8 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Release Clamp - Nikkor AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6 ED VR fitted MPR-113 Multi-Purpose Rail lens foot and Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod.
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
olmense zoo
Het Dwergzijdeaapje (Callithrix (Cebuella) pygmaea) is een aap die van oorsprong in het westen van Brazilië, het zuidoosten Colombia, het oosten van Ecuador, en het oosten van Peru in het regenwoud voorkomt. Met een lengte van tussen de 14-16 cm (exclusief de staart van 15-20) is het een van de kleinste primaten en de kleinste aap. Mannetjes wegen rond de 140 gram (5 , en vrouwtjes slechts 120 gram.
Ondanks zijn naam, verschilt het dwergzijdeaapje nogal van de zijdeaap (Callithrix) en als zodanig ondergebracht in een apart ondergeslacht, wat voorheen een geslacht op zich was, Cebuella.
Het Dwergzijdeaapje heeft een donzige vacht, en een geringde staart die net zo lang als zijn lichaam kan zijn. De klauwen zijn speciaal bedoeld om in bomen te klimmen, een eigenschap uniek voor deze soort. Als omnivoor, eten ze fruit, bladeren, insecten, en af en toe zelfs kleine reptielen. Een groot deel van hun dieet bestaat echter uit hars van bomen. Een grrot deel van de tijd wordt besteed aan het halen van hars uit boomschors. Het Dwergzijdeaapje heeft hiervoor speciale tanden om in schors te kunnen bijten. Door zijn kleine afmetingen en snelle manier van bewegen is het moeilijk om dit aapje goed te kunnen observeren.
In gevangenschap kan het aapje ongeveer 11 jaar oud worden.
The Pygmy Marmoset (Callithrix (Cebuella) pygmaea) is a monkey native to the rainforest canopies of western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru. It is one of the smallest primates, and the smallest monkey, with its body length ranging from 14-16 cm (excluding the 15-20 cm tail). Males weigh around 140 g (5 ounces), and females only 120 g (4.2 ounces).
Despite its name, the Pygmy Marmoset is somewhat different from the typical marmosets classified in genus Callithrix. As such, it is accorded its own subgenus, which was formerly recognized as its own genus, Cebuella.
The Pygmy Marmoset has a tawny coat, and a ringed tail that can be as long as its body. Their claws are specially adapted for climbing trees, a trait unique to the species. They are omnivorous, feeding on fruit, leaves, insects, and sometimes even small reptiles. Their small weight allows them to reach the very highest leaves of a tree, and to exploit the otherwise little- used food sources there. Much of their diet, however, comes from tapping trees for sap. Up to two-thirds of their time is spent gouging tree bark to reach the gummy sap. The Pygmy Marmoset has specialized incisors for gouging holes in bark. Unfortunately, because of its small size, and its swift movements, it is very hard to observe in the wild.
In captivity, the Pygmy Marmoset can live up to 11 years.
The rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), also called rock badger, rock rabbit, and Cape hyrax. It is one of the four living species of the order Hyracoidea, and the only living species in the genus Procavia. Like all hyraxes, it is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal, with short ears and tail.
Evidence supporting a common ancestor for hyraxes, elephants and the sirenians comes from some unusual shared characteristics. Like elephants, manatees, and dugongs, male hyraxes lack a scrotum and their testicles remain nestled in their abdominal cavity. The tusks of hyraxes develop from the incisor teeth, like elephant tusks; in most other tusked mammals, the tusks develop from the canine teeth. And hyraxes, like elephants, have flattened, hoof-like nails on the tips of their toes, rather than the curved claws seen on some other mammals.
Hyraxes typically live in groups of 10 - 80 animals, and forage as a group. They have been reported to use sentries: one or more animals take up position on a vantage point and issue alarm calls on the approach of predators.
They have multi-chambered stomachs. Although they are not ruminants, hyraxes have three-chambered stomachs filled with symbiotic bacteria that help break down the plants they eat. Baby hyraxes are not born with the bacteria they will need to digest plant matter, so to obtain it they eat the poop of adult hyraxes.
This very cute looking Rock Hyrax was photographed on a early morning game drive in Nairobi National Park, Kenya.
This is for the first time that I post a picture with my mouth wide open.. It's because of my teeth, which are not at all the way that they should be. My right central incisor had grown in the palate and I had an operation when I was 9 years old so that they could remove it. Instead of it another canine tooth had grown on its place so now I have 1 central tooth and 3 canine teeth. Therefore my left tooth is much bigger and people always stare at them when they talk to me for the first time. And as if that's not embarrassing enough, they often add this famous sentence: hey, you have one tooth much bigger than another! ... Well, thanks for telling me, I didn't know that.
The funny thing is that we bought a book about tribes (Pokot, samburu, masai, etc) and..he was in the book! So we let it to him. The world is really small!
The Pokhot live in the Baringo and Western Pokot districts of Kenya and in Uganda.
There are two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life. The first group consist of the Hill Pokot who live in the rainy highlands in the west and in the central south, and are mainly farmers and pastoralists. The second group is made up of the Plains Pokot who live in dry and infertile plains, with their cattles. A homestead is composed of one or more buildings for a man, his wife and children; eventual co-wives live in separate houses. The role of the community in teaching children ethical rules. Most of the Pokot are nomadic and thus have interacted with different peoples, incorporating their social customs.The Pokot are very proud of their culture. The Songs, storytelling, and decorative arts, especially bodily decoration, are very appreciated. They adorn the body with beads, hairstyling, scarification, and the removal of the lower central incisors. Pokot girls wear a beaded necklace made of the stems of an asparagus tree. Most Pokot have some knowledge of herbal medicine, so they often use these treatments along with those of the hospitals. They belong to the Kenya's Nilotic-speaking peoples. .
For the Pokot, the universe has two realms: the above is the realm of the most powerful deities—Tororot, Asis (sun), and llat (rain); and the below is the one where live humans, animals, and plants. Humans are responsible for the realm that they inhabit, but they rely upon divinities to achieve and maintain peace and prosperity. They worship many deities like the sun, moon and believe in the spirit of death.The Pokot communicate with their deities through prayer and sacrifice. They perform it during ethnic festivals and dances. Oracles are responsible for maintaining the spiritual balance within the community. They are superstitious and believe in sorcery, so sometimes they call on shielding lucky sorcery. They have prophets, either male or female, who foresee advise, usually by the means of animal sacrifices. His or her ability is considered as a divine gift. Clan histories recount the changes of location, through poetry and song, emphasizing the vulnerability of humans and the importance of supernatural powers to help them overcome hunger, thirst, and even death. Ceremonies mark the transitions in the people's social lives. Among these are: the cleansing of a couple expecting their first child; the cleansing of newborn infants and their mothers; the cleansing of twins and other children who are born under unusual circumstances; male and female initiation; marriage; sapana, a coming-of-age ceremony for men; and summer-solstice, harvest, and healing ceremonies. The most important rite of passage for most Pokot is circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. These rites consist of a series of neighborhood-based ceremonies, emphasizing the importance of having a good behavior. When boys are circumcised, they acquire membership in one of eight age sets. Women do not have age-sets. After excisions, for several months, girls have a white painting on their face and wear a hood made of blackened leather with charcoal and oil. This means they are untouchable until the lepan ceremony, that marks the passage to womanhood. Unlike other tribes, the Pokot keep the affiliation to their clan throughout their lives, there is no disruption with marriage. Surprisingly, the agreement before marriage is made by gift giving, from the groom and his family to the bride and her family, often over a period of years (and not the contrary). It often implies the gift of a combination of livestock, goods, and cash to the bride's family, and the allotment of milk cows and rights to land to the bride. The bond between a husband and wife lasts for 3 generations, after what marriages can take place again between the two groups. Polygamy exists but is not prevalent among men before 40. The spirits of the elder anticipate reincarnation in their living descendants: when a child is said to resemble the elder, the same name is given. Disputes are resolved in neighborhood councils and in government courts. Some of the sanctions include shaming, cursing, and bewitching.
© Eric Lafforgue
Eastern Gray Squirrel hanging out in the Maple tree in my backyard. I have boxes for them [see below] and feed them nuts everyday. Yea, he's happy....I spend a lot of $$ on him every month.
You've got to watch this amazing squirrel video. Thanks LeapFrog! www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Eb1Nt6WIE&feature=related
Two more images below.
The tooth is said to have been snatched from the flames of the Buddha's funeral pyre in 543 BC, and was smuggled into Sri Lanka during the 4th century AD, hidden in the hair of a princess. At first it was taken to Anuradhapura, but with the ups and downs of Sri Lankan history it moved from place to place before eventually ending up at Kandy. In 1283 it was carried back to India by an invading army but was soon brought back again by King Parakramabahu III.
Gradually, the tooth came to assume more and more importance as a symbol of sovereignty; it was believed that whoever had custody of the tooth relic had the right to rule the island. In the 16th century the Portuguese, in one of their worst spoilsport moods, seized what they claimed was the tooth, took it away and burnt it with Catholic fervor in Goa. 'Not so', is the Sinhalese rejoinder; the Portuguese had been fobbed off with a replica tooth and the real incisor remained safe. Even today there are rumors that the real tooth is hidden somewhere secure, as it has been so many times in its past, and that the tooth kept here is a replica.
Known for their huge bodies, unique trunks, and long lives, elephants are the largest land animals in the world. They live in social groups called herds which are composed of related females, called cows, and their offspring. The leader of the herd is a female, usually the oldest, most experienced member of the herd. She decides the herd’s activities. The females stay with their female relatives for life, but young males leave the herd when they reach puberty, either traveling alone or in bachelor groups. Females will practice motherhood in the herd by being “aunts” to the calves.
Elephants will display dominance by raising their head, trunk and ears.They will also shake their heads and make trumpeting noises, followed by loud rumbles. They use their huge ears as fans, flapping them to cool themselves off, and their trunks perform a variety of jobs from spraying water and dust to picking up tiny objects to heavy lifting. Their tusks are actually their incisor teeth and they use them to dig, lift things, and protect themselves.
DIET
Grass, herbs, bark of various trees, leaves and frui
The Mursi (also called Murzu) is the most popular tribe in the southwestern Ethiopia lower Omo Valley, 100 km north of Kenyan. They are estimated to 10 000 people and live in the Mago National Park, established in 1979. Due to the climate, they move twice a year between the winter and summer months. They herd cattle and grow crops along the banks of the Omo River. The Mursi are sedentary rather than nomadic. Their language belongs to the Nilo-Saharan linguistic family.Very few Mursi people speak Amharic, the official Ethiopian language. Although a small percentage of the Mursi tribe are Christians, most still practice animism. Mursi women wear giant lip plate, a sign of beauty, like in Suri tribe, and also a prime attraction for tourists which help to sustain a view of them, in guidebooks and travel articles, as an untouched people, living in one of the last wildernesses of Africa. When they are ready to marry, teenagers start to make a hole in the lower lip with a wood stick.
It will be kept for one night, and is removed to put a bigger one. This is very painful at this time. Few months after, the lip plate has its full size, and the girl is seen as beautiful by the men. The lip plate is made of wood or terracotta. They have to remove the lower incisors to let some space for the disc. Sometimes the lip is broken by the pressure of the plate. This is a big problem for the girl because men will consider her as ugly, she won't be able to marry anyone in the tribe apart the old men or the sick people. Women and men are shaved because they hate hairiness. Both like to make scarifications on their bodies. Women as a beauty sign, men after killing animals or ennemies as competition for grazing land has led to tribal conflicts.
The Mursi men have a reputation for being aggressive and are famous for their stick fighting ceremony called donga. The winner of the donga will be able to select the girl of his choice to have relations with if she agrees. Similar to the Surma tribe, the Mursi tribe commonly drink a mixture of blood and milk. Over the past few decades they and their neighbours have faced growing threats to their livelihoods cause the Ethiopian government officials have been actively evicting Mursi people from the Omo National Park, without any compensation to rent their land to foreign investors. Drought has made it difficult for many families to feed themselves by means of their traditional mix of subsistence activities. The establishment of hunting concessions has added to the pressure on scarce ressources.
© Eric Lafforgue
Taken with a Nikon D60, Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 lens fitted with an Iscorama anamorphic lens (1968 version), both focused at infinity, with the objective from a junk Soligor 90-180mm lens reverse mounted on the Isco, plus the objective from a junk 400mm Tele-Astranar lens reverse mounted on the Soligor. Lighting provided by a Nikon SB-18 Speedlight flashed through a frozen dinner bowl diffuser. Working distance = 2.5 inches, field width = 1.5 inches.
This is a close-up of the scalloped incisors of a skull (canid?) that I found at Anderson's Cove, Nova Scotia late in the summer of 1980. Two days of heavy rain and high wind gave way to a morning of bright sun and a southwesterly breeze, so I decided to hike out to the old logging community site at Eatonville, in what is now Cape Chignecto Provincial Park. In 1980 there were numerous trails for hiking but none of the development that came with the creation of the park several decades later. To avoid mosquitoes and black flies, I had parked by the bridge at Spicers Cove and hiked south along the base of the cliffs, passing through the small arch at Squally Point, stopping a short distance beyond the pinnacle at Anderson's Cove... about two miles in all. While seated on a log having lunch a few hundred yards south of the pinnacle, I heard the cracking of wood and some large stones tumbling somewhere behind me. What had occurred was a kind of "slow-motion" land-slip, a slumping of a water saturated area of the bluff about 40 yards wide, which spilled out onto the shore not quite to the high tide line, about 200 feet from the base of the bluff. Looking around the slide for any signs of old rubbish that might indicate the presence of antique bottles, I saw a dirty brownish white object peeking out of the mud. It was the back part of some kind of animal skull. There was no way that I could reach it because of the deep mud, which at that part of the slide was probably better than 6 feet deep. Trying to "fish" for it using sticks and broken branches only produced muddy clothes and hiking shoes... with the skull remaining unmoved, just out of reach. By then the sun was getting low and I had to return to the car. Before leaving for home ten days later, I returned to the spot with three lightweight mesh car seat mats and found the skull was still there, undisturbed except having been carried along by the slide's slow movement toward the water. By arranging the mats to support myself on top of the now much firmer mud and debris, I was able to carefully dig out the skull, which was in fairly good condition. The "Zygomatic Arch" just outside the left eye socket was smashed in and a piece missing, the break looking like a very old one. No other skeletal remains were found. The skull has been stained somewhat by long immersion in mud and clay, possibly in peat. If the creature had become trapped in a bog near the edge of the bluff, erosion could have eventually breached it, causing part of it to be carried down with the slide allowing the skull to become exposed. Fossils and ancient bones are often found in bogs or buried in glacial till. In many cases the bones have not begun to "mineralize", but have taken on a tint from being buried for thousands of years.
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In August of 2023, my eighth year old son got braces. He just didn’t have enough room for his lateral incisors to come in, so braces seemed like the best option to push those central incisors together to create space. I never had braces, but my wife did as a teenager. I can only imagine how hard it is for an eight year old to have them, particularly one who loves corn on the cob. We have a lot of empathy for Elliot as he goes through this, including all the work it takes to care for your teeth whilst wearing braces. We made a deal with him that if he takes care of brushing in the morning, we would help with the brushing and flossing at night. Every evening after he takes his shower we hear the familiar refrain called out from the bathroom, “time to brush teeth”, and we know that he just needs a little extra love and attention to help manage.
After building our old bathroom in the toilet training scene, I knew that I would want to take a stab at our remodeled bathroom. When you spend so much time building your life in LEGO, you start to look at everything around you and figure out how you would recreate it with LEGO elements. The key to this build is obviously the penny tile floor achieved using 3L bars on side. To accomplish this I started with the fixtures and placed them on the deep base. I left connection points for the rugs, vanity, and toilet, and then tipped the build on an angle. I tried to calculate how many bars I would need in a test box, but I ran out and had to order more. It took a couple of tries to get the bars to fit in correctly and adjustments needed to be made to the connection points underneath the rugs and vanity to get the math to work out. I didn’t actually know it would work for sure until the final bars were placed. If you’re going to do a bathroom like this, you might as well go all the way. So I splurged and ordered chromed elements. When I started the project, I wasn’t sure what the “family moment” would be. But after months of hearing that phrase each night, I knew that mom and son would be the perfect subjects.
I built all of the incisors and molars for the top of the mouth and jay, as well as sealing off the back of the throat. I build a dark pink tongue using tiles and curved slopes to make the mouth look "wet" compared to the studs outward fur of the animal.
The White Spirit Wolf
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The spirit wolf appears in many North American native lore and spirituality. This build was a challenge to learn a new type of technique using Mixel ball joints to mesh wedge plates together into a sculptural bust. Many sculpters make marble busts, for me this was the LEGO equivalent to make an art sculpture.
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I learned the build method from Brick Science on YouTube. www.youtube.com/channel/UCpQB577lHFyWTyvrS73Ldlg
Riley is a TFOL who lives about an hour south in Colorado, and over a video call he was able to show me some of his models and reinforcement methods.
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About 100 hours off and on from April 30 - July 14
Head circumference: 165 studs, 52 in, 132 cm
Length: 79.4 studs, 25 in, 63.5 cm
Height: 73.8 studs, 23.25 in, 59 cm
Weight: 11 Lbs / 5 Kg
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Autoritratto (litografia 1929) del geniale artista olandese Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972).
Nacque il 17 giugno 1898 a Leeuwarden, in Frisia, ultimo genito dell'ingegnere idraulico George Arnold Escher e di Sara Gleichman. E' stato un incisore e grafico olandese ed è conosciuto soprattutto per le sue incisioni che hanno per oggetto immagini basate su curiose simmetrie che esplorano l’infinito, paradossi matematici e prospettive (apparentemente) impossibili.
Mostra Escher (Museo degli Innocenti).
Dal 20 ottobre 2022 al 7 maggio 2023.
Italia: Toscana, Firenze (FI)
Drops & more drops , bath day at the Boxer Inn today!! It was in the 90's so the dogs loved the cold water today!!!
The ripe fruits of the Pandanus tectorius - Pandan laut or Sea Pandan - are bright orange. But this tree trunk has long since lost its gatherings of long, thick, sharply barb-edged 'swords'. It's fruit-bearing days are over too. Now it's the domain of various insects.
Among ants happy with its fallen state are these fascinating Weaver Ants, Oecophylla smaragdina. In this case, though, their abdomens aren't emerald but 'merely' orange. Look, too, at those incisor-jaws. No, they don't bite although they're often confused with red fire ants. Kneeling to watch them and forgetting the time, I got sun-burnt ankles. Perhaps fiery bites would have been less painful...
The Pokot live in the Baringo district and in the Western Pokot district in Kenya. There are two main sub-groups depending of their location and way of life : the Hill Pokot and the Plains Pokot. A homestead is composed of one or more buildings (if there are several wifes). Most of the Pokot are nomadic and thus have interacted with different peoples, incorporating their customs. The songs and decorative arts, in particular body decoration, are very appreciated among the Pokot. They adorn the body with beads and hairstyling, and proceed to scarifications and the removal of the lower central incisors. Pokot girls wear a beaded necklace made of the stems of an asparagus tree.For the Pokot, the universe has two realms: the above is the realm of the most powerful deities, and the below is the one where live humans, animals, and plants. Humans are responsible for the realm that they inhabit, but they rely upon divinities to achieve and maintain peace and prosperity. The Pokot communicate with their deities through prayer and sacrifice. They are superstitious and believe in sorcery. They have oracles and prophets. Ceremonies mark the transitions in the people's social lives. The most important rite of passage is circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. The Pokot keep the affiliation to their clan throughout their lives, there is no disruption with marriage. The bond between a husband and wife lasts for 3 generations. Polygamy exists but is not prevalent among men before 40.
Les Pokot vivent dans le district de Baringo et à l’ouest du district de Pokot au Kenya.Il existe deux principaux sous-groupes selon leur localisation et mode de vie : les Pokot des collines et les Pokot des plaines. Chaque propriété familiale est composée d’un ou plusieurs bâtiments (s’il y a plusieurs femmes). La plupart des Pokot sont nomades et ont donc interagi avec différents peuples, incorporant leurs coutumes. Les chants et arts décoratifs, en particulier la décoration du corps, sont très appréciés chez les Pokot. Ils parent leur corps de perles et coiffures originales, et procèdent à des scarifications et au retrait des incisives centrales inférieures. Les filles Pokot portent un collier de perles fait de tiges d’asparagus.Pour les Pokot, l’univers a deux royaumes : celui d’en haut est le royaume des déités les plus puissantes, celui d’en bas est celui où vivent les humains, animaux et plantes. Les humains sont responsables du royaume qu’ils habitent, mais ils reposent sur les divinités pour atteindre et maintenir la paix et la prospérité. Les Pokot communiquent avec leurs déités par la prière et le sacrifice. Ils sont superstitieux et croient aux sortilèges. Ils ont des oracles et prophètes. Les cérémonies marquent les transitions dans la vie sociale des individus. Le rite de passage le plus important est la circoncision pour les garçons et la clitorectomie pour les filles. Les Pokot gardent l’affiliation à leur clan toute leur vie, il n’y a aucune rupture lors du mariage. Le lien entre le mari et la femme dure pendant 3 générations. La polygamie existe mais ne prévaut pas chez les hommes de moins de 40 ans.
© Eric Lafforgue
Nature is camouflaging within itself - The Caucasian squirrel's body reaches a maximum of 25 cm, their total weight is no more than 430 grams, they are small and the colors match the centuries - old olive bark. It is impossible to notice on an olive tree from a distance of 15 meters.
Caucasian squirrel is a tree squirrel, they sleep in their nests are usually found in the tree hollows in the centuries-old olive trees. When the temperature drops, they go out to feed again and when the sun goes down they go back to their nests. When I talked to the local people, I learned that Caucasian squirrel kittens are showing up a lot this year. Caucasian squirrel are now an endangered species. I hope tomorrow or after tomorrow I will come across this year's Caucasian squirrel kittens and share their photos with you.
The Caucasian squirrel - Sciurus anomalus ; The Caucasian squirrel or Persian squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus found in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in south-western Asia.
The species is usually said to have first been described in 1778 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae,and named Sciurus anomalus. However, some authors argue that this work was actually published in 1788, and that the true first description was made by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in 1785.
Description - Caucasian squirrels are small tree squirrels, with a total length of 32 to 36 cm (13 to 14 in), including the 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 in) tail, and weighing 250 to 410 g (8.8 to 14.5 oz). The color of the upper body fur ranges from greyish brown to pale grey, depending on the subspecies, while that of the underparts is rusty brown to yellowish, and that of the tail, yellow brown to deep red. The claws are relatively short, compared with those of other tree squirrels, and females have either eight or ten teats.
Samuel Griswold Goodrich described the Caucasian squirrel in 1885 as "Its color is grayish-brown above, and yellowish-brown below".
Physical Description - Caucasian squirrels have a dental formula of incisors 1/1, canines 0/0, premolars 1/1, and molars 3/3, totaling 20. They have four fingered fore feet and five fingered hind feet. Sex differences in body length or mass are not evident.
Distribution and habitat -
Caucasian squirrels are native to south-western Asia, where they are found from Turkey, and the islands of Gökçeada and Lesbos in the west, Iran in the southeast, and as far as Israel and Jordan in the south.It is one of only two species of the genus Sciurus to be found on Mediterranean islands,and, although Eurasian red squirrels have been recently introduced to some areas, is the only species of Sciurus native to the wider region.
The species mainly lives in forested areas dominated by oak, pine, and pistachio, up to altitudes of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
Biology and behavior -
The squirrels are diurnal, and solitary, although temporary groups may forage where food is plentiful. Their diet includes nuts, seeds, tree shoots, and buds,with the seeds of oak and pine being particularly favored. Like many other squirrels, they cache their food within tree cavities or loose soil, with some larders containing up to 6 kg (13 lb) of seeds. They live in trees, where they make their dens, but frequently forage on the ground, and are considered less arboreal than Eurasian red squirrels. They commonly nest in tree hollows lined with moss and leaves, and located 5 to 14 m (16 to 46 ft) above the ground, but nests are also sometimes found under rocks or tree roots. Their alarm call is high-pitched, and said to resemble the call of the European green woodpecker, and they mark their territories with urine and dung.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, but is more common in spring or autumn. Litters range from two to seven, with three or four being typical, and the young are fully mature by five or six months of age.
Conservation -
A survey in 2008 found that the species remained abundant within Turkey, however declines are noted in population within the Levant region. The guides for a survey in 1993 in Israel stated that they considered the species to be nearly extinct within the area studied. Whilst the Caucasian squirrel is threatened by poaching and deforestation, the declines recorded are not sufficient to qualify them as anything other than "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.[1] Hunting of the species is banned by the Central Hunting Commission, and the Caucasian squirrel is protected by the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.
This information is sourced from "Wikipedia".
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use. Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
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