10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2013

A dusty-red road leads me through Marico bushveld deeper into the 750 square kilometers large wilderness of the Madikwe Game Reserve – the 4th largest reserve in South Africa, home to 350 bird and 66 mammal species, some 4 hours’ drive from Johannesburg. Two young bull elephants slowly walk along the road in front of us.

Africa 200

Africa South Africa Elephants Rhinos 200

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2014

These all had their own sub population of one or more species of large land bird, and these populations, in turn, give us the large lane birds we have today, except on Madagascar where the Elephant Bird went extinct (recently). Birds Elephant Bird evolution kiwi ratites Vicariance' Then this happened again, recently.

Madagascar 210

Madagascar Ostriches Elephants New Zealand 210

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2022

It is not particularly big but has a reported 430 bird species including migrants, though during my short stay it seems I missed most of the key attractions among them. Great White Pelican is not just the name of a non-existent glam-rock band but also of a bird species. Pel’s Fishing Owl, where were you?

South Africa 147

South Africa Africa Birds Research 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2019

Plus, any place you can see both 15 different raptors and 15 different mammals in the same day sounds worth a visit, doesn’t it? Murchison Falls NP truly excels as a place to see the kind of wild mammals Africa is legendary for. Denham’s Bustard is a beauty. If you want to follow our path, start in Masindi. Rock Pratincoles.

Uganda 201

Uganda Senegal Africa Game 201

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 24, 2020

Predictably, the flowers attract several species of sunbirds. Apparently, many bird species have employed the same concept as me for a long time. Then, the real thing came up, a male and female Barn Owl, occasionally even with some small mammal added as a bonus to the photo. What more can a nature lover want. Birds, maybe?

China 264

China Barn Owls Birds Laos 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2013

Rather, my trip to the American Museum of Natural History last week was enlivened, however slightly, by spotting a Rock Pigeon perched on top of the elephants in the Hall of African Mammals, safely out of the elements and unexposed to Central Park’s hawks. Not in any espionage sense. So what does it really mean?

Elephants 158

Elephants Mammals Buffalo Gorillas 158

10,000 Birds

APRIL 7, 2015

We were woefully under-prepared in terms of planning – which almost kept us from meeting our friends – but we were also surprised and thrilled to learn that not only were Gray Whales migrating past the lighthouse, but Elephant Seals were lounging on a nearby beach! Elephant Seals. White-crowned Sparrow. Think again!

Seals 194

Seals Elephants Whales Whaling 194

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 14, 2021

Geographic patterns of species richness for birds (1,558 species) in East Africa at 0.25° resolution (blue indicates low species richness, while brown indicates high species richness). At the time of writing, Uganda has 16 hotspots with 400+ so far eBirded species, of which one has almost 600 species.

Africa 213

Africa Kenya Uganda Tanzania 213

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2016

and dreaming of a place where the heat is moderate, beer snake-cold and birds innumerable… Let’s say, where the average annual maximum varies from 22 to 24 degrees Celsius / 72 to 75 Fahrenheit and where some 700+ bird species – 24 of them endemic – are waiting for an intrepid birder… Answer to the riddle?

Africa 140

Africa Uganda Gorillas Rwanda 140

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

Betty’s Bay was also a great place to see all of South Africa’s cormorant species, including the endangered Bank Cormorant. We observed far fewer Lesser Flamingos, a near-threatened species. It was the first of six bustard species I would see over the course of both trips. There are elephants down there!”

South Africa 254

South Africa Africa Leopards Penguins 254

10,000 Birds

MARCH 16, 2016

I was planning a trip to South Africa, I had about five days to fill, I wanted to get a bunch of desert species (particularly the Springbok – not a bird) in a way that wasn’t too hard to reach from Johannesburg. Madikwe has perhaps too many elephants. And lo, it was good. I stumbled on Madikwe completely by accident.

South Africa 159

South Africa Leopards Giraffes Africa 159

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2015

But, I did take many photos, and used the book, in spurts during the trip and more closely afterward, to identify three seabird species, two expected (Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters) and one a surprise. It does not include near-shore, coastal species, like Brown Pelican, Elegant Tern, and Harbor Seal.

Dolphins 162

Dolphins Whales Whaling Porpoises 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2015

Other species I can recognize are colloquially called crocodile bark tree, due to the bark pattern, and paper bark. For you and me, there are about 200 bird species, but for proper tourists, there seem to be only five species in the reserve: Bengal Tiger , Leopard , Sloth Bear , Indian Wild Dog (Dhole) and the Gaur.

Tigers 253

Tigers Boars India Chickens 253

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

Other species have certainly expanded their ranges, but never in such a rapid and global scale. The Cattle Egret is native to Africa, where it is a familiar sight among herds of large mammals. For reasons that are not quite clear, this species underwent a massive range expansion. This species is primarily an insectivore.

Cattle 170

Cattle South Korea Suriname Seychelles 170

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2014

First off, it seems that New Zealand’s two iconic families of ratites, large flightless southern birds that includes emus, rhea, ostriches, cassowaries and the extinct elephant birds, are not particularly closely related. New Zealand’s birds and mammals come from a number of sources.

New Zealand 163

New Zealand Penguins Sea Lions Lions 163

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2015

Anyway, while there are many species that I’m always pleased to see (I’m a particular fan of the aquatic kobs, lechwe and pukus) it was only on my last visit that I saw one of the more attractive species for the first time, the Nyala (pronounced Nnya-la, not Nye-al-ah). With an elephant for scale.

Africa 173

Africa Hunters Goats Sheep 173

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2015

The river cruises up the Chobe River are most famous for the dry season aggregations of African Bush Elephants drawn to the year-round water. But even without huge herds of elephants large game is defiantly the major draw for most people on the cruise. Red Lechwe. In particular, there are lots of waterbirds.

Botswana 162

Botswana Birds Lesotho Elephants 162

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2016

So close to the pole only a handful of bird species can survive, and even so, death toll is very high, hence their populations must be huge (millions). There are 11 species of birds that breed in the Ross Sea region. And the Mammals. Finally – the Seabirds. Photos (3) © Oceanwide Expeditions.

Russia 181

Russia Penguins Whales Whaling 181

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

There are times when acting in the conservation interest of a species or ecosystem means that the welfare of specific animals is compromised, which is a fancy way of saying that conservationists sometimes have to kill animals for the greater good. You protect an entire ecosystem that holds 350 bird species. You do a lot of good.

Lions 188

Lions Killing Hunting Hunters 188

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2014

Between the 22 of December and the 31st I managed to see 171 species of bird, this had climbed to 219 by the time I had left of the 11th of January. This included 5 days without family, but I didn’t get more than 35 extra species without them. Never did see an elephant though). And the birds? I saw plenty.

Birds 189

Birds Bats Elephants Family 189

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

The descriptions of the territory’s birds, seals, whales, introduced mammals, invertebrates, and plants are written within the framework of the conversationist, so it is more than a field guide, it is a record of endangered wildlife and the efforts being made to protect it.

Georgia 174

Georgia Penguins Wildlife Whales 174

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2011

People also say that hyraxes are elephants, but they are so distant in their relationship that it is little different than saying that deer are a type of pronghorn antelope. Among mammals, bipedalism is found in several rodents, a number of marsupials, and one primate. Bipedalism is somewhat rare these days in the animal world.

Birds 271

Birds Primates Marsupials Whales 271

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. Now we move on to the Neognathae , which also has two very deep branches that lead to all the other living species of birds. Erich Jarvis discuss key findings. ). were revolutionary for using 32,000 base pairs!) This is why.

Family 279

Family Birds Parrots 2014 279

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

Africa 265

Africa South Africa Gabon Uganda 265

4 The Love Of Animals

MARCH 17, 2011

Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances, often miles; and bats, dolphins, whales, frogs, and various rodents use high-frequency sounds to find food, communicate with others, and navigate. Empathy Among Elephants. Elephants have strong feelings.

Emotional 100

Emotional Animal Whales Whaling 100

Animal Person

JULY 3, 2009

Just to be clear, this book deals with the nonhuman animals who are most like us: social vertebrates, and specifically social mammals (and there are a handful of references to cetaceans who behave similarly). Bekoff and Pierce "advocate a species-relative view of morality.

Morals 100

Morals Mammals Humane Emotional 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

Even in the tropics there are few birds that excel some of our own in elegance and beauty of plumage and we have an unusually large number of species considering the smallness of the area they inhabit. ” (Woodward brothers, “Natal Birds”, 1899) The mighty Drakensberg Mountains run along the western boundary of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Mozambique 195

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 195