My favorite detail is the ringed antennae, alternately black and white. Pretty! Also note that it has a small thin “tail” on each hindwing; when perched the butterfly typically moves its hind wings and the tails move up and down. The butterfly also sports three orange dots on the lower surface of the hindwing. Eastern […]
African Wildcat – Abha area
Whilst out spotlighting in the Abha area recently I came across an African (Arabian) Wildcat where it was seen hunting high up in an area of large boulders. The subspecies of African Wildcat that occurs in Arabia isFelis lybica tristrami distributed from Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan to northern Saudi Arabia. They occur in the northwest […]
POLL: Should the Trump administration amend its existing policy on trophy imports?
Thirty-eight severed lion heads have entered the United States as “keepsakes” over the past two years. Despite overwhelming public opposition to trophy hunting, big game hunters have found a complicit ally in the Trump administration, which has been willing to quietly approve requests to bring the corpses of threatened African animals. Earlier this year, the […]
Out Of Action
It is a month now since my last posting. I am presently recovering from hip surgery and it may be many weeks before I am able to get out and about again with the camera. To keep the blog alive I am therefore publishing a few images taken before I went into hospital Apart from […]
A ‘perfect policy storm’ cuts puma numbers by almost half near Jackson, Wyoming
Like many places in the American West, the region is a patchwork of land that’s under the control of different government agencies with differing opinions and management goals. “It makes that part of our country really unique,” Mark Elbroch, a biologist with the wild cat conservation group Panthera and one of the study’s lead authors, […]
One good Tern
We had a good day out on Brownsea Island in Poole harbour, Dorset, where Terns were the main attraction, good numbers of Sandwich Terns and a few Common Terns nest on the islands here and great views can be had from the hides as they bring fish to the youngsters. deserves another… And a couple […]
POLL: Should Arctic cruises be banned to protect wildlife?
There are only about 25,000 polar bears remaining on this planet, and we lost another one late last month. This time it wasn’t because of the lack of ice due to global warming, but it was due to yet another threat created by humans: Arctic tourism. Tragically, the polar bear lost his life for doing […]
Philby’s Partridge – Abha area
Whilst birding recently in the Abha area I came across a good number of Philby’s PartridgeAlectoris philbyi.This is a scarce resident of the south-west highlands and is related to the Chukar & Red-legged Partridge and is native to south-western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It can be easily identified from other partridges by the black cheeks […]