Iceland’s lone whaling company’s ongoing defiance of an international ban on commercial whaling is outrageous and offence enough as it continues to target endangered fin and minke whales, but now it’s reached a new low after having illegally slaughtered the first blue whale in decades. After a two year break from whaling, Hvalur hf announced […]
Caterpillar Envy
A few weeks ago a friend of mine who lives nearby posted a picture on Facebook of a caterpillar like the one above. What a cool caterpillar! Was I ever jealous! Then a few days later this one showed up at my place. So, yay! I got my own! It’s the caterpillar of the white-marked […]
Eight of 14 rhinos die after move to Kenyan national park
Eight out of 14 critically endangered black rhinos have died after being moved to a reserve in southern Kenya, wildlife officials have revealed, in what one conservationist described as “a complete disaster”. Preliminary investigations pointed to salt poisoning as the rhinos tried to adapt to saltier water in their new home, the Kenyan Ministry of […]
Charging Elephant in Kabini
On this trip to Kabini, we were greeted with showers, given that it was the monsoon season. The great thing about monsoon is that the forest is transformed and the color saturation is at a new high. As we entered the park, we saw a huge tusker standing beside a tree. The moment the Tusker […]
POLL: Should trophy hunting of lions be made illegal?
On June 7th, a trophy hunter shot a male lion in Umbabat Private Nature Reserve in South Africa, a part of the Greater Kruger National Park. Nothing surprising about this: around 500 lions, usually males, are killed every year by trophy hunters on the African continent. What’s made this different is the suspicion that the […]
Arabian Skittering Frog – Saleh Al Dahna
Whilst birdwatching Salal Al Dahna valley, at 1900 metres in the Asir mountains of southwest Saudi Arabia I found a large pool of water with several adult Arabian Skittering Frogs. The Arabian Skittering Frog or Arabian Five-fingered Frog Euphlyctis ehrenbergiiis a species of frog in the Dicroglossidae family found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It […]
Orangutan found shot, hacked at palm plantation with history of deaths
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia are investigating the killing of a rare orangutan whose body was found riddled with bullet and knife wounds in an oil palm plantation with a history of orangutan deaths. Workers at the plantation in Seruyan district, in the Bornean province of Central Kalimantan, pulled the badly decomposed corpse […]
White-browed Coucal – Raydah Escarpment
Whilst birding the bottom of the Raydah Escarpment in June 2018, I heard and saw a White-browed Coucal Centropus superciliosus. I eventually found the bird and after waiting some time, it came out into the open allowing some reasonable photographic opportunities. The subspecies of White-browed Coucal we get in southwest Saudi Arabia is Centropus superciliosus […]