Singing at 36 beats/second in Burnaby park.
Whale Shark - Maldives
Maldives is one of the best diving sites in the world due to its clear waters and abundance of sea life surrounding over 1000 islands. In the south Atoll aboard a liveaboard ship I encountered the worlds biggest fish, and largest shark, the Whale Shark. I enjoyed the kind of whale shark encounter that attracts thousands of visitors to the south Atoll Maldives each year. Despite the crowds, which were somewhat unregulated and of concern, this gentle giant went about feeding on krill and wasn’t giving any signs of distress. As the crowds became too much the whale shark just descended into the deep blue ocean and was gone. I was lucky enough to have had a fellow shipmate with a camera snap this photo as I said my greetings to the fish.
'A REAL BEAR HUG'
In May/June in the Khuteymateen it is mating season. These 2 sub-adult grizzly bears were trying to mate. This photo was taken after hours of watching these two play fighting and then attempting to mate. It turned out they were too young but the show of affection was so obvious.
On December 18th the British Columbia government put an end to trophy hunting in this province. A step in the right direction. Congratulations to all the people who had to work so hard to get the government to see how necessary it was to stop 'trophy hunting'. Killing animals purely for the 'thrill; is barbaric and wasteful and can't be justified on economic or conservation grounds. Not to mention trophy hunters have to pay large amounts of dollars and come to our country to kill our grizzlies because the species is protected or dwindled to a handful in their home country.
'Whats a good mother?'
This mother bear, a sow, is busy eating salmon in preparation for hibernating for the winter. What you can't hear in this picture is the crying and whining the cub is doing in an attempt to get his mother to share her salmon. The mother bear kept on fishing and eating and the cub just kept on whining and crying to wear her down to share the salmon. But, she was not sharing and would only feed herself, waiting patiently for her cub to decide to fish for itself. This cub is a yearling, around 18 months old. It is time for the cub to learn to fish on its own, or it won't survive.
A mother bear has all the responsibility for her cub(s) for around 3 years, after that she will push them out on their own. Their skills to survive have to be well engrained at that point.
What's a good mother?
Gorillas
The gorillas live in family groups, lots of young gorillas. There is usually only one dominant Silverback per group. A male gorilla is known as a blackback until roughly 11-12 years of age when their silverback will appear. At that time there is usually a challenge to the dominant Silverback for their position or the younger Silverback will go out and form his own group. They move through the forest foraging on fruit that is ripe. The environment for photographing is extremely challenging, lowlight and lots of vegetation.
Needed support from my guide to keep my balance.
There are habituated groups of gorillas that you buy a permit to enter the park and trek to see for 1 hour access. I visited Mubare Group, Habinyanja Group, and Bitukura Group.
Experiencing a Silverback thumping his chest is exhilarating. I didn’t get a shot of it but could feel it in my own chest. Absolutely majestic!!
Young gorillas are inquisitive of humans. We had the pleasure of seeing a mother carrying a 3 week old baby.