Domestic wildlife
(The next big safari destination)
The vast savannah of the Serengeti is the best place to catch a glimpse of big game. Closer home we have quite a few National parks & wildlife sanctuaries, which abound in wildlife & play host to a wide variety of eco systems.
There is a lot of interest in wildlife & the environment these days and it's definitely for the better. Interest leads to awareness which in turn lead to conservation in the long run. At least that's the hope.
The road to conversation is a very long & thorny one with a lot of contentious issues.
It's very important for us to educate the next generation about the message of conservation as it can have a lasting impact, not just on them but on the environment as well. It is equally necessary to focus on the smaller & lesser known species which are slowly (in many cases rapidly) fading into the twilight because there is no awareness about them.
A case in point; the humble Sparrow which were numerous even 10-15 years ago in our neighbourhoods but which have all but disappeared from our cityscapes.
In my opinion a good way to start building awareness would be to introduce ourselves to the various critters that share our dwelling place.
Many if not most of us don't consider them to be anything but pests.
My point is, with awareness about these critters, we can learn to appreciate how everything is interconnected in the web of life which includes every single creature from an inconspicuous ant to the ginourmous Blue Whale.
Let ours not be the generation that unravels this web but the one that reinforces it.
A Mosquito perched on a bread knife in the kitchen.
Seen up close, we can see the compound eyes & frankly, they are quite pretty.
Praying Mantis's are adept predators & do us a great service by devouring quite a few critters that we find undesirable. Most that fall prey to their ambush strikes fail to escape from their vice like grip & are dismembered.
In addition, they have voracious appetites & act as an important link in controlling the populations of their prey. Think of them as the big cats of the insect world.
This fine specimen was so caught up with cleaning himself that he hardly took notice of me.
The Dragonfly may bear resemblance to a helicopter but even the best copters would be hard pressed to match the agility & acrobatic prowess of these intrepid aviators. Some reports claim that the fastest Dragonflies fly at close to 90 kmh which is incredible given their body size.
Dragonfly Nymphs play a very important role as predators by eating mosquitos, flies and a whole lot of other insects.
This is one of my favourite insect portraits.
This mantis has a very amused look but make no mistake, it's a killing machine.
Whenever I look at this snap, I'm reminded of the movie 'Predator'. I'm pretty sure they got their inspiration for the mouth appendages from the Mantis.
A feature which I found on this mantis are the 3 crystal like drops at the back of the head. Maybe it's some sort of primitive eye.
This Housefly was shot on the bonnet of a car. I love the reflection & to me it looks like it's blowing a bubble. They have an amazing response time & it takes skill & practice to catch one.
The common house fly is very very irritating.They constantly hover around us, contaminate our food & are transmitters of various diseases.They aren't the most popular & are probably vying with Cockroaches & Mosquitos for a shot at first place in the unpopularity stakes.
They are however, extremely successful as a species & are found pretty much everywhere in the inhabited world.
We are the most intelligent & widespread, no doubt but we have to remember that the world wasn't made for us.
Here's some food for thought. While the common housefly is responsible for transmitting a lot of diseases, which leads to the death of many people, WE as a species are responsible for the mass extinction of innumerable species.
WHO'S THE BIGGER PEST?
At first glance, this looks like a macro shot of an ant & not a particularly good one at that.A closer look reveals what appears to be a combat zone. The ant is fighting a dark green insect much smaller than itself while there are numerous light green ones of different sizes about. There are also calcified remains of dead insects all around, which may or may not be the same species.
This was shot at the garden on a plant which looks like an aloevera/cactus.
This cockroach had been dead for less than an hour before the ants took over. They made sure that the whole thing, was gone within the next 2 hours. Must have been a tough endeavour considering how small they are compared to the cockroach.
A perfect if somewhat gory advertisement for teamwork & organization.
A scientist once made an observation stating that ants do everything that we do except perhaps watch TV. Not too off the mark is what I say.
I chanced upon these flies mating & they were rocking back & forth in what appeared to be a ritualised mating dance.They were going about the whole thing in a very unhurried manner & there was a certain grace to it.
I love the way, the male fly has his front legs on the neck while stabilizing himself. Looks like a tender lover.
This mosquito was sitting on a table cloth.
Mosquitos are the most dangerous animals on earth.Period.
All said & done they have been and are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in human history. Malaria,Dengue, Yellow fever & Chikungunya spring to mind.
We don't really help our cause by allowing water to stagnate which is an ideal breeding ground for the carriers of all these diseases.
But we have to understand that not all mosquitos are carriers & most of them are harmless.
An interesting fact is that it's only the female mosquitos who suck blood while the males males live on fruit sap.
At first glance this looks just like an ant.
Welcome to the club of creatures that have been fooled by this expert in stealth warfare because in reality it's a jumping spider.They raise their front 2 legs to make them look like antennae.There are quite a few species of ant mimic spiders which adopt this strategy as predators usually avoid ants because of their aggressive nature.
Its a win-win for the spider as it avoids getting eaten while on the lookout for something to eat.
Preferably an ant.
This was one aggressive mantis. He was also one of the tiniest that I've come across. Probably it was a nymph. It was coming right up to me and waving it's foreclaws in a very threatening gesture.
Did it work? It did.
Jumping spiders unlike most spiders are active hunters. They don't wait for their prey to come to them & employ strategies which would make a hunter proud. They have 4 forward facing eyes of which the largest are the ones in the middle. The ant mimic spider from above is a jumping spider.
They are able to jump many times their own body length & do so by using hydraulic pressure.
This spider jumped right after this shot was taken.
There is a Bougainville tree at home & its a source of joy because it blocks out the sunlight while remaining a treat to the eye with pink flowers all round the year. It's also a small ecosystem in it's own right & is home to many insects including this one.
It's really hard to make out this particular species because of it's camouflage & flat shape.
I think it's a Weevil but I'm not sure. Anyways, it looks like a very inquisitive pose.
This was one fiesty bird. It would create a ruckus whenever anyone got near it.
To give you a background, it's the young un' of a Koel which was hurt, possibly from a fall. A friend of mine had rescued it & was waiting for the the animal rescue team to come & get it when I tried to take some pictures. It was housed in a shoebox & the minute the box opened it would shout & raise hell like you wouldn't believe.
Koels are pretty birds with a melodious call.They also have a bad reputation as brood parasites.
A Koel will lay her eggs in a smaller bird's nest & more often than not, the Koel egg will hatch first. It'll then push the other eggs out of the nest & the poor unsuspecting host bird will have to take care of a chick with a voracious appetite.
Now, that's what I call a free lunch
