Free Pygmy Elephant Wallpaper

January 22, 2014 by pumapix

This Borneo Pygmy Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) mother and calf were grazing along the Kinabatangan River in the state of Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo. The rainforest corridor is quite narrow along the river here and these elephants routinely push into Oil Palm plantations but on this day, the whole herd was feeding right along the river. I was accompanying researchers as they were checking their live traps when we came upon them. Even they, who spend every day on the river, where exhilarated to see them. We spent three hours watching these guys and it never got boring. I never had the chance to see them the last time I was in Borneo so getting to observe them this time was a real treat.

As always, just click on the image for the wallpaper sized image or use this link Borneo Pygmy Elephant Mother and Calf.

Borneo Pygmy Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) mother and calf, Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

African Leopards in Gabon

January 15, 2014 by pumapix

Getting a picture of African Leopards in Gabon is not the same as anywhere else on the African continent. Unlike South Africa or Kenya, in Gabon you can’t sit in a safari vehicle and hope it emerges from the brush. This is the rainforest. Think super dense seven foot understory plants that make it impossible to see anything, times ten. Finding a leopard is nearly impossible. The biologists studying these cats deal with it on a daily basis. Phillip Henschel and Laila Bahaa-el-din brave, and I mean brave (to be explained soon) these challenges.

Does this look dense enough?

Tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

How about now?

Tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

We are in Lope National Park in Gabon where Laila has been conducting her research for the past three months. Phil was nice enough to pick me up from the airport and bring me here along with all of the equipment. Being in their company makes me feel confident that we will get a picture of the big cat, these two know what they are talking about.

On the first evening, we do a quick drive around in the savanna habitat bordering the rainforest. This isn’t Phil or Laila’s first time to the rodeo and it doesn’t take long before they spot Leopard tracks along the road.

African Leopard (Panthera pardus) tracks on dirt road next to tire marks, Lope National Park, Gabon

My confidence grows, later that night they show me video footage they got with trail cameras that show leopards along river banks. Even more reason to think that this may be possible.

The next day, we load up the backpacks with two digital SLR camera traps and head into the forest. The first sign that this wasn’t going to be easy was when we stopped at the forest edge to listen for African Forest Elephants. If these guys see, smell, or feel you (through vibrations in the ground), make sure you have your running shoes on — they will charge you. They are not the bluff charging kind either; instead they are the full barreling through the rainforest until you are way gone or beneath their feet kind. An encouraging thought. While we take our first steps I wonder how Phil and Laila are staying so calm with this constant threat looming, but somehow they continue on.

We first check one of Laila’s camera traps, deployed along a path.

No cats came up on the computer screen. It’s time to move on. We drop into a creek bed. After walking for a bit we notice a ton of leopard prints in the soft sand. A very good sign. We had previously decided to put the camera on a log spanning across the river (due to the cats wanting to avoid the water if at all possible) so we start looking for a suitable log. After a few hundred meters we find the perfect one. Not only are there foot prints all around it, there are scratch marks on it. Phil, also a master tracker, assures me its a leopard marking site.

This means it’s quite likely for the animal to return to this exact spot, so we don’t waste any time and set up the first camera. Another hundred meters and we find another log, this one with some leopard scat on it (which Phil immediately smells, measures, and photographs….crazy Phil), and we place the second camera on that bridge.

African Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) biologist Phillip Henschel measuring leopard scat diameter, Lope National Park, Gabon

In the next two days we place cameras along trails that have had leopards come by in the past (based on Laila’s camera trapping efforts). I was already dreaming of cat pictures galore.

Reality hit when we checked four of the cameras after ten days. No cats on any of them, instead other mammals visited (some of them making us people seem frighteningly very very small).

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) mother and baby in tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

Ogilby’s Duiker (Cephalophus ogilbyi) in tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

Black-legged Mongoose (Bdeogale nigripes) crossing over log bridge at night, Lope National Park, Gabon

African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) bull in tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

There were only three weeks left, I was starting to get really nervous about whether or not we would get a feline on one of the cameras. It was time to check the two log cameras, we get to the first camera and bam!!! Right off the bat there is a leopard picture, then another, and another.

African Leopard (Panthera pardus) male crossing log bridge over river at night, Lope National Park, Gabon

There are a couple of interesting things to note about the leopards in these pictures. One you can clearly see the size difference between the female and the male. Two, their eyes are not cloudy due to the flashes (which I always position so that the eyes look good), instead the clouding of the cornea, also called keratopathy, which leads to partial blindness is caused by Fire Ants that have stung the leopards in the eyes (which must be incredibly painful, if you have ever felt a fire ant bite). Luckily, both leopards look to be in good physical condition, apparently not completely hampered by their partially lost vision.

On to the second bridge. Another leopard photo, one that made me back away from the camera as I was reviewing the images. The leopard seemed to be coming right out of the camera.

The picture has a weird look to it, the leopard almost doesn’t look real due to the cloudy eyes. In my opinion, as the leopard is also covered with engorged ticks, it exemplifies what a tough world these guys live in. Constantly having to deal with ectoparasites just can’t be fun. I don’t even want to imagine the parasites within their bodies.

After seeing the pictures, I was of course elated, jumping up and down, and simply being extremely excited. I could not have asked for more, or so I thought, until this image showed up two weeks later:

African Leopard (Panthera pardus) male crossing log bridge over river in tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

African Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) male crossing log bridge over river in tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

It’s one of my favorite camera trap images because of the lighting, composition, the habitat, and the way the tail swirls around.

A picture like this is not just a set it up and get it kind of situation. Instead it is a culmination of a lot of factors. Building and getting the cameras into a country takes a lot of time, coordination, patience, bureaucratic paperwork, persistence, and sometimes just luck. Then comes the ecological research on the species. How does the animal move about its habitat? How many individuals occupy a certain area? Will more than one cat use the same path? What direction is the cat most likely to move in? I read everything and anything I can about a species before I try and photograph it.

Most importantly, only through extensive field experience by the researchers can these questions be answered. After figuring out the location for the camera, it’s time to decide on the exposure for the camera, and where and how to set the flashes. It’s not easy by any means, but every time I get a picture like the one above, I know it’s worth it.

These pictures were only possible due to Laila and Phil. Thank you guys, it was a true pleasure working together! Being able to call you my friends is something I cherish and I look forward to seeing both soon!

Endemic Birds of New Zealand

January 9, 2014 by pumapix

They call it the land of the birds, and why not, with over 170 species of birds, of which over 80% are endemic (only found there) to New Zealand, you can understand why. Plus, there are only two native mammal species on the islands, also of the flying variety ( the New Zealand Long-tailed Bat, and the New Zealand Lesser Short-tailed Bat).

Since New Zealand has been separated as its own land mass for over 65 million years, the bird species became extremely specialized in the habitats they occupied and in their way of foraging, leading to great speciation. This pattern of course changed with human settlement as the introduced rats and cats brought many bird species to extinction, plummeting the special total. Nowadays, conservation for the birds is quite strong, a somewhat easier task due to the fact that New Zealand is not an overpopulated country with plenty of habitat, or at the very least space for habitat restoration. This doesn’t mean of course that all is merry as some species are only holding on by a thread, but at least the country as a whole is moving in the right direction.

Kailani and I visited New Zealand for her PhD studies this summer (New Zealand’s winter). Though we were mostly in Wellington, we had the opportunity to make a few weekend excursions to look for some wildlife, by default being mostly endemic birds.

Land Birds

One of the closest, bird life filled places to Wellington is Kapiti Island. It is a small island separated from the main land by a fifteen minute boat ride, but most importantly, it is possum and rat free. That means the birds have no predators on the island and can go about their business as if humans had never come (aka, yipee for the birds!).

A few trails run through the forested section of the island, so we hiked around in there for a bit. Before long we got to see numerous New Zealand Robins. Specifically the North Island Robin, the subspecies endemic to the North Island of New Zealand.

New Zealand Robin (Petroica australis longipes) female, Kapiti Island, North Island, New Zealand

From there we wandered into the habitat taking up most of the island, shrubland. Quite easy to find there are the New Zealand Pigeons. The subspecies is the nominate type, found on all of the mainland of New Zealand.

New Zealand Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae), Kapiti Island, North Island, New Zealand

After that we had lunch at one of the few buildings on the island, which are surrounded by all so natural lawns, which also happen to be a favorite grazing area for the endemic Weka, a rail species. The subspecies here is the North Island Weka (Gallirallus australis greyi).

Weka (Gallirallus australis greyi), Kapiti Island, North Island, New Zealand

And soon after that we were treated to a sighting for which we made the whole trip. The Takahe is a bird thought extinct for fifty years, until it was rediscovered in 1948 by Geoffrey Orbell (how cool would it feel to be the person rediscovering a species thought extinct!). There are still only less than 300 individuals left of this bird but their population numbers are rising. To increase their chances of survival, birds have been moved to predator free islands (like Kapiti) to let them breed there, after which offspring get moved to different locations for subsequent breeding efforts. On Kapiti, there were three individuals, a breeding pair and their offspring, and we got to see all three of them! A perfect way to finish off the weekend!

Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) grazing, Kapiti Island, North Island, New Zealand

Seabirds

Then came the seabirds. I am not sure why I have a secret fascination with them, maybe its because they fly huge distances, often breed on offshore islands where no people live, are some of the most graceful fliers (or gliders), and can be hard to find (well, I guess I do know why I love them!). To try our luck with endemic New Zealand seabirds, Kailani and I did two pelagic trips out of Kaikoura, and boy were we not disappointed. Below are all the endemics we saw (all albatrosses) though we also had the pleasure of seeing Cape Petrels for our first time, as well as Northern and Southern Giant Petrels!

Antipodean Albatross (Diomedea antipodensis) on water, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Gibson’s Albatross (Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni) gliding over ocean, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Southern Royal Albatross (Diomedea epomophora) on water, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

White-capped Albatross (Thalassarche steadi) on water, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Buller’s Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri) flying over ocean, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Maybe the most amazing part of it all is that there are a ton more endemic birds we didn’t see. Sounds to me like we need to go back :). Have any of you been to New Zealand? Any birding spots you can recommend to the rest of us?

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Birds of Borneo

November 19, 2013 by pumapix

Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina) male, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Over 600 bird species have been recorded in Borneo and boy are they magical. When you are only used to seeing North American bird species, like me, with the exception of the bird species I saw in Yemen, your bird world changes quite drastically when you come to this tropical island. All of a sudden you realize that bird watching or in my case bird photography has a whole new dimension to understand and explore. Due to the extreme density and diversity in trees, birds specialize in what part of the forest they forage and hang out in. Is it the understory, middle story, upper story, or canopy?

At first I was getting extremely frustrated because I couldn’t seem to find any birds, but this was simply due to the fact that I had not learned to read the forest. I had to stop trying to see birds the way I did in the States and instead adopt the jungle view of bird life. Since I was stationed at Tawau Hills Park I was limited to looking for understory birds, which was quite the task in itself. With vegetation being extremely dense, (as I described in this blog post), it was tough going but with time I learned to be more patient and take a sit and wait approach rather than my usual stalk and pounce method. When I would hear a bird call, I would simply stop and wait until I spotted movement and then I followed the bird until it came close enough for pictures (which as you know is most often not the case) . So, first came the understory birds:

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) in breeding plumage, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) pair on Elephant Ear Taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos) flower, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker (Prionochilus xanthopygius) male feeding on flower nectar, Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Stork-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis), Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

After a month at Tawau I took a quick side trip further north in Sabah to Sepilok, and more specifically Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Center,a nature reserve set up by a former forest ranger. It is comprised of the same jungle I was used to in Tawau, with one major difference. There was a canopy walkway. These metal paths and towers, propped up up to 90 feet in the air, provided the access to see the birds of the middle and upper story, as well as the canopy. All the birds I only heard in Tawau were now only feet away, going about their business as if it wasn’t weird that a human being is casually walking through the trees.

The birds of the middle story:

Black-and-yellow Broadbill (Eurylaimus ochromalus) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Rufous Woodpecker (Celeus brachyurus) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Red-naped Trogon (Harpactes kasumba) male, Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

The birds of the upper story and canopy:

Brown Barbet (Calorhamphus fuliginosus) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus), Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Most special of all the birds though was the endemic Bristlehead. This is an incredibly unique bird, in fact, it is the only species in its whole bird family (which is Pityriaseidae). I only got to see this bird one time, but it was nice enough to hang around for 1-2 minutes which provided enough time to marvel at its beautiful yellow and red feathers and to get a close look at its uniquely shaped bill.

Bornean Bristlehead (Pityriasis gymnocephala), Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Borneo was a huge learning curve, but one I was happy to undergo. The shapes, colors, and behaviors of these birds is just magical. I can only recommend you checking them out yourself!

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Free Forest Elephant Wallpaper

October 30, 2013 by pumapix

Here is October’s free desktop wallpaper! It’s another wildlife image from the jungles of Gabon. This is a dslr camera trap image of an African Forest Elephant. The debate whether this is a separate subspecies or even its own species still continues to this day, but these elephants are definitely smaller than their savanna cousins. Thankfully poaching is not a big threat in Lope National Park and elephant densities may be the highest in this part of the country. They have had hunting pressure in the past though and since these elephants live a long time, many older individuals still have bullets in their skin and have understandably developed a severe disliking of humans. Now, when you walk through the rainforest your biggest fear is running into one of these guys. They will charge you instead of running away, and most of the time they are not bluff charges. It’s scary as hell. I am very glad I wasn’t anywhere near the camera when this guy walked past, taking his self portrait while stepping into a puddle of water.

As always, just click on the image for the wallpaper sized image or use this link African Forest Elephant Stepping into Puddle.