Indian Giant Squirrel

From the birds, time to take a detour to a mammal- this time a Squirrel.
Before I encountered this Indian Giant Squirrel ( Ratufa indica), I always believed that it was a very shy creature. Somehow the squirrel, was never bothered with my presence and I managed to get such wonderful captures, that it was a challenge to select the most prettiest of the lot. There was a leaping, sleeping, eating and fighting squirrel and I chose the most calm looking one's. This arboreal mammal, spent most of its time eating- well, that is what I saw it doing most of the time. Munching and munching on lots and lots of berries.

Apparently, there is quite a raging controversy on classification of this species. Taxonomist are unsure, if to keep this squirrel to one species or to divide it into sub species - and anything from two to eight sub species are being proposed. Probably, genetic studies can resolve the dilemma in the future.
Whatever the issue, I had a jolly good time watching and spending time with this adorable chap!

Spotted at Ganeshgudi, Karnataka.

Dolphins - part 2

Bottle Nosed Dolphins

To accommodate more photographs, the photographs displayed here are reduced in size. Click on the image to view a full sized image
Enroute from Iran to India, on my tanker in position somewhere south of Pakistan and where the Gulf of Oman meets the Arabian sea, my ship was accompanied by a school of these playful Bottle nosed dolphins.Putting up a splendid show of acrobatics, as good as any trained dolphins, it was hard to believe that these were wild dolphins with hardly any human contacts.
Watching them I felt that they were competing against each other, trying to outdo the other in height of jump and the skill of jump.
To the many that I showed these photographs; found it hard to believe that these we photographed at mid sea and were amazed to realize that these were wild dolphins. I am so privileged to have witnessed this show.
Just posting a few of the 400 photographs that i managed to clicked of this incredible display.
Will post few more tomorrow.

Bonnete Macaque

Macaque's are short tailed or tailless monkeys of Africa and Asia with large cheek-pouches. They are the most common species of monkeys found in India. Just a word of caution: In case you find a captive monkey in a circus, zoo or as anyone's pet, please be careful cause about 90% of these captive monkeys carry Hepatitis- B virus. It does not affect the monkey, but humans are susceptible to it and can contract the same through bites, scratches and contact with mucous membrane.
If you see one in the Wild like this, just sit back and enjoy.

Indian Leopard

Last year, I put up a post on 'mating leopards', in which the face of the majestic beast was not visible. Last month, I managed to fulfill my long standing desire of capturing a close up. And this leopard was in his sweet dream world.
It is the most successful member of the wild cat family, probably because of its agility, tree climbing habits with the added advantage of being a versatile eater. A leopard will eat anything from a small beetle to a large deer and some times even fish and birds.
Inspite of all this, we should not forget that the leopard population is on a decline. Its our duty to keep the alarm bells from ringing.

Elephants

In this photograph, a baby elephant is seen hugging its mother very lovingly. The elephant may not have the intelligence of a human but, it sure has the heart and the emotions.
The elephants have a matriarchal society. The female elephant has a gestation period of 18-22 months and a calf suckles its mother for about 3 years. If a mature calf is female it stays with the herd and if it is a male it is chased away.
The elephant featured here is the Asian elephant whose population is about 60,000, which is 1/10th of its African counterpart. About 13,000 of these are domesticated and in zoo's.
Elephants communicate with low frequency sounds, way below human hearing capacity.

Bottlenose Dolphins

Photographed these sea beauties in the middle of the Arabian Sea. It's a different feel to see these creatures in the wild, playing along with their brood. A couple of these curious mammals did come close to my Ship to investigate it and swam along with her for about a mile, until a new batch of dolphins took over and continued swimming ahead of the ship's bow for another mile or so and were replaced by yet another batch for another mile. It seemed like the dolphins were escorting my ship as we passed through their wild territory. Since these mammals need to surface every 5-6 minutes to breathe, we at sea, see these mammals often, especially in warm waters.

Asiatic Lion

Photographs of the critically endangered Asiatic Lion and Lioness. Today they are found only in India and that too only about 350 exist in the Gir Forests. It is believed that by 1907 there were only 13 Asiatic lions left; fortunately the Nawab of Junagadh gave them complete protection and saved them for extinction. Since today all the Asiatic Lion's are descendent's of the 13 lions, many believe that there has been inbreeding within the lions and they could be susceptible to diseases.

The Royal Bengal Tiger

Yesterday I had read reports that less than 1500 of these magnificent creatures survive in India today and the animal is severely endangered. Today a local daily in Mangalore carried reports of 5 people being arrested with tiger and leopard skins. Saddened by this I decided to make a post on the tiger and dedicate todays post to the Bengal Tiger.
The tiger is not only a beautiful animal it is also the worlds most favorite animal, In a poll conducted by animal planet in 73 countries the tiger was the favorite animal followed by the dog. Although there are lots of tigers in captivity today, many more than in the wild, the genetic diversity of future generations will tend to be poor and will have a extremely small gene pool. So not only for global warming but for the sake of our favorite animal we need to save our forests.
About the Photograph:
For many on a first glance the first photograph may appear to have been poorly framed, lots of space in the right of the photograph, only three fourth of the tiger being visible and a slight blur or the legs.
The very Idea of this framing is to give the photograph a sense of movement, the empty area in front of the tiger, and the slight blur of the tigers front legs, all help in giving the photograph a sense of motion. The idea being, whatever part of the tiger is out of frame (in this case almost 1/3rd) similar area is left blank in the direction of movement, as if to appear that it will be filled up any moment.

Leopards Mating

I was very lucky to be able to photograph these mating Leopards. The tree stump in the foreground did create lots of problem in getting a good angle and clear view to frame the photograph. But then that's nature, which gives wildlife photography its own charm.
Between the sexes, the male leopard is slightly larger and considerably heavier than the female. The average male leopard weighs 63.1 kg, while the average female weighs 37.2 kg.
Like other felines, a female leopard when mating lays flat on the ground on her belly in a position called lordosis, and presents her rear end to the male, which he sniffs to determine if she is receptive. During mating, the male lightly grasps the female on the back of the neck with his teeth. The female responds to this with a low grumble during the entire mating session. The male Leopards penis have tiny backwards facing spines, which are found only in the cat family. They are believed to provide stimulation for ovulation. The act of copulation itself lasts only a minute or two at most, which makes sitings like this all the more rare.