Cheering-up bird 21- Macaroni Penguin

Good morning and Happy Monday to you.

Today's cheering-up bird is the Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus.

Adults of this species are around 70cm (28 inches)tall/long and males have a mass of around 3.3kg (7lbs) after incubating their egg to around 6.4kg (14lbs) before moulting (females are a little lighter). This dramatic weightloss shows the strain that incubating the egg (and being unable to feed during this time) puts on the birds. More detailed information on this species is available here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_penguin

This image, taken on Livingstone Island, off Antarctica is by Jerzy Sterzelecki and was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macaroni_%28js%291.jpg, where you can view the image licence (creative commons attribution 3.0 unported).

Image of the day- Okapi

Image (c) Victoria Neblik, 2009. All rights reserved.

Today's image-of-the-day is one of my favourite animals. The okapi is really a "forest giraffe" of sorts. So shy that it eluded science and was considered a myth until 1920, the okapi is in the unhappy predicament of inhabiting war/conflict-torn parts of Central Africa- specifically,the rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It would be lovely if reservations for it could be created, but it seems impossible in the current climate.

This image is one of many in the forthcoming book "Weirdbeautiful"- for advance notice of the book's release, e mail neblik@yahoo.co.uk with "weirdbeautiful book" in the subject line.

Weird wildlife II- Weirdugly

I recently stumbled across this picture gallery and article showcasing 19 of the world's ugliest animals. It must have been something of a slow news day at The New York Daily News when this was published, but with gems like the "red-lipped batfish" and the fearsome looking Ayeaye, it is defintely one of their better articles-

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/galleries/the_worlds_ugliest_animals_/the_worlds_ugliest_animals_.html

Quote of the Week- M.K. Gandhi

"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." - Mohandas, K. Gandhi

Weird wildlife I- Extinction of "The Blobfish"?

.. it sounds (and, frankly, looks)like something from a science fiction film,
but the Blobfish- Psychrolutes marcidus-is very real. The weird but certainly not beuatiful deep water fish that lives off the coast of Australia and Tasmania is sadly now threatened with extinction, due to changes in fishing practices, as this news article explains-

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/features/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151895604

The Magnificence of Elephants

Image by Victoria Neblik, 2010, all rights reserved.

"If you ask the average person to describe the colour of an elephant, you will most likey be told that elephants are grey. Certainly, on gloomy, overcast days, they can appear to be grey: but I have noticed many different colours emanate from elephants. As the light bounces off them, they seem pink at sunset, blue at night, orange in the morning and brown under a coating of dust."- wildlife photographer Steve Bloom - quote from his book "Elephant"

Rock formation near Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia.
This picture is taken from an overhanging section of rock- the yellower rock is about 8-10feet lower than the greyer foreground. The rock that would be in the middle, having been eroded by the sea.
Image (c) V. Neblik, 2002, 2009 all rights reserved.