Share Animal Pictures: For Animal Lovers

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Screen Shot 2022-08-15 at 5.57.07 PM.png
 
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That probably came from a dog diving competition like one that I saw this weekend.
 
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BillTre said:
[crow-on-eagle...]
So what's going on there? It looks like the eagle is carrying some kind of prey(?) and the crow is trying to induce the eagle to drop it?
 
strangerep said:
So what's going on there? It looks like the eagle is carrying some kind of prey(?) and the crow is trying to induce the eagle to drop it?
I thought it was provisions for the way.
 
strangerep said:
So what's going on there? It looks like the eagle is carrying some kind of prey(?) and the crow is trying to induce the eagle to drop it?
I don't see the prey (the raptor's wings are in the down position covering any prey in the photo), but I do see the tether leather strap which means it's a raptor managed by a falconer. The raptor looks to be lining up on a branch that it will pass a couple mm below at high speed. Have a good day, crow!
 
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berkeman said:
I don't see the prey (the raptor's wings are in the down position covering any prey in the photo), but I do see the tether leather strap which means it's a raptor managed by a falconer.
Ah, that explains it. To me, it looked like the tail of a small wallaby, though I figured this photo is unlikely to originate in Australia. :oldsmile:
 
I would guess that the smaller bird was trying to chase the raptor (by annoying it) out of its territory or away from the location of its nest.
 
Two stick insects on a window screen in Florida:

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DennisN said:
A marvellous photo! :kiss:
Agreed. After studying the beautiful photo more, do you all think that the photographer had the foresight to set up a fill flash tripod several feet to his/her left for this shot? The lighting on the bird is stunning, with the Sun backlight and the artistic front/left highlights. The fill flash highlights look too far off axis to the left to be from a flash mounted on the camera -- more likely mounted on a tripod a meter or two to the left, IMO.

And how did the photographer know to set up on this scene? Maybe the owl regularly hunts this area, so the setup had a good chance? Amazing all around.
 
berkeman said:
After studying the beautiful photo more, do you all think that the photographer had the foresight to set up a fill flash tripod several feet to his/her left for this shot? The lighting on the bird is stunning, with the Sun backlight and the artistic front/left highlights. The fill flash highlights look too far off axis to the left to be from a flash mounted on the camera -- more likely mounted on a tripod a meter or two to the left, IMO.
Interesting thought.
Its hard to tell without knowing more about the bird and location, however I'm inclinded to think that the bird's underside and bottom of the bird's right wing are highly illuminated by reflection of the sun'ss light from snow (very highly reflective). The top of the bird's other wing is not so well illuminated (facing away from the sun, not so much light would bounce back toward the sun in that dircetion. However, its not easy to tell if that is a good comparison without knowing what it looks like in comparison with the rest of the bird in even lighting.

berkeman said:
And how did the photographer know to set up on this scene? Maybe the owl regularly hunts this area, so the setup had a good chance? Amazing all around.
It could be luck without a set-up, just using the reflected light,
or the only reasonable way to decide to do such a set-up would be if the bird was expected to be there. Perhaps a regular hunting circuit, maybe with some bait. Even having bait would not guarantee the bird would approach from the right direction.
 
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TIL that the current estimate of the number of ants in the world is 20 quadrillion.

That's 12 megatons of biomass—more than the combined weight of all the wild birds and mammals.
 
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Camouflage can be effective in some situations:

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Or does the tree have eyes?
 
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pinball1970 said:
Is that a real image? No adjustments?
I believe it is.
 
BillTre said:
Camouflage can be effective in some situations:

View attachment 314475

Or does the tree have eyes?
Incredible. Not just the the colour but the stop start so the prey would not be alerted.
Same in the Savannah but this looks more striking.
Amazing image and a nod to the engine of natural selection.
 
pinball1970 said:
a nod to the engine of natural selection
The power of natural selection is amazing.
Before it was understood, its effects were though only possible as an act of God.
 
Suckers on the feeding tentacle of a young squid:

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A winner in Nikon’s annual Small World photography contest that I like:

Screen Shot 2022-10-11 at 12.10.46 PM.png

This is a bunch of fluorescently labeled cortical neurons. This labeling based on some cool molecular tricks produces many different colors,letting different neurons be distinguished color. Without the different coloring, these neurons would just make a big confusing tangle (visually speaking) of cells and processes and would be much less informative.

The clouds of neurons in large vertebrate nervous systems is a distinctive feature of large vertebrate nervous systems. Many invertebrate (and some vertebrate) nervous systems have way fewer neurons. Some (like crayfish) have one motor neuron (per motoneuron type (activator and inhibitor)) per muscle.
The large populations of largely equivalent neurons in large vertebrates nervous systems present different neuro-computational possibilities.
 
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BillTre said:
A winner in Nikon’s annual Small World photography contest that I like:

View attachment 315435
This is a bunch of fluorescently labeled cortical neurons. This labeling based on some cool molecular tricks produces many different colors,letting different neurons be distinguished color. Without the different coloring, these neurons would just make a big confusing tangle (visually speaking) of cells and processes and would be much less informative.

The clouds of neurons in large vertebrate nervous systems is a distinctive feature of large vertebrate nervous systems. Many invertebrate (and some vertebrate) nervous systems have way fewer neurons. Some (like crayfish) have one motor neuron (per motoneuron type (activator and inhibitor)) per muscle.
The large populations of largely equivalent neurons in large vertebrates nervous systems present different neuro-computational possibilities.
That's beautiful!