34 posts tagged “animals”

This is incredible footage ....

This is an extremely beautiful and unique project created by Gregory Colbert. The show has already been shown in Venice, New York, Santa Monica and Tokyo and opens in January 2008 at the Zocalo, Mexico City. Hopefully, it will be shown in other cities throughout the world as I would love to see this.

  

“In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that is without beginning or end, here or there, past or present.” —Gregory Colbert, Creator of Ashes and Snow  Website: http://www.ashesandsnow.org

The title Ashes and Snow suggests beauty and renewal, while also referring to the literary component of the exhibition—a fictional account of a man who, over the course of a yearlong journey, composes 365 letters to his wife. The source of the title is revealed in the 365th letter. Colbert's photographs and one-hour film loosely reference the traveller's encounters and experiences described in the letters.

It’s been a while since I’ve featured an artist/photographer on my blog and this photographer, Dennis Bromage, caught my attention recently after seeing his stunning photograph Lost in a Warming World (below). Dennis has taken other photographs of this adorable family of polar bears.

You can see this talented, young photographer’s gallery here - http://www.ephotozine.com/u63973/gallery

This story has just come to my attention even although it happened in 2004 .....

A baby hippo rescued after floods in Kenya has befriended a 100-year-old tortoise in Kenya.

The one-year-old hippo calf christened Owen was found alone and dehydrated by wildlife rangers near the Indian Ocean.

He was placed in an enclosure at a wildlife sanctuary in the coastal city of Mombasa and befriended a male tortoise of a similar colour.

According to a park official, they sleep together, eat together and "have become inseparable".  "Since Owen arrived on the 27 December, the tortoise behaves like a mother to it," Haller Park tourism manager Pauline Kimoti told the BBC News website.

"The hippo follows the tortoise around and licks his face," she said.

The tortoise is named Mzee, which is Swahili for old man. Ms Kimoti said that if the 300kg hippo continued to thrive then in the next few weeks they would allow the public to see the unlikely pair together before they are separated. The sanctuary, which is on the site of a former cement factory, plans eventually to get the help of the Kenya Wildlife Service to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippo in a separate enclosure.

Here are a couple of video compilations, courtesy of "Picardy" on YouTube showing this beautiful friendship in snapshots.  I had a tear in my eye watching these.

 

This is cute ….  source http://news.ninemsn.com.au/slideshow/

A Bengal tiger has been charming visitors to a Thai zoo for nearly four years, tending to generations of playful piglets as if they were her own. Six-year-old Bengal tiger Saimai is matriarch to an extraordinary family unit. She has been caring for adopted groups of mischievous piglets at the Sriracha Zoo near Bangkok, Thailand, since she was two years old.

“First we took the piglets away from their mother, then we left them with the tiger, and straight away they ran to the tiger mother, thinking that it was their mother,” Saimai’s trainer, Samit Krajangpoh, told Metro.

“They were searching for breast milk from Saimai.” Her latest batch of piglets wear little tiger fur coats, while one even sports a red bowtie. The piglets when not feeding and resting are most fond of sparring playfully with each other.

I stumbled across this photograph and thought that it was adorable - unfortunately I cannot acknowledge the photographer as I do not know who took it.  I did not see it on this site but it is available at http://www.photoshot.com/home.jsp

This has got to be the most pampered hippo ever - a great story.

Steve Bloom is a photographic artist who specializes in evocative images of the natural world. Born in South Africa, he first used the camera to document life there during the seventies. He moved to England in 1977, where he worked in the graphic arts industry for many years. In the early nineties, during a visit to South Africa, his interest in wildlife photography emerged, and within a short time he had swapped his established career for the precarious life of a wildlife photographer. Such a move demands an added measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

He has won awards for his work and his pictures are seen around the world in calendars, posters, advertising, editorial features and a multitude of other products. His books have been published in fifteen languages. Professional Photographer Magazine described him as a 'photographer at the leading edge who sets the agenda for the future'.

Steve’s concern for the environment is strongly evident in his images. In his book, Untamed, he writes: “I am humbled by the opportunities I have had to witness the diversity of life in so many places, and I hope to share such experiences. Photography is the means by which I strive to engender in others a feeling of unity with the natural world. There remains the ongoing challenge to portray life in all its manifestations, and create images that reveal the very essence of what it is to be a living being.”

 Steve Bloom's Website