Is this grey seal hovering in a gliding motion over a sandy beach? The illusion is all down to this photo's focus and perspective (courtesy of Frederic Desmette), which captured our seal friend precisely in the midst of a flop whilst it was just an inch off the ground, as it was making its way to the sea to get its lunch. Quite a mind trick, wouldn't you agree?
No trip to Olympic National Park in the state of Washington would be complete without a stop at the Tree of Life, a mysterious tree suspended in the air over a parted cliff along the Pacific coast, clinging to the earth by just a few roots.
Originally the Tree of Life was just another spruce tree, but then, in the 1960s, at Kalaloch Campground, near the Kalaloch Lodge, a culvert was built to redirect water just a few hundred yards away. A minor bit of engineering, but that newly directed water made its way to the beach and began to carve out a tiny canyon — one that moved right under this spruce tree growing on the sandy bluff.
Shaped like a giant bonsai, its upper limbs have grown to endure the winds off the ocean. A stream trickles underneath, a modest burble that has nevertheless sculpted a cavern into being, washing away enough clay and dirt underneath the tree to expose its tentacles, whilst its remaining anchors clutch either side even as many of its roots now reach to nowhere.
A natural wonder, something delicate yet representing enormous tenacity, the Tree of Life has become one of the Olympic Peninsula’s best-known attractions.
The puma, a large cat native to the Americas, is the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in that region. It holds the Guinness world record for the animal with the greatest number of names, with over 40 in English alone, such as cougar, panther, and mountain lion.
Pumas can be found in most American habitat types, especially habitats with dense underbrush, and rocky areas for stalking, but can also be found in open areas. Pumas can live in all forest types, lowland and mountainous deserts, as well as in open areas that have little vegetation up to an elevation of 5,800 m.
Shown here (from top) are two cubs running over shallow water that has frozen over, a stalking puma, and lastly a puma looking regal at night in the Andes.
The Joshua tree, native to the Mojave Desert, is known for its unique and almost alien-look. It’s got a fibrous trunk that rises straight up and branches out into what looks like smaller trunks with spiky brushes at its tips.
Joshua trees aren’t actually trees — they’re succulents, a type of plant that stores water. In their dry ecosystems, however, they are considered trees of the desert. The Joshua tree is an important part of the Mojave Desert ecosystem, providing habitat for numerous birds, mammals, insects, and lizards. Joshua tree forests tell a story of survival, resilience, and beauty borne through perseverance.
The Joshua tree, which grows in fiercely adverse conditions, was seen by the Irish rock band U2 as a symbol of faith and hope amidst the dry and barren desert.
A traffic police officer assists a three-toed sloth in crossing a busy asphalt road, but later he discovers her baby hiding timidly in the tall grass on the other side of the road!
It's autumn, and the Porcupine caribou (so named after their calving grounds, namely the Porcupine River, that runs from Canada's Yukon territory to the U.S. state of Alaska) will be starting their annual migration from their wintering grounds in the Alaskan and Yukon boreal forests, over the mountains and to the coastal plain and their calving grounds on the Beaufort Sea coastal plain. The caribou (also known outside North America as reindeer) are seen here crossing Alaska's Kobuk River in Kobuk Valley National Park, both when the river is shallow, as well as when the river becomes deep such that the caribou have to swim through.
(Click on an image for full view.)
Water anoles are semi-aquatic lizards found in the tropical forests and wetlands of southwestern Costa Rica and far southwestern Panama. The water anole is unusual in that it is able to stay underwater for long periods of time – a behavior that is described as "scuba diving". Experiments have confirmed that this species has the ability to remain underwater for up to 20 minutes.
These pencil-long lizards can survive underwater by breathing through a bubble that forms on their nostrils. When water anoles take the plunge, they exhale to produce a bubble that covers their nostrils. Additionally tiny bubbles form naturally on the lizard’s hydrophobic, or water-repellent, skin, and these join up with the larger bubble, potentially raising the amount of oxygen available to breathe.
By submerging themselves underwater for prolonged periods of time, the water anole is able to remain invisible to its predators. The water anoles also use this "scuba diving" ability to hunt prey that live underwater and would otherwise be inaccessible to the lizards. Therefore, the anoles can both escape predators and forage for food with this unique "scuba diving" behavior.
Here's eight images of our favourite soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc, namely the octopus. Octopi have nine brains and three hearts. They also can use tools and recognise people.
Wild carrots are small, spindle-like, white, and slim. They are both aromatic and acrid making their flavour undesirable and therefore wild carrots are not a popular dietary option and are considered weeds in most countries. Nonetheless they was originally cultivated some 5,000 years ago in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, for their aromatic leaves and seeds, for medicinal purposes, rather than for their roots.
However the cultivation of the carrot resulted in a significant change in both colour and taste, as they were selectively bred over the centuries to reduce bitterness, increase sweetness and minimise the woody core; this process eventually produced the familiar garden vegetable.
Up to the 17th century, the domesticated varieties of the wild carrot were purple or yellow, but at the turn of the 18th century Dutch growers created the orange variety that we eat today. This replaced the purple and yellow varieties, which had a tendency to brown soups and soups, thereby reducing the visual appeal of food.
