"Vaquita" is Spanish for "little cow", and is the smallest porpoise in the world. Vaquitas lives exclusively in the shallow, turbid waters within Mexico's upper Gulf of California (also called the Sea of Cortez). The species is instantly recognisable thanks to its characteristic dark rings around the eyes, and its black lips. Unfortunately, this lovely cetacean is currently on the brink of extinction, and currently listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List ; the steep decline in abundance is primarily due to bycatch in gillnets from the illegal totoaba fishery. In fact the WWF estimates that there are only about 10 vaquitas alive today (source: https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/vaquita), and so the species is on the verge of extinction.

Today we celebrate reindeers, who according to urban legend have just pulled Father Christmas' sleight on the magical night of Christmas day. The reindeer in these images are from Norway (notice the Norther lights) and from Finland. May the magic of Christmas touch your heart and mind!

Colourful fish and coral at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia.

Deer in India.

Swans on a lake at the winter solstice, in Yili, Xinjiang, China.

Lupines in purple and blue growing wild.

November is Manatee Awareness Month! Today we wish thise gentle giants a safe and happy Manatee Awareness Month. Closer cousins to elephants than to fellow sea mammals such as whales and dolphins, manatees follow a fully herbivorous diet of sea grasses and other marine plants — so these fish hanging out with our buddy here needn"t fear becoming a manatee"s lunch. 😀

Blue tit (left) and great tit in snowfall, at the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park in France.

Grapes on the vine ripening for the autumn harvest.

A lion looks up at a drone.