Heavy Weight Hippo

Thanks friends for love and support, I hope everyone is following the zebra crossing rule and following blog as well 😆. Today I am opting one my favorite animal for the topic it has a place in my top ten list, though some time behavior gives lazy sign still I love them for their fitness 😄😄 I mean roly-poly look especially the young ones they are so cute. So let me introduce my favorite heavyweight champion Hippo.

A date with Hippo

Before I provide you information on this chubby animal let me share the memorable time I spent with a hippo. In African countries where the habitat is best suited, the count is never a problem. I am not counting the zoo because I feel animal's place is not captivity but it is forest and we should explore them only in its natural habitat to enjoy unique behavior. I had been to Kenya where I could see Hippos at Lake Naivasha and at Masai Mara both the places are the beautiful place and highly rich with the cont as well. Firstly we saw Hippos during our Lake safari where they were playing hide and seek with us, they were enjoying the swim with large numbers including baby one. The reason I said hide & seek because they were not giving constant pose but like a fish, they were coming out of water for a moment only, still, we captured them in our camera and heart. 

Nevertheless, the behavior at Masai was completely different where they were out of the water and were lying on the bank as a beanbag. If you see them from far you will surely feel its beanbag and not the Hippo. After this, on one lovely morning, we were surprised with unique behavior where they were kissing each other or playing and fighting with each other. It was such a unique sighting that no one expected out of such silent cum violent animal but when you have a blessing from Mother Nature, nothing is impossible.

Do you know me well? 

The name comes from the ancient Greek for River Horse. Hippo is a large, mostly herbivorous, semi-aquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus

Hippo inhabits rivers, lakes, and mangrove swamps, where territorial bulls preside over a stretch of river and groups of five to thirty females and young

Hippos graze on land; they do not eat while in the water and do not graze on aquatic plants. They prefer short, creeping grass and small green shoots and reeds

Hippos bask on the shoreline and secrete an oily red substance, which gave rise to the myth that they sweat blood. The liquid is actually a skin moistener and sunblock that may also provide protection against germs

They are only territorial while in the water. Both reproduction and birth occur in the water. Hippo calves weigh approximately 45kg at birth and can suckle on land or underwater by closing their ears and nostrils

Each female has only one calf every two years. Soon after birth, mother and young join schools that provide some protection against crocodiles, lions, and hyenas

They spend four to five hours grazing and can consume 68 kg of grass each night. Considering their enormous size, a hippo’s food intake is relatively low

Just how deadly are Hippos?

Hippos are the third largest land animal, after elephants and white rhinos. Despite their large size and roly-poly looks, they are fast and furious -- and are considered one of the deadliest animals in the World

The truth is, hippos are extraordinarily aggressive. They live in groups called schools or bloat and jostle for position on the social ladder. The big "yawns" they make are actually aggressive displays, showing off their sizable and sharp teeth

Not only do they go for each other, but a hippo will charge anything it perceives as a threat, even cattle grazing nearby or people either on land or even when in boats traveling along a river. Just when it will charge is anyone's guess -- hippos are famously unpredictable

Hippos can run a surprising 14 miles per hour for short distances, so it is not easy to outrun one even on land 

Conservation

The IUCN classified the Hippo as having vulnerable status in 2008

Despite the fact that hippos are so deadly to a human, humans are the ones causing hippos to fast disappear as a species. Hippos have lost vast portions of their habitat to human settlements and are now confined primarily to protected areas. They are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory canine teeth

A Message of the Day 

Wildlife is in crisis, act now. Shoot animals with a camera, not with a gun

Author

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photography

Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

Deadly DSLR

Zabardast Zebra

Fantastic Sunday is back for yet another blog before I start let me wish you bundled of joy and happiness for the festival season. After the success of Giraffe, the real challenge is what next? There were many options were in mind but before I finalize the same I got a request from one of my special friend Ramulu. He has a valid reason because people are hardly aware of this lovely animal, we only know them for crossing the roads 😟 hence with due respect to the thoughts bringing you Zabardast Zebra.

Zebra Crossing

This is the only thing we think when we hear word “Zebra” black and white stripes on the road that is not the only life of Zebra, let us understand the importance of stripes on its body and see how it is helpful to a lovely animal.

One of the most interesting facts of the stripe is unbelievable, we all think that the body Zebra is a striped body but it is not the case. The reason I said unbelievable because there was a belief that zebras were white animals with black stripes since some zebras have white underbellies but Embryological evidence, however, shows that the animal's background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions. Such an amazing creature of the God, naked eyes just cannot judge whether its white body or black because of such a mesmerizing design. This is one aspect of the strips let us see other unique aspects of the same as well. 

Each zebra's stripes are unique. Just as no two human fingerprints are alike, no two zebras have the same stripe pattern

The stripes are typically vertical on the head, neck, forequarters, and the main body, with horizontal stripes at the rear and on the legs of the animal; it is likely that the stripes are caused by a combination of factors

The stripes may help to confuse predators by motion dazzle—a group of zebras standing or moving close together may appear as one large mass of flickering stripes, making it more difficult for the lion to pick out a target

The vertical striping may help the zebra hide in the grass by disrupting its outline. In addition, even at moderate distances, the striking striping merges to an apparent grey

When moving the stripes may confuse the observant because of visual illusions or the wagon-wheel effect, where the perceived motion is inverted and the barber pole illusion, where the perceived motion is in a wrong direction

I know you are amazed with the facts of strips, and to add to that will disclose more and more unknown details, which will be cherry on the cake. Let us move the next section to know more about the Zebra family

My world and me

Do you know there are three species of Zebras, the plains zebra, the mountain zebra, and the Grévy's zebra? 

The Grévy's resembles an ass, to which zebras are closely related, while the other two look more horse-like

Zebras have four gaits (manner of walking) walk, trot, canter, and gallop. They are generally slower than horses, but their great stamina helps them outrun predators

Zebras have excellent eyesight. Like most ungulates, the zebra's eyes are on the sides of its head, giving it a wide field of view. Zebras also have night vision

Zebras have excellent hearing and have larger, rounder ears than horses, zebras can turn their ears in almost any direction. In addition to superb eyesight and hearing, zebras also have acute senses of smell and taste

I am sure you will love the uniqueness of the Zebra, do visit the national park and observe the details I have shared herewith you to enjoy your trip, do visit the DSLR section to enjoy the journey

Conservation

Various environmental factors have had a severe impact on zebra populations, in particular, hunting for skins and habitat destruction. Grévy's zebra and the mountain zebra are endangered, while plains zebras are much more plentiful

Though there is currently a plan, called the Quagga Project, that aims to breed zebras that are phenotypically similar to the quagga in a process called breeding back

Special Thanks: Ramulu for motivating me to initiate a habit of blogging, you are the great motivator

A Message of the Day 

Shoot animals with a camera, not with a gun

Author

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photographyLife is Safari. Enjoy it.

Deadly DSLR

Giant Giraffe

Hello readers, thanks a lot for following blog space and showering your love towards this blog post. Your love motivates me to come up with a new topic every week so as you can explore new things and continue to bless me. Last week we explored Hyena who is ugly but unique than any other animal so this time around I thought to explore beautiful animal that is equally unique in terms of how nature has created them and how they survive with such huge built. Yes as the title suggests let us meet giant amongst all the lovely Giraffe.

DTH - Dark Tall and Handsome

Title DTH is absolutely matching with this cute animal, the dark light color combination, and tallest height and handsome because of a long neck, nothing is missing from making Giraffe from becoming DTH. I love Giraffe the most because of its simple nature and its unique behavior, you will also agree when you will see the facts in the coming sections below.

To start with let me share experience in short so you will understand why I love Giraffe and then will go to the other sections to explore it in detail. First time I saw Giraffe at Mysore zoo, it was in captivity, however, the area was huge to give comfort but still, it is not independence for them. they were roaming around in area allotted them, I was fascinated and decided to explore more but at the place where they are free to do anything hence I decided to visit Kenya which is apt place for Giraffe. 

During Kenya visit we were lucky to see various unique activity they do in their routine, some of the unique behavior like drinking water, eating the leaf, socializing in a group with baby giraffe and most important and unique of all is necking (Must read in next section). The count in Kenya is not a problem hence we were able to capture almost everything day and day out, the tall height of Giraffe with a lovely background of Masai Mara was a deadly combination to make award-winning frames, please visit DSLR section to validate these lovely moments. As usual, you know our blog never ends without unknown facts, so let us take a tour to the fantastic facts of this Giant creature.

The Necking 

The necking is a combat activity between male giraffes to establish dominance. They use their necks as a weapon in a combat, and male that wins necking bouts have greater reproductive success. This behavior occurs at the low or high intensity. In low-intensity necking, the combatants rub and lean against each other, the male that can hold itself more erect wins the bout. In high-intensity necking, the combatants will spread their front legs and swing their necks at each other, attempting to land blows with their ossicones (Ossicones are horn or antler-like, protuberances on the heads of giraffes). The contestants will try to dodge each other's blows and then get ready to counter. The power of a blow depends on the weight of the skull and the arc of the swing. Although most fights do not lead to serious injury, there have been records of broken jaws, broken necks, and even deaths. You have to be very lucky to experience this unique behavior in the wild. Mother Nature gifted us the necking moment in our Masai trip the experience was such that it is difficult to explain in words, do visit wildlife to explore and understand the beauty of our own nature.

Things you might not know 

Giraffes are ruminants like a cow, they eat the leaves of trees, digest them for a while, then vomit up the half-digested leaves (the “cud”) so they can chew it some more and digest it again in a different part of their stomach. Because of this habit, Giraffes are classified as “Ruminants

Giraffes are the tallest amongst mammals. Males are sometimes 18 feet tall and range in around 3600 pounds

The giraffe can stay long without drinking water; the digestive system can obtain almost all the water that they need from the leaves that they eat, adult giraffes only need to drink once every couple of days

The rare white giraffe do exist; White giraffes still do have some pigmentation and dark eyes. Because they are so rare, it was a special treat to see one in Serengeti National Park

While the different sub-species of giraffes can appear to be similar, all giraffes have a unique pattern. Their spots also darken with age, and scientists have said that they can calculate their age from this darkening

The giraffe can run very fast. Thanks to its long legs, it can reach speeds of 35 mph (55 km/h)

The Giraffe likes all kinds of plants, but some of its favorites are very thorny. Because of this, its tongue is also very very tough, so that it doesn’t get hurt during lunch

A Message of the Day

Shoot animals with a camera, not with a gun

Author:

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photography
Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

Deadly DSLR

Handsome Hyena

Hello lovely followers thanks once again for your unconditional love. Hope you enjoyed the culture of a vulture, to continue the theme of uniqueness today I am bringing you animal which is known as an ugly animal but you will love it when you will come to know about the facts of this lovely creature. So let’s get into the den of Hyena to know more about such a wonderful creature of Mother Nature

Hide and Seek 

To start with topic let me give you a little bit of background about my experience and then we will get into the facts and importance of this lovely animal. Hyena being a nocturnal animal it is difficult to find them in all places, in all our visits we sighted big cats but not lucky with Hyena always. It was Jhalana where first time we had an encounter with this lovely animal (Stripped Hyena) after which luck extended to Kenya to have a sighting of Spotted Hyena family. In Jhalana while we were targeting leopard for a frame surprisingly tour ended with hyena safari, we were lucky to sight head-on walk and the couple of them in the early morning as well. After Jhalana it was Kenya which made our day when we saw the whole family doing various activities. These sightings and unique behavior made me crazy and forced me to do a search on it, during the search the facts, myths, and superstition shocked me so I thought let me take you through these unique details as well. Since I have already updated you on Jhalana and Kenya I am directly taking you to the Hyena's den.

Facts or Fiction – Its Fact for sure

Most of us feel that Hyenas are part of dog family but let me open the first fact that they are not members of the dog or cat families. Instead, they are so unique that they have a family all their own, Hyaenidae, don’t just count more facts on the way

There are four members of the hyena family, the striped hyena, the “giggly” spotted hyena, the brown hyena, and the aardwolf (it's a hyena, not a wolf)

They are important members of an ecosystem. They help to keep the area clean from decaying carcasses and removing sick or old herbivores from a herd

With sharp vision, acute hearing (really big ears!), and a keen sense of smell, hyenas patrol their territory nightly

Hyenas have a large head and strong jaws filled with huge teeth used to crush bone. Although they are mostly scavengers, some striped hyenas even prey on sheep, goats, donkeys, and horses

Hyenas can hear sounds that human ears cannot, and they listen for sounds from other predators that may lead them to a kill that is miles away

The Fun fact about hyena is similar to human (Male Hyena as well has to follow the boss) She’s the boss! Adult females are aggressive toward one another and dominant over males

Female hyenas have a ‘penis’, which is an elongated clitoris, though they are not hermaphrodite. The ‘penis’ of the female hyena is used for copulation, urination, and birth. Many cubs die of suffocation during birth. The mother giving birth may also die as the ‘penis’ is ruptured

The myth and superstition 

Myths and superstitions surround hyenas. One myth claims that they eat children, yet they are also kept as loyal and trustworthy pets

The people of some cultures use the dried dung of hyenas as a cosmetic face powder, and others believe that the hyena’s tongue and fat have medicinal properties.

In other cultures, a striped hyena’s heart is eaten for courage, the whiskers preserved as charms

The hyena’s reputation as a somehow distasteful, unpleasant, or even evil creature, yet anyone who has studied or worked with hyenas can attest to their intelligence, their cooperative social groups, and their attentive care of their young

Many times hyenas are misunderstood as dangerous or destructive hence it is poisoned, trapped, or shot down by humans

Now I am sure that after knowing the facts and fiction you will agree with me that Hyenas are a handsome and not ugly creature. I hope you liked the content now it’s time for you to visit deadly DSLR

The Message of the Day

Shoot animals with a camera, not with a gun

Author:

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photography

Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

Deadly DSLR:

Spotted Hyena  - Kenya

Stripped Hyena from Jhalana India

Spotted Hyena - ready for picture

What a style - Spotted one

Head-on walk of Stipped hyena

Spotted hyena - See the way it walks

Angry look by Spotted one

Stand and deliver - Stipped one

Stripped one coming closure 

Stripped once again

Walk towards the Den  - Stripped one