Category: 2008

2008, Costa Rica Selection, Insect and Arachnid

Leaf-cutting ant

Leaf-cutting ant, Costa Rica

Also known as mushroom ants, the leaf-cutting ants live in tropical regions. These ants mainly feed themselves with a special mushroom they plant inside their anthill. This mushroom grows on substrate composed of leaves collected then chewed by leaf-cutting ants.
The photographed ant brings some pieces of leaves to the anthill. The ant is capable of lifting hundred times its own weight, so the illegal passengers who climbed up the leaf should not be a problem for the ant.

2008, Costa Rica Selection, Mammal

Hoffmann’s sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)

Hoffmann's sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)Hoffmann’s sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)

The sloth is named like this because of his slowness he puts to perform the simplest actions and its appetite for long naps.
This animal sleeps more than 18 hours a day. When he does not sleep, it is mainly to feed on the leaves he would have chosen meticulously.
Although this animal is very agile while climbing on trees, he is clumsy when it comes to walk on the ground, which places him on the land of his predators: jaguars and snakes. The sloth goes down from the tree once a week in order to defecate and to change the tree, if needed.
Regarding love, the sloth is also taking his time. Very solitary, the male will wait until he is 4 or 5 years old to start looking for a partner. The couple will embrace each other for 48 hours . They will be separated after the coupling, each of them will go back to a solitary life.

2008, Morocco Paper, Paper, Sahara

Morocco: Erg Chebbi, the Merzouga’s dunes

 
Erg Chebbi (Arabic: عرق الشبي‎) is one of Morocco’s two Saharan ergs – large seas of dunes formed by wind-blown sand.
This Erg is also knowed as “The Merzougas Dunes” beccause the proximity of Merzouga village.
The dunes of Erg Chebbi reach a height of up to 150 meters in places and altogether spans an area of 50 kilometers from north to south and up to 5–10 kilometers from east to west lining the Algerian border.
 

The Merzouga’s dunes

 

Vegetation

 

Detail

 

Sunset over the dunes

 

Walking the dunes

 

Dunes

 

Panoramic view of the dunes

 

Detail