Skimming Flight, Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) – Oman
The yellow-legged gull grazes the crest of the waves, perfectly balanced between sky and sea, in a silent dance with the ocean.
Category: 2025
The Ethiopian Wolf, Sentinel of the Abyssinian Highlands
The Ethiopian Wolf, Sentinel of the Abyssinian Highlands
Bathed in golden light, a lone figure stands against the rolling backdrop of the Ethiopian highlands.
The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), the world’s rarest wild canid, is a highland specialist, roaming open alpine grasslands in search of rodents.
This image captures the animal’s solitude and elegance within a vast, dreamlike landscape. Though elusive and threatened, it remains one of Africa’s most iconic predators—and a quiet symbol of the country’s vanishing wilderness.
The Waltz of Stars Over the Dunes of the Rub al Khali (الربع الخالي)
The Waltz of Stars Over the Dunes of the Rub al Khali (الربع الخالي)
In the vast, silent expanse of the Rub al Khali (الربع الخالي), literally “the Empty Quarter,” the largest sand desert of the Arabian Peninsula, the night sky turns into a celestial clock.
Captured with a long exposure, this image reveals the slow rotation of the Earth on its axis, as stars draw perfect arcs around the North Celestial Pole.
In the foreground, moonlit dunes glow with warm ochre tones. Shaped by prevailing winds, their flowing forms shift over time. The fine sand is the product of ancient sedimentary rock, weathered and eroded by wind over thousands of years.
Though seemingly still, this landscape speaks of constant motion: of wind, of stars… and of time itself.
The Abyssinian Wolf, Watcher of the Ethiopian Highlands
The Abyssinian Wolf, Watcher of the Ethiopian Highlands
Alone on the highlands of Abyssinia, the Ethiopian wolf scans the horizon. This slender predator, perfectly adapted to life at high altitude, is now one of the most endangered mammals on the African continent. Threatened by habitat fragmentation and diseases transmitted by domestic dogs, only about 500 individuals remain in the wild.
Bioluminescence of Krill Rising to the Surface at Nightfall (likely Euphausia sibogae) – Arabian Sea, Oman
Bioluminescence of Krill Rising to the Surface at Nightfall (likely Euphausia sibogae) – Arabian Sea, Oman
At nightfall, krill rise from the depths to the surface, driven by the planet’s largest daily animal migration. There, tossed by the waves, they emit a cold, bluish light. Their bioluminescence, produced by tiny organs called photophores, creates brief flashes across the surface of the sea. This shimmering glow — both camouflage and communication — sometimes turns the night ocean into a living sea of stars, drifting and silent.
Birth of the Day over the Dunes – Rub al Khali desert, Sultanate of Oman
Birth of the Day over the Dunes – Rub al Khali desert, Sultanate of Oman
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As night slowly gives way to light, the dunes awaken in a golden breath. Shadows slip along the crests, colors stretch across the sand, and the desert reveals itself in silent majesty. At dawn, every wave of sand becomes a mountain, every ray of sunlight a promise of infinity.
Male Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni) – Bale Mountains, Ethiopia
Male Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni) – Bale Mountains, Ethiopia
Shy and elusive, the mountain nyala lives only on the Ethiopian highlands, among misty heather forests, alpine meadows, and shadowy clearings. Fewer than 4,000 individuals remain in the wild, most of them confined to the Bale Mountains — the species’ last stronghold.
Males are especially striking: larger and darker than females, they bear long, spiraled horns and a dark crest along their back that stands erect during tension or display. These features make them elegant, ghost-like figures of the high-altitude forests — rare, silent, and hard to glimpse.
