Category: Nature and wildlife

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.

2016, Fish, Maldives Selection, Underwater Pictures from Maldives

Tawny nurse shark (Nebrius ferrugineus), Maldives

Tawny nurse shark (Nebrius ferrugineus), Maldives

Nocturnal in habits, the tawny nurse shark tends to spend the day resting in piles of two dozen or more individuals inside caves or under ledges. At night, it is an active-swimming predator that uses a powerful suction force to extract prey from inside holes and crevices. The diet of this species consists mainly of octopus, crustaceans such crabs, small fishes.

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.

2007, Mainland France Selection, Reptil and Amphibian

Common toad (Bufo bufo)

A toad eagerly awaiting in his hole

The bufo bufo is a nocturnal animal. This animal spends the day hidden in a hole he dug, in abandoned burrows or simply under a stone or a dead piece of wood. This hiding place serves also as base for hunting. Indeed, the common toad hunts mainly on the lookout. He stays at the exit of his hole until a prey (fly, caterpillar, slug…) passes nearby. Then, he can catch the prey with his sticky tongue.

2014, Mainland France Selection, Nature and wildlife

Water drops on a spider web

The life of a raindrop is full of adventure. Its journey will take it to the bottom of the ocean abyss at 11,000 meters below sea level. It will make its way around the world several times until one day it evaporates and climbs the great heights to join the clouds, 9,000 meters in the air.
However the life of a raindrop can also be a life of ongoing patience. Some raindrops wait, frozen in the antarctic ice for over 800,000 years. A raindrop that decides to take aim for a lake will have to wait 17 years before it can once again evaporate; its oceanic cousin will have to wait more than 3,000 years. Once evaporated, the raindrop still has an 8 day journey crossing layers of terrestrial atmosphere before finally rejoining its cloud.

2015, Borneo Selection, Malaysia Selection, Reptil and Amphibian

Harlequin tree frog (Rhacophorus pardalis), Borneo, Malaysia

Harlequin tree frog (Rhacophorus pardalis), Borneo, Malaysia

The harlequin tree frog, Rhacophorus pardalis, is a species of frog in the Rhacophoridae family found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests up to 1000 meters of altitude, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes. It is threatened by habitat loss. This frog was sighted on the riverside of the Kinabatangan, in the Malaysian part of Borneo