Over the years and with the many photos I've taken of wildlife and nature, sometimes there is a story. This is where I will feature art and the story that goes with it.
The Great Horned Owl - a majestic bird with a wingspan of approximately 4.6 feet and weighing only about 3 pounds, doesn't actually have 'horns' but has tufts of feathers that resemble horns.
The critically-endangered Orangutan, known as the “gardeners” of the forest, play a vital role in seed dispersal in their tropical forest habitats. Their numbers have decreased from 230,000 total a century ago, this includes the Bornean, Sumatran, and a third species announced in November 2017, the Tapanuli, to more than half that number.
Among the many species of seals are the harbor, ringed, ribbon, spotted, and bearded seals. Also included are the northern fur seals and Steller sea lions that live in the Arctic region. The ringed, ribbon, spotted, and bearded seals are known as "ice seals" and live on sea ice in the Arctic for at least part of the year. The "ringed seal lifecycle relies on ice and rapid ice loss in the Arctic causes seal pups to be prematurely separated from their mothers during milking period and also creates a situation where the inablility to build dens for protection leads to high pup mortality."
Kangaroos are the world’s largest marsupials and include the Red, Eastern Grey, Western Grey, Antilopine, Common Wallaroo, and the Black Wallaroo. Famous for hopping, kangaroos can reach speeds of 60kph (approx. 37mph). Kangaroos are built with short hair, powerful hind legs, small forelimbs, big feet, and a long tail that is used to balance when hopping as well as used as another limb when moving about. They are good swimmers, and will swim to avoid predators, using their forepaws to drown pursuers.
The Panda - living mainly in forests of southwest China, they subsist almost entirely on bamboo, consuming 26-84 pounds of it a day. The newborn is about the size of a stick of butter. But when fully grown, the females can weigh up to 200 lbs and the males around 300 lbs on a four-foot frame. Despite their bulky size, Pandas are great tree climbers.