Also known as the Spotted-tailed Quoll, this voracious predator is endemic to Australia and Tasmania where it’s classed as ‘Near Threatened’ by the IUCN. It’s immensely strong for its size and is equipped with carnivorous teeth which enables it to prey upon creatures such as Possums, Bandicoots, Pademelons, Gliders and rats. It also feeds on reptiles, birds and insects and is known to take carrion. Predation is carried out on the ground and in the trees.
Continue reading The Tiger Quoll
This week, the spotlight falls upon the smallest member of the Civet family, which resides throughout south-east Asia. It’s a greatly under-reported species and consequently, little is known about its ecology. It adopts a semi-arboreal, nocturnal lifestyle which has made documenting it a challenge, especially using modern methods such as camera traps.
This week’s spotlight star is a mysterious member of the Tree Kangaroo family, which was only discovered in 1994. It’s only known to exist on the Indonesian side of New Guinea, occupying the most remote and precipitous mountain forests between 3,250 and 4,200 metres. Little is therefore known about its ecology or biology. Despite spending most of their time tree-dwelling, they’ve also been observed spending time on the ground. Unusually, they’re active during the day and night- feeding on leaves and fruit.
A fascinating look at the shortlisted and winning entries from last year’s competition. Once again, it demonstrates how invaluable this technology is for capturing natural behaviour and for assisting conservation and research worldwide.
A worrying development for the world’s last remaining wild population of Red Wolves. Let’s hope common sense will prevail and that 28 years of conservation work won’t be undone by short-sighted, misguided and frankly selfish hunters and landowners, who seem incapable of living alongside nature without acting on the urge to exterminate it. It would appear these creatures are going to be removed from the wild for instinctively hunting natural prey that ends up being unnaturally killed by the hunting fraternity. A ridiculous situation.
See below for a video summary from National Geographic.
A charming and informative short film, which shines a light on the biodiversity of Africa’s oldest national park in war-ravaged DR Congo and the conservation efforts in place to preserve it for the future.
We currently have a colony of over 150 Beavers living in the Tayside region of Scotland and I’m going to hopefully visit the area in a few days to try and photograph them- a long shot, I know. I’ve always been intrigued by their industrious ability to construct vast lodges in a relatively short space of time. Here’s a short film narrated by Sir David Attenborough showing how they do it.
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