This is the incredibly rare moment an African python was caught on camera trying to eat an entire wildebeest.
The massive snake looked like its eyes were bigger than its belly when it was discovered in the South African bush swallowing the massive meal.
It is thought to be the first time this behaviour has been caught on camera as the python – which can grow up to 16 foot – was believed to try for much smaller prey.
But somehow award-winning UK-based photographer Tim Flach managed it, and this was the result.
The 54-year-old has created a collection of incredible photographic portraits of animals so intimate they reveal the complex emotions of their subjects. And the emotions on show look strikingly familiar to our own.
After receiving worldwide attention for his photographs of dogs and horses in projects titled Dogs Gods and Equus, Mr Flach, from London, turned his attention to more exotic creatures.
His latest project, titled More Than Human, consists of intimate studio portraits of various wild animals, from various monkeys and apes to specially-bred featherless chickens.
Mr Flach graduated from the renowned St Martins School of Art in London and has spent the past 20 years working taking pictures for advertising.
He has worked for Adidas, Cirque du Soleil, Jaguar and Sony during his career. But more recently he become known for his highly-stylized animal portraits. His work aims to capture the emotion animals evoke in humans.
To do this, he brings his subjects into such close focus that the viewer begins to read the gestures and body language as we would a human being.
His work has been widely exhibited in the UK, U.S. and Far East and he has also lectured extensively around the world.
The photos will go on display at the Osborne Samuel Gallery in London’s Mayfair from December 5 to 21.
This has been reported by Space.com and National Geographic.
“In a grainy video shot in a cavernous room at South Korea‘s Everland Zoo, anAsian elephant stands at attention, his trunk in his mouth.
“Choah,” he tells the camera. “Choah, annyong. Anja.” In English: “good,” “good,” “hello,” and “sit down.
Six years ago, this video clip, sent by the flummoxed staff of the Everland Zoo, hit the inbox of elephant-communication researcher Joyce Poole of ElephantVoices. The footage was the first look scientists would have of Koshik, the Korean-speaking elephant.
“This is amazing,” Poole, a Conservation Trust grantee for the National Geographic Society, had written at the time. (National Geographic News is part of the Society.)
“I can’t see any chance that it is being faked, and it is certainly a human voice that is being imitated.” She passed the clip to colleagues. Somebody needed to check this out—could this possibly be genuine?
Fast-forward six years, and confirmation has finally arrived in a new study led by one of Poole’s former colleagues, Angela Stoeger of the University of Vienna. Koshik, Stoeger said, is definitely for real.
To reach this conclusion, Stoeger and her team first had to verify that Koshik’s sounds were words at all. According to the elephant’s trainers, he had a six-word vocabulary, including annyong (“hello”), aniya (“no”), anja (“sit down”), and choah (“good”)
We ,in our self importance think that the animals can not speak and that we are the only species that can think and speak, thi is coming apart slowly.
Though may not be related to this post, I would like to record that the ‘Vanaras'( we have understood it as Monkeys) mentioned in the Ramayana of the Hindu Epics is a fiction of imagination and that Monkeys can not speak, let alone being intelligent.
Anjaneya is reported to be one of high Intelligence, Wisdom and a very able, persuasive communicator.
Vanaras are not Monkeys, they are the one of the missing links inthe Evolutionary Chain between Ape and Man.
When a stoat can’t chase down a rabbit, it breaks out the dance moves. All the dashing and thrashing hypnotizes the stoat’s prey until it can deliver the killing stroke.
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