Talk about a transformation! When an orange oak leaf butterfly (Kallima inachus) closes its wings, it looks like a dead leaf. When it opens its wings, there's a dazzling display of color.
India has a stunning variety of unique avian life. Wildlife SOS photographer Akash Dolas usually brings us breathtaking leopard rescue images, but he also sees the huge biodiversity of the Western Ghat mountains of Maharashtra near our Leopard Rescue Centre. Akash photographed the moment this paradise flycatcher took flight, with an intense stare and a whip of its exquisite tail feathers.
It's Friday. You need a sloth bear in your life.
Make this day, and this weekend, something great.
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"Sloth Bear playing - San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, USA" by Glen Bowman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Something to tug on your heart strings today - researchers working with Indian Elephants in tea-producing areas of West Bengal have been finding evidence that the elephants are burying their deceased calves in plantation irrigation ditches. A common feature of all of the burials is the calves' legs sticking up into the air out of the grave.
This was the last time in June 2020 that I saw all three together. I haven’t been going to the park regularly since then and I don’t really have regular pictures of them to tell the story after that. But they live separately and their mother has another litter of two cubs.
Arrowhead and her twin daughters
Ranthambore National Park, India
Photographed by Aditya Singh