Reader Rafael sent several photos of animals in the area he’s studying, and I’ve chosen two for your Friday afternoon delight.
Part of his email:
I’m a biologist doing a post-doc on the effects of forest fires on biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon. I’m also an avid reader of your site and a cat person. In my last field trip I took some wildlife pictures I would like to share with you. I do my research in an Amazonian/Cerrado (neo-tropical savanna) transitional area, in forest fragments amidst soy fields. I know you probably receive a lot of pictures for your Reader’s Wildlife Pictures posts, so I understand if mine don’t make the cut. Anyway, here they are.
A rhea with baby rheas (Rhea americana, or “ema,” as we call it here in Brazil):
Three blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna):
I’ve seen macaws in flight, and there are few sights more lovely.
There are photos of his cats, too, but those will come later.
I’ve never seen macaws in unrestricted flight. Their formation looks skillfully tight, impressive.
The magnificent rhea (“ñandú” as we call them in Uruguay) and beautiful offspring. The geographical differences Darwin noticed in the two closely related species in Uruguay and Argentina was one of the first clues he had in South America that would later lead him to develop his idea of descent with modification and diversification, well before his visit to the Galápagos.
Those baby rheas are amazing! Somehow I’d have expected them to look more chick-like–plumper, bigger headed, extremities not quite so proportionately long…but they look instead almost like miniature adults. What a treat to see!
Yes, they do seem proportioned to be more like miniature adults. Rheas and their relatives (ostriches, etc.) are examples of animals that ‘hit the ground running’. That is they can get up and run pretty soon after birth/hatching.
Yes, which is why I’d expect them to look more chick-like than altricial birds when they fledge.
I was thinking of the precocial young I usually see–ducklings, goslings, Sandhill crane-lings . . . and they tend to be fluffier and rounder it seems to me, esp. when they’re this much smaller than Momma. 😀
I was wondering if they were like the ostrich and emu (be sure to see the emu eggs they are beautiful blue matching the emu’s head and neck) and they are similar. It seems it is papa rhea that does all egg and baby care.
OH, those rhea eggs are stunning!
Gotta love ratites!
That was exactly my reaction — there are also some baby shorebirds that have that shrunk-in-the-dryer look. I guess the conclusion is to hand-dry your rheas if you want them to maintain their size.
😉
Sigh- a “reply” to Marlene.
Worthy contributions! Do you have Darwin’s rhea there as well?
Darwin’s rhea (Rhea pennata) lives in the southern half of Argentina. It is smaller and rather shy compared to the bigger and tame greater rhea (Rhea americana) that Darwin saw before in Uruguay.