Today we have a special edition, with readers’ paintings and videos as well. Or rather “a reader’s” paintings and videos, for the reader is tropical biologist/photographer/artist Lou Jost, who lives and works in Ecuador, and whose pictures show up often on this site. This week he sent two videos (one made by him), and one painting of a raptor we rarely hear about.
But I’ll let him tell the tales:
Here are a pair of videos of two top predators, an ocelot and an eagle, in our Cerro Candelaria Reserve, who may
sometimes eat each other!The ocelot [Leopardus pardalis] was devouring large numbers of the local people’s chickens and guinea pigs (raised for meat here). The Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment was called, and they live-trapped the cat. They decided to release it on the edge of our Cerro Candelaria Reserve, where it would have thousands of acres of safe habitat. This video (made by our reserve guard, Fausto Recalde) shows its release. The loud snapping sound in the first second of the video was made by the ocelot’s teeth as it threatened the handler through the cage’s side window.
The Black-and-chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori) is another top predator in the same forest. My video, made in the reserve a month or so ago, is of a first-year bird calling its parents to be fed. My still photo is of the same bird, and my painting is of the dark adult. Our reserve guards have witnessed this giant eagle carrying large monkeys through the air. Lots more information on this bird, and much better pictures of it by our guards and others, are at this site.
Notice that the cat has a good old-fashioned claw scratch as soon as it’s free of the cage. Apparently they didn’t give it a scratching post in captivity!
Some local people told us that they had once seen one of these eagles eating a spotted cat (ocelot or margay, it was not clear which it was), and had also seen an ocelot eating one of these eagles. Both these nomming events happened in what is now the reserve. So perhaps the subjects of these two videos will some day face each other….
Here’s Lou’s photograph of the juvenile eagle:
And here’s another photo by Roger Ahlman of the adult eagle (Ahlman is an expert bird guide and photographer, whose webpage is here). Note the striking difference in pumage between young and adult. I don’t know what explanation birders and naturalists have for this difference, but if you know of one, please add it in the comments:
Some information on this bird from the Fundacion EcoMinga website:
This eagle is distributed along the lower and middle slopes of the Andes from Venezuela to Agrentina. It is a very scarce bird, with an estimated 200 adult birds in Ecuador and between 375-1500 adults throughout its range. It needs large tracts of good forest, where it hunts large birds such as guans, and mammals ranging in size from small squirrels to large and heavy Woolly Monkeys. Unfortunately it eats many chickens in areas where people have invaded forests, and this often earns it a death sentence. Our caretakers say they have solved this problem by letting turkeys run with their chickens; apparently the eagles are afraid of them. In 2014 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) raised its conservation priority status from Vulnerable to Endangered, “on the basis that its declining population is estimated to be very small, with fewer mature individuals than previously thought. The destruction of its montane forest habitat, as well as direct human persecution, are inferred to be driving a continuing decline.”
And here’s Lou’s own painting of the adult:
About why the strikingly different plumages in adult and chick eagle–could it be that the chick’s white plumage makes it easier for the adults to spot it when it leaves the nest but still needs to be fed?
That seems like a good suggestion. Whatever the reason, most giant Neotropical raptors, but not temperate zone raptors or smaller Neotropical raptors, start out mostly white and retain this plumage for at least a year after leaving the nest.
Damn Lou! You are talented! The feathers in your painting are very well done.
+1
Thanks! That was so much fun to make. It is made with oils used transparently, like watercolor. Because oil colors have some thickness (unlike watercolors), textures can be conveyed very quickly by brushwork. The eyes took as long as the whole rest of the painting.
I used to do a lot of wildlife and science fantasy painting. I totally agree the eyes take the longest. Sometimes I nail it, sometimes they just look dead.
Yes, time on them is well-spent. They make all the difference between something that grabs attention and something that falls flat.
So true. In this case you really captured the focused intensity so characteristic of a bird of prey, that seems to emanate from their eyes.
The old love affair of the feather and the brush! Looks like arty photography in parts (head and back).
Very good painting. Photo’s too!
I love the painting, Lou. You’ve done a marvelous job. I am intrigued by your use of transparent oils.
I have been working on a red tail hawk myself for some time now, using a photograph from WEIT as the model, but I’m working in what for me is a totally new medium, digital paint, via the ProCreate app on my iPad. It’s fun, cool, and SLOW going.
I’ve also drawn a black ink stipple of an eagle (I’m not sure of the species) that I would like to send to Jerry in case he deems it worthy to share. It is in no way as cool as yours, but it’s not too badly done.
Have you posted other paintings that we can see and admire?
Digital painting sounds intriguing. I think I would miss the spontaneous brushwork, though. I hope we get to see your result!
Some of my paintings are on my website:
http://www.loujost.com/Painting%20Index%20and%20Pages/PaintingsIndex.htm
Jerry had also featured my painting of an ocelot a couple of years ago, here:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/polymath-reader-discovers-worlds-smallest-orchid/
Wow! I’m incredibly impressed by your work! Just beautiful!
Thanks very much!!!
Lou, sorry for not responding sooner. I no longer get email notices when someone responds to my comments like I did when I first started mingling on WEIT.
Wow! Your paintings are incredible. Thank you for sharing.
I have an acquaintance from Germany who creates album covers for rock bands and he works in Photoshop. I thought for sure his work was done in oils. It has inspired me to try a digital medium. I miss my pencil and pens, though.
Well, Lou, I stumbled this morning onto the methods now used to see comment responses. Ha! So, again, my apologies for being so slow to respond, and thank you for sharing your artwork with me. It is incredible.
Yikes! Red in tooth and claw – and beak!
Gorgeous photos.
Very, very nice all around. Excellent painting, Lou.
Clever kitteh makes sure to gain situational awareness before committing itself. — And then immediately goes for a scratch! Ha!
I have tried so hard to teach my kids SA, but it hasn’t taken. They seem to miss so much!
That was great, to see him leaving his scent there. Gorgeous cat, photography and painting, Lou!
Thanks!
Both animals have a somewhat throwbacky or ‘hybrid’ appearance: Ocelots have such big eyes, long snouts and long bodies that I used to think they were close to genets rather than true cats; and that eagle (though a true aquiline according to Lerner & Mindell) has a harpy-like transverse crest and otherwise looks rather kitey (esp. the Elanus– or osprey-like face in the juvenile). Diversity is cool.
Yes, very small beak, proportionately, for an eagle.
Maybe the fluffiness of the head is causing an illusion about the beak’s size. The adult’s beak is large, as you can see in the Roger Ahlman photo.
I’m used to Golden and Bald eagles, which I am beginning to believe might be over-endowed in the beak department.
Yes, at least for Bald Eagles and the other sea eagles, that is definitely true. Look up Steller’s Sea Eagle for a really gigantic beak.
Yes, thanks, my gigantic beak needs are completely filled now.
I really need to brush up on these things – I thought that a beak about the size of a Bald Eagle’s was actually a characteristic of eagles in general – part of an ecomorphological package.
sub
Wonderful painting!
The way the cat left the carrier and its behavior through to the end of the clip very strongly reminds me of how Baihu reacted on coming home from Teh Ebil Doktor before I started taking him on walks. Now, of course, when he goes for his annual physical he’s just on a leash like normal.
b&
Was the ocelot a sub-adult? This one looked a little kittenish to me.
I don’t really know. Jerry also suggested it looked small and asked me if it was an adult. I’m not very familiar with these cats so I’ll have to hope that someone who knows will tell us.
Are we sure of the species ID? Perhaps it’s an ocelittle.
b&
My 11-lb lug of a 9 month kitten, Booker, does that long-neck-goose routine coming our of his carrier, or sometimes just on general principles. The other day he stood up like a meerkat for about 20 seconds, scoping out the top of my sideboard, which I do NOT want him on. He is a bit of a klutz, though very sweet.
Mark, you and Jerry were right. This was in fact a smaller cat, the margay, not an ocelot. Good eye! I’ll stick to birds and plants from now on…
Wow. The juvenile eagle picture is magnificent. What an amazing part of the planet.
Is the juvenile colouring a case of counter shading? This could cause the optical illusion of matching the light and dark from viewed from below or above thus making the young almost invisible to predators. I spent a great deal of time looking up into the trees when I was a kid, and did notice the light under and darker top on all of birds.
Love the painting! The pinpoint eye highlight is what brings it all together…just like the Big Lebowski’s rug. My first thought was that it was charcoal or conte crayon, impressive to find out it is oil paint. I like to use oils as they are easier for me to blend and more forgiving if you make a mistake…easier to “erase” and start over that is.
Thanks for the neat videos and photos as well.
Your comment about oils is why I like them too. I can beat on them until it looks exactly right.
Glad you liked the videos and photos.
Beautiful work and thanks for doing so much for conservation.