I can’t recall a contest of wildlife photographs that concentrated on their comedic aspect. But that’s what the Guardian has done with its new post “The Comedy Wildlife Photography awards—in pictures“. And there’s some swell and hilarious photos of our animal friends. I’ll show a short selection, but head on over for a smile. Captions come from the Guardian:
A frog appears to have a big smile for the camera in Russia. Photograph: Artyom Krivosheev/Barcroft Images
A meerkat appears to look as if it has just remembered it needs to be somewhere, in Brigitta Moser’s photo from Little Karoo, South Africa. Photograph: Brigitta Moser/Barcroft Images [JAC: remember that Meerkats are the species that kills more of its kind than any other.]
Charles Kinsey captures a pair of headless penguins as they stretch to preen themselves simultaneously in South Georgia. Photograph: Charles Kinsey/Barcroft Images
An unfortunate portrait of a buffalo in Meru national park, Kenya. Photograph: Tom Stables/Barcroft Images
Could this be a reptilian Sarah Jackson?
A little leopard tortoise jumps on a friend’s back in Tarangire national park, Tanzania. Photograph: Brenden Simonson/Barcroft Images
It’s curious that you couldn’t really have a contest like this with plants, which says something about the human ability to anthropomorphize different species. After all, every bit of this comedy comes from our identifying with the animals.
h/t: Nicole Reggia, who is nine
Amongst non-hoomin species, shurely?
And considering, for example, that many carnivorous fish eat a lot of zoo-plankton, that probably includes a lot of same-species eggs too. But that would be much harder to count.
No, among all species for which there is data. See my post on human violence, which is a fraction of meerkat-on-meerkat violence.
You can’t do this with plants? Don’t be so sure. Look up pseudocopulation in orchids for starters.
For some reason I’m thinking of what “Sarah Jackson” interpretations there are of “a nice bunch of orchids”.
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
I love those penguins!
Humans have a difficult time not reading facial “expression” into animal’s faces. As long as it’s for fun, no problem. But they are different from us and we shld remember that. Thank, Randomness.
I think the Leopard Tortoises are friends “with benefits”. That looks suspiciously like a male in full excited yalp as he accesses the “organs of matrimonial necessity”. The female, as usual, appears less than amused. Perhaps someone better versed in sexual dimorphism and sexual behavior of Stigmochelys pardalis could either concur or correct me in this matter most delicate, that is, if one considers grunting, hissing, head bobbing, shell ramming, and leg biting to be delicate…
I think on general principle that you are right. Animals are thinking about ‘natural selection’ all the time, if ya know what i mean [nudge, nudge, wink, wink].
Sesame Street had a funny song called “There’s a bird on me”, with a bunch of clips of said birds on animals. They weren’t as graphic.
A little googling reveals that also sea lions are cheerful fellows.
All of the images fantastic, with the frog and the meerkat being total winners.
Carl Kruse
I think the meerkat is trying to think if it actually feels any remorse for killing his first cousin. Nah, probably not. Life it short. Kill or be killed. This part of the world is not Disneyland.