Best Animal Photomb Stuns Tourists

Who says animals can't do photobomb? Well, this cute elephant shows otherwise.  What I love the most about this picture is not just the shot of the elephant stealing the show from the group of tourists. I especially love that this elephant is roaming free. In an ideal world, this is where and how animals should be, free and can engage in cool interaction with humans.

Female tourists aiming their cameras at the animals in front of them at a wildlife center in Zimbabwe had no idea the real "Kodak moment" was happening directly behind them.

A bull elephant executing the ultimate photobomb was just at the tourists' backs as they were snapping photos of what they likely thought were priceless images in front of them.

The elephant photobomb moment was captured by Marcus Soderland, a fellow tourist volunteering alongside the group of women at the Imire Rhino & Wildlife Conservation center in Wedza, Zimbabwe.

"While they were posing for the cameras one of the other handlers got an elephant called Makavhuzi to go up behind them," Soderland explained, according to the U.K.'s Daily Mail.
"Eventually they noticed his presence and turned around and reacted with laughs, surprised looks and smiles," said Soderland, who could not be reached today by ABCNews.com.

The group of women were from countries around the world including England, Norway and Australia, the Daily Mail reports.

Imire, which means "the meeting place," offers a Wildlife Conservation Program that allows guests to, "get hands on experience in our rhino breeding program and elephant interaction initiatives," according to the center's website.

A request for comment placed to Imire has not been returned as of this writing.

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"A better attitude leads to better actions and a better world..."

 

Dolphins Have Names and They Know It

Apparently, dolphins have names too and they know that. Though they may not come along the lines of Sam, John, Jessica, Carla or many other cool names that we, humans, use, they amazingly do. The recent study by Marine Biologists, Dr. Stephanie King and Dr. Vincent Janik in Scotland shines a new light on dolphins' learning abilities and communication that are not much different from humans.

From the study that is later published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, dolphins make 'signature whistles.' Just like how we have our personal names, each dolphin has his or her signature whistle, copied from family and friends, to which they respond to. Very cool, huh.

So how did they come to this finding? Researchers followed groups of wild dolphins where they took note of their signature whistles. They recorded various dolphin whistles and played them back in a computerized version. They found out that each dolphin only reacts to their own signature whistle and ignores the rest.

According to Dr. King, various animal signals exist to make distinction between predators and food. But unlike those inherent signals, they found that signature whistles from dolphins are rather learned, something quite unique in the animal kingdom.

This scientific finding makes dolphins the first case of naming mammals. Well, dolphins and possibly parrots. Because other research studies have also identified parrots’ amazing ability to learn sounds and use them to label things. But we’ll have a special discussion about parrots on a separate article where we can focus on their own uniqueness.

Whether it's listening to our name or a whistle, it's a matter of learning how to take in and respond to certain sounds. In other words, humans' and dolphins' form of communication overlap as we both have the capacity to acknowledge certain sounds, make meaning of them and respond.

With this new finding, don't you think dolphins just got so much cuter, adorable and valuable? This goes to show folks that these animals deserve more respect and recognition from us. There is just so much to learn about them just like the rest of our wildlife and the beautiful world we live in. Dolphins certainly deserve our love and affection and we can show them by protecting their habitat and continuously looking for ways to better understand them and empower their welfare. 

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"A better understanding leads to better actions that make a better world"

Our Interconnected Lives in our Beautiful World

Hello, beautiful world! Finally, this blog has made its existence. After hours, days, weeks and months of contemplation, it is officially active. This blog emphasizes anything about nature, environment, wildlife, ecosystem and our interaction with one another. You would see many posts on interesting and cool news/articles about these topics. One day, you can read up on my adoration for pandas. Next week, you might see an article about animals on the verge of extinction. And next month, you can expect some narratives about global warming. The list goes on because there's so much to be told about the beautiful world we live in.

The point of this blog is to put the spotlight on our amazing mother earth, the living and non-living things that surround us and our place with them.

We all live in one planet. Currently, there is no greater place to live in other than our lovely mother Earth. So, it's sensible that we become aware of the things that are important to this planet, from animals, insects, plants, trees, air, water, land, sky and humans.

As much as we share the same planet, diversity has always been a central factor among us that get us to work with and against each other. But at the end of the day, one reality stays the same. Our lives are all interconnected even in the smallest little ways.

So, whatever we do, it is worth to keep in mind that our actions affect everyone else's lives in this world. With this awareness, we can start to participate in taking care of our special planet and engage in lifestyle and activities that make a good and lasting difference for our current generation and future generations to come. We, humans, can do this. Because we are gifted with moral judgment and higher understanding more than any other species that reside in and make use of our world. All that is left are the choices we make. And I believe that we can make our choices count and leave a great legacy.


A better understanding leads to better actions that make a better world