Tue, Jan 20, 2015
Sri Lanka's fauna, partially migrated from India, which has been accessible by land at geologically recent times, is extremely rich and varied. However since the British colonists decided to plant first coffee, then tea, much of the forests has been cleared, leaving ever smaller pristine patches, sometimes completely cut-off. Some animal populations are rare, even including unique subspecies.
Tue, Jan 27, 2015
The waters around Sri Lanka are naturally at least as rich as the land. Two different monsoons, northwest and southeast, mean about all year part of the island receives heavy rains, which carry organic and mineral material in streams springing from the mountains. So maritime wildlife is abundant, with lots of fish in shallow coastal waters with reefs and many ship wrecks, attracting intense fishery as well as natural predators, from predatory fish and aquatic birds to dolphins and a unique population of whales.
Tue, May 26, 2015
Alaska is a rich country for wildlife, but also very hard, especially the long, icy winter. Many species resort to hibernation, like bears, in caves or high upon giant trees, which they leave in time for the retreat of first and snow. Some can keep hunting or fishing even when waters largely freeze, like the otter who simply dives under. Winter coats grown by adapted species serve even during a snowy blizzard. The sea never quite freezes, its cold water is most fertile to support microorganisms and the predatory chain, from herrings to whales. People also fish for large schools of species like cod and salmon, sometimes outsmarted by natural predators.
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Tue, Jun 16, 2015
The Amur serves as a very long border between China, where agriculture was developed since Mao's Cultural revolution and Deng's general leap forward expanded to other sector while practically all the landscape is now man-made, and Russian Siberia, where the economy remained more modest and traditional, which leaves more wildlife somewhat pristine. After centuries of hotly contesting the border, each superpower's regional capital now simply faces the other, with mass tourist exchanges. A few Amur tigers still roam about freely in Russia, while China nearly exterminated the subspecies, but now invests in breeding for nature reserve conservation and loads of admiring tourists.
Tue, Jun 23, 2015
The mighty Amur takes that name at the joining of its two main 'tributaries', springing from the same scared mountain in Mongolia, where Ghenghis Khan chose his underground tomb. The westernmost crosses arid, wolves-roamed lands in Inner and Outer Mongolia, where surrounding plains and even its bed may run dry in bad summers, causing slaughter among the largely migratory wildlife, which also must cope with merciless winters when even the stream itself freezes almost half a year. The northernmost brings comparatively easy prosperity to self-reliant Russian peasant in southern Siberia, massively visited by migrations from Mongolia and further lands.