The year begins for a Kodiak bear deep below the Alaskan snow.  Within the den, a Kodiak bear spends the winter months in hibernation.  During these months, the hibernating bear does not eat, drink, defecate, or urinate.  As winter progresses, the bear’s body temperature drops slowly reaching a low of 12 ° C (21.6 ° F) below its normal active temperature.  Through some miraculous adaptations, the bear is able to minimize toxic waste products in its system by reabsorbing toxic protein breakdown products through the walls of the bladder and bowel and forming new tissue from these simple building blocks.  This biochemical marvel also mitigates much of the need for urination and keeps the bears body fluids in perfect balance through the cold winter months.  The bear’s heart rate also slows from a normal rate of 40 beats per minute to as little as eight beats per minute and then back to 40 for a short time each day due to spontaneous arousal mechanisms.  Oxygen consumption drops by 50% or more and carbon dioxide production decreases.  Somehow through these mechanisms the bear’s muscles do not waste; its bone remain mineralized and strong. More… »

At up to 30 feet in length and weighing up to 10 tonnes, the intelligent and pack-hunting orca (or killer whale) is unrivaled as the ocean’s top predator.  Over the past million years, orca populations have subdivided into groups they may ultimately be designated as different species.  The most genetically separate group, known as the transients, appear to have diverged from other orcas about 700 000 years ago.  The transient orcas share much of the same range as the so-called residents along the west coast of North America. . While living in the same habitat, these groups have developed differences in social structure, anatomy, diet, and hunting strategy.   Resident orcas live in larger, life long groups of a mother and her generations of offspring.  These highly vocal orcas seem to feed entirely on fish.  Transient orcas on the other hand have a more fluid social structure and silently hunt primarily mammalian prey in smaller groups, vocalizing primarily after or between hunts.  Observations of the transients hunting and killing large whales provided the source for the common name “killer whale”. More… »

For a cheetah on the Serengeti plains, life is hard.  These graceful predators are killed and displaced by larger predators and the odds of survival are heavily stacked against them.  As a result, the population density of cheetahs in the Serengeti is low.  Estimates in the 1990s put the number of cheetahs in the whole of the Serengeti at 500 to 900 individuals compared with about 2500 lions and 5000 spotted hyenas. More… »

2008 has been a productive year up to this point and the website has seen several new addtions.  In January I travelled to Ecuador to photograph birds in the Andean highlands before spending a few days in the lowlands of the Amazon basin.  I felt fortunate to visit the Ecuadorian Amazon through the hospitality of the Napo Wildlife Center, a locally owned and operated ecocentre in a beautiful, protected section of forest.  I encourage you to vist their website at http://www.napowildlifecenter.com/ онлайн вечеринки порно to find out more about the fantastic conservation project in an embattled section of the mighty Amazon.  Photos of this part of the Amazon are found in the Amazon gallery along with Peruvian photos from the previous year. More… »

In April of 2008 I traveled to Monterey Bay, California in hopes of photographing transient orcas (also known as killer whales) hunting grey whale calves as they migrate with their mothers to northern waters. The mothers and calves must make this long and dangerous 7 000 mile journey to feed in the rich arctic waters after the calves are born in the warm but nutrient poor waters of Mexico during the winter months. Through much of the journey, grey whales remain in the relative safety of shallow near shore waters. However, the whales reach a point of particular vulnerability when they reach Monterey Bay with its deep and complex submarine canyon system. More… »

Seal Island, a small rocky outcropping in South Africa’s False Bay, is the best place in the world to witness and photograph white sharks breaching. The white sharks launch their massive bodies from the water each winter morning in the pursuit of cape fur seals. In this location, photographers and film crews hope to capture the amazing shot of a 1-2 ton white shark flying as much as 10 feet above the water. Many of the available shots come from towing a decoy behind the boat to induce the animal to breach. If the conditions are right with limited water visibility and low ambient light, the sharks mistake the decoy for a seal and strike. More… »

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I have returned from Seal Island and have updated the Seal Island gallery with new photos. It was a difficult but very productive trip. I hope you will enjoy the new photos. I have also added a new feature to the Articles section of this site with details of this year’s trip in the as well as reflections on the pursuit of the ultimate natural predation photograph. As always, I want to thank Chris Fallows (www.apexpredators.com) and Rob Lawrence (www.ultimate-animals.com) as well as their crews for providing the ultimate in hospitality and professionalism. These are among the finest wildlife people that one could hope to ever meet and associate with.

The density and diversity of life in the Amazon is truly staggering. One of the first things you notice is the sounds. There are so many birds, insects and frogs that there is a continuous symphony day and night. By day, an extraordinary array of bird calls fills the air, many with beautiful songs. As night falls the frogs call to prospective mates. Through the dark hours, the cicadas produce a continuous wall of sound. More… »

As for many shark lovers, Seal Island entered my consciousness in 2001 with the release of Air Jaws, a documentary about the “flying sharks” of South Africa. This show showed for the first time, large white sharks flying through the air in dramatic predatory attempts on cape fur seals. I think that I must be like most people who grew up loving sharks. At that moment, Seal Island became a mystical place for me and the cape coast of South Africa attained the level of Dream Trip. This summer I had the opportunity to visit Seal Island and see first hand the moving and spectacular predatory dance between white sharks and seals. More… »

On a cool, rainy morning in September of 2006 I boarded a small float plane and headed out into the wilds of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to photograph the world’s largest bears. Our destination was the Aleut Island Lodge. From here we would explore the areas salmon streams in hopes of having some close encounters with the massive Kodiak brown bears. More… »