Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: tom b on March 04, 2015, 09:26:36 pm
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An extraordinary image (http://media.theage.com.au/video-technology/video-digital-life/weasel-riding-woodpecker-goes-viral-6321444.html).
Cheers,
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Definitely one for the "I can't believe it's not PhotoShopped" set.
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A cat was riding a trumpeter swan here in Finland a few years back, but unfortunately there are no pictures or videos. The feline was stalking some migrating swans on a field and managed to jump on the back of one, which duly took off with the passenger. After circling around a few times the bird unceremoniously dumped the cat in a lake.
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We're sure it's not a shop job ??
Hard to believe, but impressed if it's real..
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It looks real enough, and a series of honestly out-of-focus images of the same pair approaching the photographer makes it even more believable.
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Nature´s funny... just look at us riding horses, elephants and I dont know what :-)
hey, i´d ride a woodpecker if I had the chance....
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A couple of young lads spied a bull moose swimming across a large lake. So they drove a boat next to the animal and one of them jumped on the back of the poor moose and rode him for half a minute or so. Some nature lovers made a complaint to the police about animal mishandling, but nothing came of that. This was in northern Finland some years ago.
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Except for the fact that a photographer was able to capture this event, it does not surprise me at all as I once had a bizarre encounter with a weasel and a rabbit while hiking and if I hadn't intervened I think the weasel would have gone for a ride on the rabbit. Short version of the story - I was hiking on a forest trail and a wild rabbit ran up to me and literally stopped and hunkered down between my legs. A few seconds later the weasel that had been pursuing it leapt out of bushes on the side of the trail and latched onto the rabbit's neck and the rabbit began screaming. I pinned the weasel to the ground with my boot and the rabbit pulled free and ran away. I then grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and I had a weasel with a mouthful of rabbit fur squirming around and squealing between my thumb and forefinger. I walked down the trail for about ten minutes before tossing it into the bushes unharmed. I learned several things from this, including the fact that weasels stink and that sometimes it feels really good to interfere with nature.
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Interesting that the rabbit perceived you to be less of a threat than the weasel. Usually an upright biped would be the last thing a wild creature would look to for help.
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As a fellow meat eater I would have knocked the rabbit in the head and given the hungry cute weasel a hearty meal! Maybe she even had some young ones to feed!
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Interesting that the rabbit perceived you to be less of a threat than the weasel. Usually an upright biped would be the last thing a wild creature would look to for help.
Last summer I was visited at least six times over a 10-week period by a local rabbit while taking pics of various flowers in my backyard. While I squatted or knelt down with camera in hand s/he would emerge from hiding, often nibbling on other garden plants just a few feet away from me. I found this odd the first couple times, but as it kept happening I figured the rabbit might've previously observed me under cover from a close distance and decided I wasn't a threat. With each visit perhaps this would've been reinforced.
-Dave-
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Almost everything is less of a threat than a weasel.
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Last summer I was visited at least six times over a 10-week period by a local rabbit while taking pics of various flowers in my backyard. While I squatted or knelt down with camera in hand s/he would emerge from hiding, often nibbling on other garden plants just a few feet away from me. I found this odd the first couple times, but as it kept happening I figured the rabbit might've previously observed me under cover from a close distance and decided I wasn't a threat. With each visit perhaps this would've been reinforced.
-Dave-
Rabbits are considered a serious pest in Australia as can be seen in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgPhn4tYxJQ) (it's a bit slow to start)
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Humans are less of a threat if they are squatting or seated. It is the whole upright biped thing that turns us into a threat. Forward facing binocular vision is a predator give-away too. I was on a shoot in Zimbabwe about ten years ago and the professional hunter I was with told me that I could approach almost anything I wanted to if I sat down and scooted on my bottom. It works. However, I wouldn't try this technique with anything that can kill me.
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These things are actually not so unusual.
As luck would have it, I happen to have a similar image.
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;D ;D Looks real enough to me!