SeaWayBLOG: January 2010

The armoured octopus.

Consider this post the third part of a trilogy video about the incredible skills of the octopuses after the previous posts:

Octopus, master of disguise
Octopus, the master contortionist

That Octopus is the most inteligent of the invertebrates is a well known fact but this footage provided by Dr Julian Finn of Museum Victoria takes it to a new level. In the video you can see a Veined Octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, showing sophisticated tool use behaviour, a coconut that he seems to use as a portable armour/hiding place and, using both halves, as a den

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When reality and fantasy meet: Bambi and Thumper

©Tamja Askani

If you are frequent reader of SeaWayBLOG you should know that this is a place enitrely dedicated to water in all of his shapes, therefore I'm glad that in the picture above there's snow so I have the pretext to write here about this story that simply too amazing to skip it.

It's the story of a friendship between an orphan fawn and a rabbit, a sort of real-life version of Walt Disney's Bambi and Thumper (the rabbit that in French is called "Panpan", in Spanish "Tambor" and in Italian "Tippete").

First of all my sincere compliments to Tanja Askani who is a great nature photographer (and nature lover) and is the author of all these pictures. Take a visit to her website to see more pictures and have more details on this fantastic story about the fawn Finchen and his little rabbit friend.

If you are still not convinced that sometimes reality could be so similar to fantasy compare the following pictures By Tanja Askani with the picture from the Disney's movie based on the 1923 book, “Bambi, A Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten:

©Tamja Askani

Incredible isn't it?

©Tamja Askani

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Collision between Sea Shepherd’s Adi Gil and Japanese whaling boat

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's vessel Ady Gil had its bow sheared off and was taking on water Wednesday after it collided with the Japanese whaling ship in the frigid waters of Antarctica. The boat's six crew members were safely rescued. The clash was the most serious in the past several years, during which the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has sent vessels into far-southern waters to try to harass the Japanese fleet into ceasing its annual whale hunt. Each side routinely accuses the other of dangerous activity during what has become a cat-and-mouse chase in one of the world's most remote regions.

Video from the Japanese boat:

Video from another Sea Sheppard boat:

Some frames of the collision

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2009 in 30 pictures related to water

(REUTERS/Beawiharta)

2009 is just finished, and as I did a year ago with 2008, I've prepared a gallery to describe the last 12 months with 30 pictures related to water. Many of them will remind you 2009 main news items, and, if you're usual readers of this blog you'll probably remember many previous posts too.