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Chthonic Wildlife Ramblings

Reflections of a heterodox conservationist

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Introduction

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This site largely reflects my interest in wildlife and its conservation, and tends to have an NZ and Australian focus. I tend to have a fairly pragmatic view towards conservation- and have often ended up playing* with the less iconic species- crocodiles, creepy-crawlies etc

I'm also taking a more serious interest in the photography of nature and wildlife. I'm in the process:smile: of making some of my popular shots available on a different site- just follow this chthoniid link.

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*Technically not playing, but researching and studying, often in the more obscure and humid parts of the world.

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See which countries I've visited so far

map below

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NZ Christmas Tree

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The Pohutakawa is sometimes known as the NZ Christmas Tree, as it has conspicuous red flowers (against redgreen leaves) in early summer.

This shot was taken with the Dynax 7, a Minolta 50/1.4 lens and Kodak 100 UC film.

Idle banter

I got back from another trip yesterday. Still sweating over my tiger paper alas. Sometimes keeping up the motivation during the grind is a challenge.

Anyway, with no photos to show or exciting conservation stories, I thought I'd briefly discuss music.
Now as it turns out I've got some clear music preferences. I liked a lot of alternative 80s (Punk/New Wave etc) stuff, and I like my hard rock to be 'blues inspired' (e.g. Hendrix) rather than metal.

Even so, there are some guilty pleasures. Stuff you end up liking for all sorts of reasons, none of which quite map to your established preferences.

So, let's make a list. Here's my top 5 'Guilty Pleasure' music:
1- Nena, 99 Luftballons.
2- The Buggles- Video Killed the Radio Star
3- A-Ha- Take on Me
4- Warren Zevon- Werewolves of London
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5- Dexys Midnight Runners- Come on Eileen

Good news conservation story from Australia

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The Lord Howe Island stick insect was though to have been driven extinct around 1918, when a supply ship grounded on the island. This released rats to the island, which found the large flightless stick insect a delightful snack (along with 5 bird species). A relic population was found in 2001.

ABC(Australia) has the following Video Link on the return of the species.

I would also like to point out that Melbourne Zoo held and bred a captive population of these insects, again highlighting that (good) zoos do a lot of important conservation work that receives little publicity. Here's the ARAZPA link.

Signs of the Apocalypse

Through the vantage point of my daughter's affection for the TV music video channel, a terrible truth has been realised.

Hillary Duff has done a cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". Presumably she witnessed the Marilyn Manson cover and thought "Hey, I could make that song sound even worse than that". Even the lyrics have been improved modified.

I'm fairly certain that this is one of the signs of the end-of-the-world. As such, I am initiating a plan of accumulating canned goods.

And in the interim, I have to go off and play some Depeche Mode very loudly.




Rescue story on Mt Cook/Aoraki

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The two trapped Japanese climbers had to spend the night out in the open last night, and a rescue was managed early this morning. One of the climbers has been flown to Christchurch hospital with frost bite, the other has been confirmed dead.

A short work note

A colleague comes into my office for a brief chat.

I'm busy sweating over my revisions to a paper on tiger poaching.
He lets me know that he's had a few papers accepted for publication now.

While I'm happy for him, I have to ask.
So what's it like working in a field where there's lots of data and nobody tries to shoot you?

He pauses, thinks for a moment then says:
...a bit boring actually

Now, back to my regular sweating over revisions :wink:

Down at the beach



This is another test-run shot of the Sigma 24/1.8 EX lens and Fuji Pro 160C film.
As you can see, there is a general absence of snow and other northern hemisphere delights.

Suffice to say, we won't be getting a white Christmas this year :wink:

Going wide with film

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