Saturday, March 5, 2011

Wild porn? Thank you, Smithsonian!

Have you visited Smithsonian Wild?
It's some grade-A wild-animal porn created by the Smithsonian Institution and collaborators by remote research cameras in the wilderness around the world. The site explains:

"The use of motion-triggered 'camera traps' has become an incredibly useful tool for scientists to answer an enormous range of conservation and ecological questions. Researchers attach these unique cameras to posts or trees, often along forest trails, and when a camera's sensor registers an animal's body heat and movement, a photograph is taken. The studies highlighted here demonstrate the range of applications of this method, and how these cameras give us a glimpse into an animal world that is rarely seen by anyone."

And the images are amazing. Some are even better composed than a lot of intentional photographs. Anyway, there's jaguars from Peru; African and Asian elephants; takins; Asian black bears, serows and Temminck's tragopans from China; spotted hyenas and giraffes from Kenya; ocelots from Panama—chasing an armadillo! It's serious research.
So enjoy being amazed by hundreds of wild-animal photos.

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