This woodchuck groundhog built its home a few meters away from Billings Bridge Mall, corner of busy Bank and Riverside streets. Generally herbivorous, groundhogs subsist primarily on wild grasses and other vegetation, supplementing their diet with berries. Partially omnivorous, groundhogs will also eat grubs, grasshoppers, insects, snails and other small animals. Groundhogs are excellent burrowers, using underground burrows for sleeping, rearing young, and hibernating. In Ottawa, it's common to see such wild animals such as hares and squirrels on neighbourhood lawns and parks. This groundhog came out of its domain to watch people stroll by, and then continued to munch its vegetarian brunch.

This swam is a descendant from the white swans given by Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1998. They find refuse on the Rideau River flowing through the city of Ottawa, capital of Canada.

These twin camels waited patiently for me while I was getting lessons from the guide on how to ride a camel. At SHAPOTOU, 20km west of Zongwei Ningxia Province at the fringe of the Tengger Desert (Gobi Desert west), there's hardly any vegetation yet this city attracts many retired citizens. Camels are precious animals contributing not only as transportation to the nomadic life, but also for milk and hair for survival. They look docile and innocent but they seem to be mean when they don't feel comfortable towards their rider. By the way, the rocky movements of my camel twisted my spine for 2 hours.

While visiting Chengdu in the Sichuan province of western China, I stayed one whole afternoon observing the pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the largest of the world. Without protection by the government, this breed would rapidly becomes extinct; the female ovulates only for 2 weeks once every two years. They freely roam within a 50 hectares forest being fed twice a day with bamboo leaves, their favorites. Although they seem so cuddly and huggable, they prefer and protect their space when they're not sleeping. The panda puts the branch between its teeth then slides it, thus obtaining a mouthful of leaves. About the size of an Canadian black bear, giant pandas stand between 60 to 90 cm tall at the shoulder (on all four legs), and reach 130 to 200 cm long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 120 kg in the wild. Females rarely reach 100 kg. There are only about 900 left in the world.

This robin waked me up one morning at my mom's place. As I looked out the window, I told him/her, "You create harmonious music and you're beautiful. Wait till I fetch my camera". Three minutes later, he/she was still waiting. When I told him/her, "You're in the shade, I want to see your bright chest", it moved in the sunlight. Click!

For about 15 minutes, I watched these birds as they seem to be flirting all the time. Then they lived up to their nickname: kissing. In this bird refuge, the Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Bharatpur, Rajasthan province, INDIA), thousands of birds reside or stop during their migration. Bicycling down the narrow road is a an ecstatic experience of harmonious sounds of bird songs. These "kissing birds" (commonly called love birds) though are poor singers sounding much like cockatiels' croak. Kissing communicates much better!

As spring approaches, about one-third of the seals gather on the ice around Canada's Magdalene Islands, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Labrador to give birth. Within a week or so around March 1st of each year about 500,000 seal pups are born on the ice floes, providing one of the most spectacular wildlife events in North America. The white-coated pups are only about 60 cm long when they are born and weigh about 7 kilograms, but they grow quickly. Their mother's milk is 45% fat (compared to cow's milk at 4%) and the pups gain about two kg a day. In 12 days they weigh about 34 kilograms. After about three weeks, the females will abandon the pups, which will now weigh between 50 and 60 kg. The pups remain on shore for another two to three weeks during which time they molt, shedding their white coat for a mottled grey one. Once molted and having depleted their reserves of fat, the grey seal pups enter the waters and start to forage. For a large number of these pups, their foraging brings them to the shores of Nova Scotia. These seals, once they have fed, will come out of the water and rest for periods as long as 48 hours. So, it is quite normal to see a young seal resting on the shore, which inevitably brings them in contact with humans.

This baby seal was rescued by children when its mother has been butchered by the seal hunters which is still legal in Canada. With world attention, recent tours have begun bringing thousands of wildlife lovers to the ice floes to hunt the seals with cameras rather than clubs.

This Little Blue Heron is a young one, less then 6 months. How do I know? - because it now has white plumage. The Little Blue heron gradually acquires blue-gray plumage as it matures except for the head and neck which turns blue later. Non-breeding adults have dark blue head and neck plumage and paler legs. Young birds are all white except for dark wing tips and have yellowish legs.

The Little Blue Heron stalks its prey methodically in shallow water, standing innocently motionless as a dead tree. It eats fish, crustaceans, amphibians, insects and reptiles. It stands in shallow water and waits for its prey to go by, and then it grabs its prey with its pointed bill. For another source of food, the more aggressive ones often follow farmers as they are plowing fields and then grabs the insects that are disturbed by the plow. The little blue heron makes its home in freshwater swamps, lagoons, coastal thickets and islands. Here, on the Lake Chapala shore, there's plenty of frogs, I know....... I heard them almost every night as they sing their lullaby.

Range

Life Cycle

Chipmunks like this one favor deciduous forests with plenty of beech and oak trees, and may be seen most often around suburban yards and gardens and often dig burrows around rocks, woodpiles, retaining walls, and fallen logs. While they're expert climbers, they spend much of their time foraging along the ground—preferably close to their burrows, should a quick escape be necessary. Their vocalizations range from high-pitched whistles and chips to lower "chuck" sounds. They depend primarily on plants for food—concentrating on seeds, berries, acorns, and other nuts which they forage most intensely in the fall as they gather food to store and eat over the winter. Transporting food is facilitated by expandable cheek pouches, into which quite a lot of material can be crammed—as anyone who watches these animals for long can attest Most people enjoy watching these attractive, lively animals and for these people, the enjoyment outweighs any nuisance chipmunks may cause.