Category Archives: Travel Photos

Travel photography from around the world.

Travel Photos

Wildlife Photo: Coati

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These cute little guys were scampering all around when I visited Iguassu Falls in Brazil and Argentina.

I also saw them while travelling through Central America. To me, they look like super-skinny raccoons! Not surprisingly they are from the raccoon family.

With this ring tailed coati species, their colouring and ringed tails is very similar to that of the raccoons we find here at home in Canada.

Also called a coatimundi or pizote, these cute guys are fairly social, travelling in troops. They tend to live in the forest, but can live in grasslands and other climates. Some subspecies even live in the mountains. Equally adept at climbing or digging, they have impressive paws and are able to turn their wrists around to climb down trees head first!

As cute as they are, they can be pretty mean and have very sharp teeth – so don’t think about trying to have one as a pet.

Most common in Central and South America, you can actually find coatis in parts of the US as well – Texas, New Mexico and Arizona!

Ring Tailed Coatis in South America
Ring Tailed Coatis in South America
Travel Photos

Wildlife Photos: Banded Wood Snail

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Wildlife Photo: Grove Snail
Wildlife Photo: Grove Snail in Toronto

 

A few summers ago these guys invaded my patio. At first I didn’t think much of it, a few large snails popping up around the patio. Then more and more showed up. Then baby snails with tiny shells appeared and I knew things were getting a bit crazy.

For some reason that summer was the summer of the snail where I lived! I don’t have a garden and they didn’t bother my neighbours, it was a fairly confined little area that the snail infestation occurred in, and thankfully they’ve been kept to manageable levels since that summer.

I never gave them much thought in terms of wondering what species they were until recently, so I grabbed my camera and got some closeup shots of this guy. As far as I could tell it’s the same type of snail I’ve seen regularly around Ontario since I was a little kid.

My first check told me this was a banded wood snail. What a cool name huh? But I didn’t see much in terms of that being an official type of snail, so I dug deeper. Turns out the actual species is Cepaea nemoralis. And, it turns out the more common name is the grove snail, or black-lipped snail.

Wildlife Photo: Banded Wood Snail
Wildlife Photo: Banded Wood Snail in Toronto

 

I like the reasoning for the black-lipped snail. If you notice the edge of the shell, near the opening, has a dark brown/black ring. That is where the name comes from. Another species is called the white-lipped snail, and it has a white ring near the opening!

Only about a dozen or so of these guys showed up over the course of this past summer, so I think we’ve reached a peaceful equilibrium where I don’t have to worry about the crunching sound of snail shells as I walk around my patio.

Wildlife Photo: Black-Lipped Snail
Wildlife Photo: Black-Lipped Snail in Toronto

 

I’ve never been one to take many close-up / macro photographs, but it was kind of fun having such a slow moving subject to get photos of. Perhaps I’ll see what other small creatures I can find in the urban jungle!

 

Travel Photos

Wildlife Photo: Trumpeter Swans at Wye Marsh

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Once believed to be well on their way to extinction, trumpeter swans are now enjoying some re-introduction success in Ontario, and across North America.

Less than 90 years ago, only a few dozen trumpeter swans remained outside of Alaska, and the birds had long been extirpated (locally extinct) in eastern Canada. Thankfully, with careful planning and re-introduction programs trumpeter swans now have a fairly stable population base in various wetlands and marshes across the US and Canada.

In Ontario, one such place is the Wye Marsh. A re-introduction plan began in the 1980’s, and the first baby (cygnet) trumpeter swan was born here in 1990, thanks to introduced birds. A few years later, and wild trumpeter swans were nesting at the marsh and calling the area home!

These are large birds, the largest waterfowl found in North America. To see them in the wild is a real treat, and to watch them take off, with their huge wingspans (up to 10 feet!) was a great experience.

The trumpeter swans at Wye Marsh are mostly found further away from the trails and lookouts, but with enough patience, a good camera lens (this photo was taken at full zoom) or binoculars, you should be able to catch a glimpse of these impressive creatures. I cam across these trumpeter swans as part of a 3-hour kayaking excursion deep into the lakes and marshes at Wye Marsh.

Trumpeter Swans
Trumpeter Swans taking flight at Wye Marsh

 

Travel Photos

Wildlife Photo: Vicuna

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Alpacas and llamas get the attention of tourists who venture to South America, but their wild counterparts – the vicuña and guanaco – are equally impressive.

If you’ve seen many alpacas or llamas, then you can tell this guy is a little different looking. Much more slender and with a simple brown and white coat, it may not look as funny or fancy as the domesticated camelids of South America.

But, this is the ancestor or the alpacas, and it produces the finest wool! Thankfully though, there are very strict controls in how often, and who, can ever herd up wild vicuna for their wool.

I actually thought the vicuna looked cuter than llamas, as they seem to have a funny expression on their face. This guy does have ears, but I liked how they seemed to disappear when he looked straight at me. If you want to try to spot some vicuna in the wild, then head to Peru, where they are most common. You can also find them in the Andes in Chile, or if you are lucky even parts of Bolivia and Argentina.

Vicuna in Peru
A Vicuna photographed in Peru

 

Travel Photos

Wildlife Photo: Crested Auklet in the Kuril Islands

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This funky looking bird can be found in the north Pacific as well as along the coast of far east Russia, including Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.

I had seen many of these crested auklets flying around, and some diving in the water in search of krill or other food, but hadn’t been able to really get up close to many of them until I made it to Yankicha Island in the Kurils.

There were many bird species here, but the crested auklets were in huge numbers here, thanks to it being a big nesting area. With thousands of them flying about, I spotted a few that were still hanging out on land as we toured the island by Zodiac.

This guy was nice enough to pose for the camera. If you’re a crested auklet, the size of your crest is a big deal, as in both male and female aucklets prefer mates with large crests!

Crested Auklet
A Crested Auklet at Yankicha Island, Russia