David Shepherd’s exhibition of wildlife art is on at the Mall Galleries in London. Tempted to go as some of the work looks exciting. However, all the works are on the web so not sure I can justify the expense, although to see the real thing is always special.

Joined the Hants and Isle of Wight Naturalist Trust. They’ve got a 50^th anniversary wildlife photographic competition which I want to have a go at. Judged by Chris Packham, it would be brilliant to be one of the twelve winners who will get the chance to meet him and have their photos turned into a calendar. Is photography art? The way Chris Packham takes photos, I’d say definitely yes.

June

Had a final check on my article on King Cheetahs and sent it off to Wildlife Sketches.

Got busy  taking photos for the photo competition.

Didn’t go to London as all of the paintings were on the web. Some stunning work.

July

Continued to take photos at every opportunity. Joined Flickr to enable me to take part in the competition. The whole concept of Flickr intrigues me and I hope I can cope with the technical side. The standard on Flickr is incredibly high but you’ve got to be in it to win it. Selected my favourite five and successfully submitted them.

Wildlife Sketches put my article on line and I’m pleased with the way it looks.

Checked the sequel article on my efforts to see and photograph a King Cheetah at De Wildts and sent that off.

Art exhibitions are gathering pace. Viewed NEWA exhibition on line and saw BBC Wildlife artist of 2011 winners in the magazine. Won by Stella Mayes whom I really rate. I am fortunate enough to own one of her pastels.

August

Second cheetah article published. I think they work well together and I hope readers enjoy them. I certainly enjoyed researching and writing these two.

Over eight hundred entries in the photographic competition so plenty of opposition.

Results announced. Didn’t win but enjoyed the experience and some of the winners are stunning. However, I heard that one of my photos might be included as a small additional photo. Great!

Wrote a requested article on Amur leopards. One of my favourite cats so will be interested to see how it is received.

Went to the MIWAS exhibition at Marwell . Great to see such a variety of subjects and styles. It is always fun to talk to the artists and to see old friends.

September

Spent over twenty hours at Marwell as the Snow leopards have had triplets. Met many interesting people to talk to while we all waited for the extremely shy cubs to put in an appearance. Finally got some really pleasing shots of the triplets and mum. One of the photos made a small appearance in the Marwell magazine and I had some generous comments on Flickr.

Heard the first inkling of David’s forthcoming exhibition at Eastleigh which is always an exciting event. The new print of a sleeping otter is superb!

Final preparations for the Madagascan holiday. Can’t wait!

October

The holiday finally arrives. Late plane flights and all luggage lost got us off to a stressful start. However, two great lodges, fantastic people and wildlife to die for certainly resulted in many wonderful memories and an edit of 800 photos to work through. Amazing how many Brits were there as a result of watching Attenboroughs BBC series. As I thought, photographing in a rain forest in rain with foliage and leeches on my head was difficult!  Eight species of lemurs were however photographed which was more than I hoped for. Should be another article or two in the trip for Wildlife Sketches.

November

Spent a couple of weeks editing the Madagascan photos and then getting them printed and put in a couple of albums.

We decided to have a go at a calendar on lemurs using our photos.

Decided to change all the photos in frames in our kitchen to have some of our best Madagascan photos on show. We also had three canvases done of lemur portraits which look great. The overall result we find pleasing and should give us a fresh look in the kitchen for a while.

Went to David’s exhibition at The Picture Framing Gallery in Eastleigh.  A super exhibition and it was great to see his new originals. Thought the spider monkey and the frogs were excellent. Also thought the eyes on the fossa drawing were amazing. Shame we didn’t see any fossa in Madagascar.

Finished the month down at Marwell and actually got an hour of viewing and photographing the snow leopard cubs which have really grown.

 Had an email from Marwell saying they wanted to use one of my earlier cub photos for a xmas card so am really pleased.

December

Great to see the pandas arrive at Edinburgh zoo. Need to plan a trip to see them as I’ve seen all the others that have been on our shores.

Saw my 125^th British bird species, a tree sparrow of all things. Don’t know how I missed recording it earlier in the year. It gives me a healthy total to try and beat next year.

Any spare time not going on Xmas preparation is being used on Flickr to make up new photo sets and to admire the work of others. Probably one of the most enjoyable things I’ve started all year.

Most of the holiday brochures have arrived for 2012 and a time of anticipation is again occurring . The yearly cycle of a wildlife art fan is therefore almost complete.

Birthday Bliss!

It’s funny how we always seem to want something special for our birthdays, but can’t always have it.

Our birthdays are still great mostly, because someone special has always remembered us; and made us feel a bit special also. Then we’re often pleasantly surprised how many others have remembered too.

Then I asked, as I often do, if the print was for herself or a gift for someone.  Maureen explained that her sister, Diane, was a long time fan of Monkey World and especially of Charlie. In fact her sister had tried to get a ‘Charlie’ print before to no avail. They’d chatted about the possibility of finding one, but doubted if they were available reasonably priced.

After watching an old episode of the Monkey World programme on the telly, Maureen decided to have a look online and she found www.wildlife-sketches.com. So she emailed me her request.

Well, as you now know, she managed to get her ‘Charlie’, then had him framed, and on her sister’s birthday, Maureen gave Diane the surprise present.

She was absolutely delighted and not a little surprised. Diane feels that "David’s drawing captures the essence of Charlie in all his glory “.

Maureen took this photo of Diane with her newly framed print.

I had to add this story to the blog because it is such a great story. What a brilliant birthday surprise!

Happy Birthday Diane,

Well done Maureen, you're a great sister.

As Maureen and Diane know www.wildlife-sketches.com can usually locate the print you want.

All you need to do is email us your request, and we’ll do the searching for you.

We also offer Gift Vouchers, available from our Shop Page which allow someone to order which ever print they like most. What a great Gift Idea!

Vincenzo De Luca.

This is an article from National Geographic Italy. So I have translated it for you all because I just loved it, and I'm sure everyone will. There is also a link to the video here. And if you want to read it in the original Italian I have also left the link below.

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For the first time an elephant has been shown to be able to visualize a problem, plan a solution, and then put the plan into practice.

Kandula, and Asian elephant at Washington National Zoo, was filmed using a plastic cube to reach fruit in some high branches of a tree.

To imagine a problem: think of a solution and then put a plan into practice: is an ability we share with very few other animals, including Chimps, Crows and very few other creatures. From now on we can add Elephants to this short list.

Kandula is a seven year old Asian elephant at Washington National Zoo.

Please watch the video to see Kandula in action

This was an experiment in which the fruit had been suspended on a high branch out of Kandula’s reach.

Apparently, Kandula gave it some thought, and then went to get the plastic cube. He rolled the cube underneath the branches with the fruit on, and stood on the cube with two feet to reach up with his trunk and get his prize.

Diane Reiss, a researcher into animal intelligence, maintains “Kandula had never used an object to step onto and reach other objects before, and had not arrived at this solution by trial and error. All the evidence shows the pachyderm had a spontaneous idea: He showed himself capable of working out a problem and putting a plan into practice”.

Researchers had left various objects available to Kandula to use to attempt to reach the fruit: for example, sticks, which he could use to reach up and hit the branch and make the fruit drop.

But Kandula did'nt use them. At first this left the researchers perplexed, until they realized that it would have been unnatural elephant behavior.

We know that elephants do use sticks, for example to scratch their backs. But never to find or reach food. This is because smell is so important to elephants, and they smell through their trunks. So they would not be able to smell anything if the held anything in their trunks.

The experiment was repeated over several days in 20 minute sessions. The first seven times Kandula just stood  and looked at the fruit without trying to reach it or use any object to reach  for it.

Dan Moore, one of the co-authors of this report (published in PLoS ONE) and also an associate director of the national zoo, reminds us that “Kandula is an exceptionally curious and intelligent elephant. We know all elephants are intelligent, but we think Kandula is one of the most intelligent”.

Moore also hopes that this study will draw public attention the plight of these Asian Elephants which are in danger of becoming extinct. “This type of research can help us to empathise more with animals, because it makes them more like us. And perhaps if we empathise, we will be more willing to protect them”.

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