If you spend much time searching the Internet, you’ll find millions of photos of cats. People spend hours browsing sites like ICanHasCheezburger? and CuteOverload to find funny or adorable images of animals. You might say that cat photos (okay, probably porn too) are the backbone of the Internet. Animals are a favorite photo subject of travelers as well, whether we’re marveling at the number of street cats in Istanbul or whale watching in California. Flickr user canomike spotted this lady in Thailand about to contribute more cat photos to the world and having a great time with her subjects.
In this video, titled “Going to Cappadocia” by Kyoto Studio, a filmmaking couple from Krakow, Poland, documented their journey through Turkey as they visited Ölüdeniz, Marmaris, Dilek National Park, Kusadasi, Cesme, Izmir, Efez, Cappadocia, and Istanbul. The video explores an array of Turkey’s features, including ancient ruins, wildlife, landscape, shopping, transportation, street food, and people going about their everyday life, giving you a broad look into the culture of the country. You’ll also get an aerial view of Cappadocia’s unworldly yet beautiful landscape from a hot-air balloon ride. To create the video, the couple used a Canon 5D Mark II as well as various lenses and editing software. The music is “Limbe” by S-tone Inc.
If you prefer cute and cuddly animals to the Big Five on safari, you may want to consider a trip to the Netherlands. VICE’s Cute Show takes a look this week at a guinea pig village in Holland, where the hairy rodents go to “retire” when their owners can no longer look after them. You can adopt a guinea pig or just visit them (I’m partial to the scrappy and long-haired Droopy).
The guinea pig village is located in Bakkeveen, about 2 hours northeast of Amsterdam. It’s open Wednesdays and Saturdays to the public, more info available here. Guinea pigs not your thing? Watch the Cute Show visit baby sloths in Costa Rica.
Whale sightings off the coast of California are at record high numbers already this season, as the annual migration of Pacific gray whales appears to have started about two weeks earlier than normal. This news has surprised and delighted whale experts, who see the large numbers as a great indication that the species is healthier than expected.
Gray whales generally pass the summer above the Arctic Circle, where they spend several months feeding in the Bering and Chukchi seas. As winter sets into the northern hemisphere however, they begin their long migration south, covering as much as 12,000 miles along the way. For several weeks, they’ll linger off the coast of California, breeding and nursing their young, and offering prime opportunities for travelers to encounter the giant mammals in their natural environment.
What has whale spotters the most excited this season is that the numbers of gray whales is considerably higher than last year. According to this story at Adventure Journal, in December of 2010, just eight grays were spotted in the waters off California, but this year that number has exceeded 30. Even more encouraging is the overall health of the pod, as the creatures seem well fed after their summer layover up north.
It is believed that between 1998 and 2002, the population of gray whales dropped by as much as a third due to poor feeding conditions and high mortality rates. But it appears that those population numbers are now on the rebound, which bodes well for the future of the species.
If you’re in California over the next few weeks, and want to have an amazing experience, you’ll find that there are plenty of commercial boats that conduct whale watching tours. Those boats have reportedly been booked solid in recent days, so you may want to buy tickets early and plan ahead for your own whale watching excursion. If you’re not lucky enough to be in the area, check out the video below. It was shot on December 18th by two scuba divers who had their own encounter with a young gray whale.
In an attempt to thwart the efforts of illegal rhino poachers in South Africa, wildlife officials at Kruger National Park have announced that they will no longer employ the use of signs that indicated where the animals can be found. Previously, safari guides and camp leaders used maps and colored pins to mark the location of recently spotted animals so that tourists could get the opportunity to see the endangered creatures in the wild. Officials now believe that those same signs were being used by poachers to track the animals as well.
As we’ve mentioned before on Gadling, rhinos are becoming increasingly rare throughout Africa, and have been recently declared extinct in some parts of the continent. Poachers seek out the animals to obtain their distinct horns, which are then sold on the black market in Asia, where they are used in traditional medicines. Because of their demand in that part of the world, rhino horns can now be valued at as much as $100,000, which has spurred a string of robberies from museums in Europe recently as well.
South Africa has done its best to crack down on the poachers by imposing stiffer jail sentences and sending more anti-poaching units into the field. Despite those efforts however, the problem continues to get worse. As of last week, 405 rhinos had been killed in the country this year alone, up from 333 last year. Of those, 229 were killed in Kruger, which is amongst the top safari destinations in all of Africa.
Without the signs to guide the way, tourists will just have to keep their eyes peeled in order to spot a rhino, which can be rather elusive in their natural habitat. Still, I don’t think anyone will argue against doing away with the signs if it means we can make the poacher’s job just a little bit more challenging.