hd animal pictures 2013: All Animals Pictures

Friday 6 December 2013

All Animals Pictures

Source Link:- google.com.pk

The full glory of the animal kingdom is captured in this series of stunning photographs by award-winning nature photographer David Lloyd.
From the gory to the heart-warming, some of the most beautiful animals on the planet are captured going about their daily business at the Masai Mara, Kenya.
Hungry lions captured with their prey, a cheetah bounding over a car and a bird of prey flying over a herd of wildebeest are among the incredible images taken by Lloyd, a New Zealander who moved to Britain 20 years ago.
In 1999, conservationists set aside 4,000 acres of cloud forest on the western slopes of the Andes in southern Ecuador to protect several rare endemic species. Now, that reserve—the Buenaventura Reserve—is set to expand by another 600 acres thanks to a recent land acquisition organized by Ecuador's Fundación Jocotoco, Rainforest Trust, and American Bird Conservancy.
The Buenaventura Reserve protects 15 globally endangered bird species. Among them is the endangered El Oro parakeet, a species of parrot that was discovered in 1980 when a team of ornithologists came across the green-plumed parrot while exploring the remote cloud forests of Ecuador.
The El Oro parakeet's range is small and under threat. The species inhabits the tropical cloud forests that grow on the western slopes of the Andes between 2,600 and 4,000 feet in elevation. Its habitat is being fragmented and destroyed as land is cleared for agriculture or by logging activity. The Buenaventura Reserve protects some of the El Oro parakeet's habitat and expanding its boundaries increases the protection the rare parrot will receive.
The El Oro parakeet is not the only bird that will be protected in Buenaventura. There are more than 330 species of birds that have been identified in the reserve, 34 of which are endemic to the area. Among the birds that call Buenaventura home are cloud forest pygmy owls, grey-backed hawks, rufous-headed antbirds, grey-breasted flycatchers, and long-wattled umbrellabirds. Many migratory birds also use the Buenaventura Reserve during part of the year including Swainson's hawks, olive-sided flycatchers, black-and-white warblers, and summer tanagers.