What you missed while you were slaving away at the office
If your office blocks the beautiful Internet that lies outside of your work network, and if you're not too savvy about the whole proxy thing, you've probably missed out on an entire week's worth of The Green Ogre. Fret not, help is at hand. This weekly summary will bring you up to speed.
Our amazing Agumbe Diaries have revealed some lovely experiences from the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, where we held the first Green Ogre Monsoon Conclave in June. Here's a summary of the week's best:
The Blue-eyed Bush Frog (Philautus neelanethrus) was unknown to science till 2007 when it was reported from the Sharavathi Valley. Out on a post-dinner amble at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, we were introduced to this intriguing but shy amphibian. It turned out that it was really the prince of frogs, and immensely kissable.
What's a rainforest without rain? Chicken Biriyani without chicken? Spending three full days in pouring rain didn't dampen our enthusiasm for it as we expected. In fact, when we came away we were Noahs after the flood, irked by anyone who complained about rain.
Ancient Greek poets compared cicadas to dulcet-voiced queens. But erm, only male cicadas sing. And they do mostly by day. So what was this one, which we met in Dandeli, doing out by himself so late at night? Curiouser and curiouser...
Yak, yak, yak! Sometimes it's important to shut up and let a photograph do the talking. And that's what we did on Wednesday. But hey, doesn't this picture inspire more conversation? Do slugs eat orchids? And what was the butterfly doing there? What kind of relationships do they share? So much for silence. Go on and leave a comment...
The most fascinating discoveries in a rainforest are often not the large animals but the tiny, elusive ones. If it weren't for Andy, we would have passed up this extraordinarily beautiful Malaysian Moon Moth. Interestingly, all this moth ever does in its adult life is sleep and make love. Now, we know a great many people who'd envy that – imagine just having to live on love and fresh air!
Birds in a rainforest are not easy to come by. You hear them all the time but the dense canopy and tangled understory keep them away from view. And so it was by sheer luck that we stepped into a forest glade when the rain took a break, and were treated to an amazing aerial acrobatic display by a Racket-tailed Drongo.
Look out for more good stuff next week!