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Charlotte Rampling

fotojournalismus:

A boy gestures in front of a barricade on fire during a protest after French troops opened fire at protesters blocking a road in Bambari on May 22, 2014. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

theincredibleorca:

One of the most fascinating things about orcas is that each population has a different set of diet and hunting behaviors. Some populations eat only fish, while others eat only marine mammals, etc. The New Zealand orcas have a pretty varied diet, but they’re the only known orca population to feed off stingrays. The deadly rays can easily take down an orca, but the intelligent killer whales have figured out how to hunt them with skill and dexterity. (however, this stingray hunting habit means the NZ orcas have the highest rates of stranding out of any orca population, since the hunts often lead them into shallow waters) Orcas pass down hunting knowledge and skills to their young, in a way, almost resembling human culture.

It is for this reason we should work to preserve not only the wild population as a whole, but individual populations as well. Only a few wild orca populations have been well-studied, and if a less-studied population disappears, we’re not just losing orcas in a certain area, we’re losing a totally unique group with it’s own dialect and lifestyle that took generations to develop. Sure, a new group of orcas could potentially move into the area, but for reasons explained, it would still be a big loss for a given group to die out.

Photo by Ingrid Visser, Orca Research Trust

lucystardust:

untitled by Lina Scheynius on Flickr.

Vincent van Gogh – Roses, 1889 (National Museum of Western Art – Tokyo Japan) Van Gogh