Blog 3, part 1 - WWF croc's and bird's

Hey all, Thank you for your continued support as I continue my blogging journey. I love seeing all your favourite stamps on Instagram and learning from you guys as I go. Okay, lets go.

Gharials are up first and just look at these guys, they are straight out of the dinosaur age.

Gharials are native to just India and Nepal these days, but they did used to belong to further afield in the North Indian territory. These stamps issued from Bangladesh, beautifully show detailed illustrations of Gharials in their natural habitat.

They are extremely endangered, hunted so that various parts of their anatomy can be used for alternative medicines and local tribes hunt for their eggs as a source of sustenance.

Gharials are becoming rare and endangered due to a build up of property development, farming and mining. However I was glad to read that there are some captive breeding programs in place that are able to successfully release Gharials back into their natural habitat.

Smiling for the camera

These spectacular animals thrive in freshwater rivers, abundant with an all inclusive menu of fish and they love nothing more than doing a spot of sunbathing. I was intrigued to learn about their 'nasal boss' otherwise called a 'ghara' - let me explain - Gharials have a lump at the end of their long nose which locals say resembles a Hindu pot called a ghara hence their name Gharial. Th purpose of the 'nasal boss' is to sniff out which other Gharials are male or female.

What a handsome chap

Next up are two variation of beautiful birds from the Cook Islands.

On the look out

This bird on the stamp on the left is called the 'Ptilinopus rarotongensis', or if you are like me and struggle to say Prosecco, they are called 'Fruit Doves' and are part of the Dove family.

The common trade mark for these birds include a magenta halo and chest. Females are identified as being mainly green whereby males have a mixed palette of green, olive, beige and off-white, but support a reddish colour on their upper backs.

The stamp on the right illustrates two Fruit Doves nesting content in each others company. The Fruit Doves are not particularly endangered but they are in the 'threatened' threshold.

Breeding aligns with when the fruit is in abundance so there is enough to feed , rear and teach the chicks how hunting is done. This is also the best time to watch these birds, especially on a little island called Atiu.

These little cuties on these two stamps on the left are called 'Pomerea Dimidiata' or 'Monarch Flycatcher' from the 'Monarchidae' family. The difference between male and female in this particular species is very difficult to tell but its thought females have a white belly and black at the end of their tails.

Both sexes change colour throughout aging; they start off orange then go orange-grey and end up being grey. That's a bit like my own hair, I started dark, then blond, then dark, then blond, then dark and now I am grey!😁

Interestingly, these birds often return to the same partner year after year for breeding.

Like the Fruit Dove, the Monarch Flycatcher is in the 'threatened' threshold of endangerment. However, numbers are better now than what they were back in the 1980's when the island was rife with black rats and feral cats. In a bid to protect the bird species the Takitumu Conservation Area Project had a clear out of the cats and rats and won a Conservation Award by Birdlife International in 2022.

That said, because the Cook Islands are in such an extreme and open part of the world, the weather can be catastrophic and bring along hurricanes and typhoons for which these birds can not hide from.

Sandwiched between Australia and South America is the Cook Islands

You can see from the snapshot on the left that the Cook Islands are unprotected from the North, South, East and West. The South Pacific Ocean is the deepest Ocean on the earth and is largely unexplored. This area of the Ocean is also very dangerous and unpredictable due to strong winds and huge waves.

On closer inspection you can see the exposure of these Polynesia Islands in the middle of the Ocean

The Monarch Flycatcher and the Fruit Doves are only small birds and live in a tiny unsheltered part of the world, and because of that, one huge typhoon or hurricane could wipe out both these species in one go. Cyclones that occurred in 2003-2006 signified a drastic dip in both these species of birds on the Cook Islands.

That's it for this week, I was going to do two more animals this week but the research is hard going and I have a house to run 😁 I will do WWF part 2 next week.

It was great to have you visit my blog, and please do contact me if you have any questions, or if I have made a mistake (which is highly probable) or just comment.

If anyone wants to read further, I have attached the report that was issued by the 'Takitumu Conservation Area Project' below which outlined their plan to clear the area for the safety of the birds.

Takitumu Conservation Area Management Plan 2020-2030.pdf

Have a great weekend and beyond!

Stamping out.

Lisa