Schoolboy's bee snap buzzes to first place in wildlife photography competition

By Daily Mail Reporter

It's a honey: This perfect snap of a bee settling on a flower was 13-year-old Cameron Smith's prizewinning picture.


It is an extraordinary picture that has all the hallmarks of a professional wildlife photographer.

But, remarkably, this crystal clear shot of a bumble bee hovering beside a salvia flower was taken by a 13-year-old boy in his back garden.

Cameron Smith has now won a national photography competition after the judges were impressed by his technical ability in the picture, which he titled 'Buzzing Along'.


Tales of the riverbank: Runner-up Matt Fiddler's candid snap of a water vole


And relax..: No buzzing creatures in Matt Fiddler's peaceful study of a River Stour sunset


Stunning: Wayne Geater took this picture of a red deer roaming across the countryside


In a spin: David Hermon's 'mini-beast tornado' turns these whirling gnats into abstract art (left) and David Hermon took this incredible shot of a peregrine falcon flying with a freshly caught pigeon in its claws


Oblivious: A flock of geese takes no notice of a fox in this picture taken by David Hermon on Trimley Marshes in Suffolk


Hot shot: Schoolboy: Cameron Smith

'I spotted this bee buzzing around a plant and I decided to try and take a picture of it. It took me a lot of attempts before I got the picture I wanted to get,' said the teenager, from Wetheringsett, Suffolk.

'I chose this photo because the bee was in flight and the photo was sharp.'

One of the judges of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust competition, Bill Baston, said the picture was a 'remarkable achievement for a 13-year-old.'

'The colourful, curved flower sweeps across the image and points towards the hovering bee, which is razor-sharp and frozen in mid-air, framed in the dark gap between two out-of-focus flowers in the background, so that it stands out even more,' he added.

David Hermon, from Felixstowe, managed to capture a spectacular image of a peregrine falcon returning its nest with freshly caught prey.

The bird can even be seen calling to its hungry and impatient brood.

Another photo by amateur Wayne Geater, from Claydon, shows a rutting red deer, while a shocked and soggy-looking water vole can be seen staring at the camera in a picture by Matt Fiddler.

A fox hurries through the snow apparently oblivious to some fat and tasty-looking ducks in a second picture by David Hermon.

A third one from David, his 'mini-beast tornado', shows a whirling storm of gnats.
'Gnats fly round like a tornado but usually it's hard to capture them on camera,' he said.

'I slowed down the shutter speed so it shows them doing several wing beats.'

The competition has been running for 11 years and this year it has attracted a record number of submissions

'The aim is to find amateur photographers who best capture the beauty and significance of our local wildlife and to help them bring their work to a wide audience' said Audrey Boyle, of The Suffolk Wildlife Trust


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Meet Panjo, the 23st Bengal tiger who raids the fridge, sleeps on the sofa and is fed milk from the bottle

By Mail Foreign Service

What's up pussycat? Goosey Fernandes feeds 19-month old Bengal tiger Panjo, who has become part of the family after being adopted at just three weeks


Curling up on the sofa, nuzzling his owner's hand and teasing the neighbourhood dogs, Panjo acts just like any other family cat - except he is a 23st Bengal tiger.

Bengals may be fearless predators when in their natural environment, but Panjo is more at home playing with Goosey Fernandes and his adopted family at thier home near Pretoria, South Africa.

Panjo was hand-reared from the age of just three weeks when he was left clinging to life after being adandoned by his mother.

Fernandes brought him home and immediately took on the job of nurturing the tiny tiger cub, who is now 19 months old and strong and healthy.

Panjo is regularly seen prowling around the house, cuddling up to its owners, leaping onto the kitchen bench and playing with Fernandes' jack russells Milo and Sky.

In a bizarre animal-kingdom relationship the trio are actually best friends.


Right at home: Panjo leaps up onto the kitchen bench as he waits to be fed


'He plays with them, they steal his bones, they run after each other. He has never hurt one of my dogs, they play all the time, they are good friends,' Fernandes said.

And while he already looks big enough to be more than a little bit wary, he is in fact only half the size he is likely to be when fully grown.


Nap time: He may look like he belongs in the jungle, but Panjo lives the life of a house cat


Special bond: Panjo cuddles up to one of the Fernandes family's Jack Russell dogs


And Panjo is just a baby at heart, still feeding largely off the bottle milk Fernandes gives him and crying at night if he is not fed.

If he is really hungry he has even been known to raid the fridge.

'The bond I have with Panjo myself and the family is something extraordinary,' Fernandes said.

'At night he will cry and want his bottle of milk. He lies on my couch outside the house drinking milk. It's worth every minute.'

Panjo's days as a family pet are numbered because as a naturally wild animal, it might become dangerous to keep him in such a small space.

Fernandes has plans to find a mate for the tiger so he can breed.


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'Four-legged' fish goes for a walk along ocean floor in stunning photos taken on deep sea dive

By Daily Mail Reporter

An angler fish appears to


Perhaps he had just got tired of swimming.

For this odd-looking fish looks like he's just decided to head out for an evening stroll along the ocean floor.

But while it looks like he has sprouted legs, this angler fish's limbs are just the fins he uses to balance himself on the sea bed.

The fish rests on the ocean floor as he prepares to make a dart for any passing prey he has lured towards him using the protrusion above his mouth.

Faye Archell, or the Centre of Applied Zoologym said: 'Many species of Angler Fish are what are known as ambush predators. Their fins have adapted as limb like structures to allow them to remain stationary on the sea bed while causing minimal disturbance to the substrate and remaining totally camouflaged.

'They then use a protrusion on their heads, just above their mouths, that they use as a lure to catch their prey'.

Most of these species live in the great depths of the oceans, but some are found in shallower, tropical environments

The stunning picture was taken by scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia.


The red arms of a Sea Lilly living 516 metres deep off the Sangihe Talaud Region near Indonesia


They predict that as many as 40 new plant and animal species may have been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended last week.

More than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs, captured using a robotic vehicle with high-definition cameras, were piped to shore in real-time by satellite and high-speed Internet.

Verena Tunnicliffe, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, said the images provided an extraordinary glimpse into one of the globe's most complex and little-known marine ecosystems.

'Stalked sea lilies once covered the ocean, shallow and deep, but now are rare,' she said in a written statement. 'I've only seen a few in my career. But on this expedition, I was amazed to see them in great diversity.'

One animal captured on video looks like a flower, covered with glasslike needles, but scientists think it is probably a carnivorous sponge. The spikes, covered with sticky tissue, appear to capture food as it passes by.

Scientists used powerful sonar mapping system and the robotic vehicle to explore nearly 21,000 square miles of sea floor off northern Indonesia, at depths ranging from 800 feet to over two miles.


A deep-sea Chimaera. Chimaeras are most closely related to sharks, although their evolutionary lineage branched off from sharks nearly 400 million years ago, and they have remained an isolated group ever since


An odd-looking type of anemone and a purple octopus were among the creatures on the ocean floor


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Revenge Of The Cat: Is this YouTube video the last word on 'Cat Woman'?

By Daily Mail Reporter

This can only end one way: 'Sylvester' sizes up 'Cat Woman'


It was only ever a matter of time...

Public condemnation of Mary Bale - the 'Cat Woman' - has been near-universal since she was caught on camera dumping Lola the cat in a wheelie bin.

But, as is so often the case when it comes to us naturally self-mocking Brits, it has been condemnation with a tongue lodged firmly in its cheek.


Slam Dunk: Revenge is sweet


For every one person watching poor Lola being blow-dried on The One Show, surely an ordeal on a par with imprisonment in a wheelie bin, there have been a dozen retweeting the surreal jabberings of a Twitter prankster who has claimed the 'Cat Bin Lady' persona for their very own.

With mad, self-contradictory, messages such as 'Took the rubbish out. Before I knew what I was doing, I'd swung the bag round and flung it over the fence. I think it's in their tree. WHY?' and 'No.35 hasn't taken her milk in. Really feel like pouring it through the letterbox for her. What am I like?' the Cat Bin Lady Twitter feed is one of those rib-tickling nine-day wonders that the internet does so very well.


Mary 'Cat Woman' Bale and Darryl Mann with Lola: The internet has made the strange story of the cat in the bin into a global phenomenon.


But even that streaming collection of bonkers aphorisms pales against Revenge Of The Cat. A neat inversion of the original outrageous CCTV footage it pulls together surreal prank show Trigger Happy TV and the Sylvester and Tweety Pie cartoons in an absurd topical vignette that is frankly a good deal funnier to watch than to have described to you.

Already trending wildly on YouTube it's the viral video of the week.

On a more serious note, prosecutors from the RSPCA will review evidence against 45-year-old Mrs Bale.

A full file on the incident will be compiled and passed to the RSPCA's prosecution department. The legal team have three weeks to decide whether to prosecute.

Yesterday Mrs Bale went into full apology mode after first making light of tossing Lola the tabby into a bin outside a house in Coventry.





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Otterly adorable: The tiny newborn pups being reared by humans after their mother was unable to care for them

By Daily Mail Reporter

Milk of human kindness: Two newborn otter pups are being raised by staff at Longleat Safari Park after their own mother failed to produce enough milk for them


Two tiny otter pups whose mother is unable to produce enough milk to care for them are being raised by humans, who are caring for them round the clock.

The baby otters are being reared by surrogate Beverley Allen, who bottle-feeds the pair every two-and-a-half hours, after being born at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire.

Ms Allen has turned an old shoe box into a nest for them and has placed a fluffy toy otter in with them, to represent their mother.

The newborn pups even have a 30C heated mat which emulates the warmth their real mother would produce.

They will be fed on artificial puppy-rearing milk until they are 130 days old - and will even be taught to swim in Ms Allen's bath.

When they are big enough they will be reunited with the other otters at Longleat Safari Park, Wilts.

The pups, named Sumalee and Kasen, weighed just 2.1ozs at birth and were 6ins inches long.

Now four weeks old, they have grown to 12ins long, with female Sumalee weighing 14.5ozs and male Kasen weighing 16.4ozs.

It is not the first time Ms Allen has played mum for baby animals at Longleat. She has already hand-reared a baby wallaby who lived in a rucksack on her front for six months.

Ms Allen, 30, said: 'We try and maintain a hands-off approach with any newborn at Longleat as nine times out of ten, mum is the best bet.


Cuddles: The otters have been given a furry toy to emulate their mother, who was unable to produce enough milk to raise them herself


'But we soon realised that the otters' mum, Rosie, was just not producing enough milk and we had to step in to save them.

'I have to admit that being full-time mum to two pups is pretty hard work. I'm feeding them by hand every two-and-a-half hours on artificial puppy rearing milk, which is the next best thing to mum's milk.'

'They are now around four weeks old and their eyes should be opening in the next week or so. They're completely helpless at the moment and are entirely reliant on me to look after them.

'They are coming home with me every night and sleeping in my spare bedroom.'

'I'm trying not to handle them too much as ideally we'd like to introduce them back into the otter group once they've reached full weaning age at around 130 days.

'I'm sure that this won't stop me popping them into the bath at home though as from about 10 weeks we'll start introducing them to water.

'My boyfriend doesn't mind me keeping them at home at night, even though they squeak a lot when he's trying to watch TV.'

The cute Asian short-clawed otter infants were born to parents Rosie, 11, and Romeo, six.

After they are weaned they will be fed on a diet of small mammals and crustacians.


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Bonewatch: The doggy lifeguards that leap from helicopters to save stranded swimmers

By Mail Online Reporter

Splashdown: A fearless 'doggy lifeguard' leaps from a helicopter to save a swimmer in trouble off the beaches of Civitavecchia, Italy


Leaping out of helicopters into freezing water these are the incredible doggie-paddling life guards: Like canine David Hassel-woofs these fearless dogs scramble to the rescue of swimmers off the coast of Italy's popular beaches
They leap from helicopters or speeding boats, bringing aid to swimmers who get into trouble off Italy's popular beaches.

Hundreds of specially trained dogs from Italy's corps of canine lifeguards are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue.

In the same way that a helpful St.Bernard might rescue an Alpine hiker in distress these 'sea dogs' are saving the lives of dozens of swimmers off Italy's crowded beaches.

Instead of a reviving cask of brandy the 'lifedogs' tow a buoy that victims can grab, or wear a distinctive red 'Baywatch' harness connected to a raft the swimmer can ride back to shore.

Unlike their human counterparts, the dogs can easily jump from moving helicopters, boats or even jetskis to reach swimmers in trouble.

It can take up to three years for the 'rescue dogs' to reach operational status, and currently 300 dogs are fully trained for duty, said Roberto Gasbarri, who coordinates the Italian School of Canine Lifeguards programme at a centre just outside Rome in the seaside resort of Civitavecchia.


Fetch: One of the lifeguard pooches rehearses for a real rescue with his trainer


'Dogs are useful in containing the physical fatigue of the lifeguard, to increase the speed at which casualties are retrieved, to increase the security of both the casualty and of the lifeguard,' Gasbarri said.

'The dog becomes a sort of "intelligent lifebuoy". It is a buoy that goes by itself to a person in need of help, and comes back to the shore also by himself, choosing the best landing point and swimming through the safest currents.'


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A mother's love: The look that proves that maternal affection is universal as Orang Utans are reunited after baby spends ten days in an incubator

By Mail Online Reporter

It was touch and go for little Hesty the baby orang utan for a while. The look her mother gives her seems to reflect that special tenderness that we feel for the loved ones we almost lost


Orangutans have long been seen as very close to humanity in terms of their intelligence. Even their name is derived from the Malay for 'Man Of The Woods'.

Orangs have been observed to use tools and medicinal plants and even have a primitive sort of economy, assigning value to (mainly food) gifts and items shared by other orangs and keeping a running total of the balance owing over time.

But there has rarely been a more explicit reminder of the narrow gap between ourselves and our jungle cousins than this superb and affecting picture of look that a mother gave her child.

Hesty the baby orangutan has just made her public debut at Denver Zoo. She is the first Sumatran Orangutan born at the Colorado zoo in 25 years.

She was born on June 19 but less than two weeks later had to be taken from her mother Nias and put in an incubator because she was dehydrated, weak and unresponsive.


Orangutans not only use tools but even use leaves as a primitive 'musical instrument' to amplify their calls


She was bottle fed by animal experts until she was able to feed herself. Now both Nias and Hesty can be seen by visitors to the zoo.

It is estimated that there are only about 6,000 Sumatran orangutans left in the wild. They can only be found on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.


It's wrong, of course, to assign too much human emotion to animal behaviour but it's hard not to see a glint of innocent mischief in Hesty's eye here as she plays hide and seek with the camera


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Action man Vladimir Putin shoots a whale (but only for scientific research) in latest macho photo opportunity

By Mail Foreign Service

Action man: Russia's Prime MinisterVladimir Putin prepares to shoot darts from a crossbow at a grey whale off Russia's Pacific Coast


He's been pictured shooting a tiger, flying a fighter plane and riding bare-chested on a horse.

Now in the latest of his man-versus-nature stunts designed to cultivate the image of a macho leader, Vladimir Putin has been photographed braving rough seas in a rubber dinghy to fire darts from a crossbow at a grey whale.

'I hit it at the fourth try!' a beaming Putin, kitted out in black-and-orange waterproof suit and black beanie, yelled to a camera crew from the boat.

A biologist with the Russian Prime Minister displayed the skin sample and said it would allow experts to determine where the whale came from.

When the boat skidded onto the beach, at the Kronotsky reserve off Russia's Pacific Coast, a bouyant Putin hopped off and made a beeline for waiting reporters.

Clearly in his element, Putin replied jovially to a question as to whether the endeavour was dangerous.

'Living in general is dangerous,' he quipped. Asked why he got involved, he simply said, 'Because I like it. I love the nature.'

Putin's whaling experience was shown on television, where Russians have become accustomed to seeing him involved with endangered animals.


Photo opportunity: Putin was taking part in a research project in order to identify which population grey whales in the region were from


Buoyant: Putin prepares to take aim on board the rubber boat at the Kamchatka Peninsula


In April he attached a satellite-tracking collar on a tranquilized polar bear. He also has shot a Siberian tiger with a tranquilizer gun and released leopards into a wildlife sanctuary.

But environmentalists were not impressed with his latest expedition.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) issued a statement criticising Putin for staging an event to highlight his save-the-whale credentials while state-controlled oil-firm Rosneft threatens a population nearby.

'As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today helped scientists research the gray whale... Rosneft, continues its two-month seismic survey in the nearby shallow waters off Sakhalin Island... which gravely threatens a subpopulation of those same whales,' IFAW said in a statement.

Rosneft, managed by close allies of Putin, is undertaking seismic surveys to the east of Russia's Sakhalin island, blasting sound at the sea bed to map its geology.


Expedition: The latest stunt comes as Putin prepares to run in the 2012 presidential elections


Environmentalists say the surveys disturb female whales who rely on a strip of shallow water teach their calves to feed.

Putin, during his eight years as president and the past two as prime minister, has learned to use television to cultivate the image of a rugged leader beloved by the Russian people.

His mastery of the medium has been on full display in recent weeks as he has taken command of efforts to extinguish the wildfires that swept across much of western Russia and to help the thousands of people who lost their homes.

The message has been that it is Putin, rather than his junior co-leader President Dmitry Medvedev, who is equipped to look after Russia, its people and environment.

Putin has been canny about his plans to run in the 2012 presidential election, but has excluded running against Medvedev, saying the two will come to an agreement.

Whatever the decision, his action-man lifestyle shows he is not about to recede from public view.

He has been photographed fishing bare-chested in Russia's Altai region, and was shown on television diving into an icy river and swimming the butterfly stroke.


Whether it is being decked out in furs on horseback, fishing bare-chested or helping to tag a tiger, the Russian Prime Minister has always been keen to bolster his image as a man of action. He has also been pictured swimming in a river, tagging a polar bear and in July was seen riding a Harley Davidson trike for a meeting with Russian and Ukrainian bikers at their camp in the Crimea







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What's all the fuss? It's just a cat, says woman seen on CCTV shoving tabby in wheelie bin

By Claire Ellicott

Outrage: Mary Bale, of Coventry, who has been named as the woman caught on CCTV dropping a cat into a wheelie bin


Smiling broadly at the camera after her church choir's annual dinner, she has a warm expression that gives no hint of the cruel act she is accused of committing.

But Mary Bale, 45, has caused outrage after being caught on video picking up four-year-old tabby cat Lola and throwing her into a wheelie bin.

Miss Bale has received death threats, and a Facebook page set up to track her down has attracted more than 18,000 members.

But she claimed the outcry had been blown out of all proportion.

She said: 'I don't know what the fuss is about. It's just a cat.'

The unmarried bank worker said she was just walking home on Saturday when she saw the cat and decided to play with it. But she told the Sun that she 'suddenly thought it would be funny' to put it in the bin.

'I did it as a joke because I thought it would be funny. I never thought it would be trapped, I expected it to wriggle out,' she said.

Referring to the CCTV footage, she told how she could not believe it was being seen around the world and was afraid it would upset her family.

She said: 'I don't know what my relatives will think but to be honest I think everyone is overreacting a bit.'

While Miss Bale admitted she should not have done it, she said she did not deserve to be 'hated' by everyone and assumed the cat would find its own way out the bin.

Her mother also insisted the unmarried bank clerk 'loved cats' - and had even kept them as pets as a child.

Celia Bale, 78, said: 'She's my daughter and as far as I'm concerned she is the most caring person you could ever wish to meet.

'She had cats when she was a little girl and has never shown any cruelty to animals before in her life - she loves animals.

'I talked to her on the phone today and she can't explain why she did it or what got into her head, only that she really regrets it.'

The mother-of-three added that her husband Maurice, Miss Bale's father, was in a critical condition after falling down the stairs last week, damaging his pelvis and vertebrae.


Reunited: Lola back with owner Darryl Mann yesterday. He posted footage of the incident, which was captured by a CCTV camera, on YouTube in a bid to catch the culprit


She said of her daughter: 'She's been under a great deal of strain these past two weeks.

'Her father had a nasty fall and has been in a critical condition in hospital ever since.

'She's very close to her father and I think it's had a real impact on her.

'She's been soldiering on but I think it has got to her more than I realised.

'I'm awfully worried about her because people have been saying some dreadful things about her and making threats.'

She added that she believed her daughter might keep animals if she didn't work.

'I know that sounds ironic considering what has happened, but she does love cats,' she said.

It was also revealed last night that Miss Bale, who lives in Coventry and works as a cashier at RBS in nearby Rugby, was once a member of the Birmingham Bach Choir.

Miss Bale was caught on camera in Coventry as she threw the cat into the wheelie bin this weekend.

Lola was found 15 hours later when owner Darryl Mann, 26, heard her mewing from inside the bin.

Members of a Facebook group set up by Lola's owners to identify the woman in the CCTV footage have posted death threats against Miss Bale.


Miss Bale seems harmless as she strokes four-year-old cat, Lola, as it walks along a wall on a street in Coventry. But she then grabs it by the scruff of its neck, puts it in a wheelie bin and casually walks away

One wrote 'throw her in the bin and see how she likes it', while others called for her to be killed. Last night, owner Stephanie Andrews-Mann, 24, said she was glad the culprit had been found and hoped she'd be brought to justice.

She said: 'All I wanted was a name so I could pass it on to the police. It's terrible that her dad's in hospital, but to be totally honest, it's not my cat's problem.

'Though what she did was totally wrong, I don't want her to be too petrified to go out.'

West Midlands Police were keeping watch outside Miss Bale's terraced home yesterday and a spokesman said she had been offered advice on how to stay safe.

Neighbours described her as a reclusive woman who rarely had visitors. One, who asked not to be named, said: 'She is a very nice lady, though very quiet.
The police and RSPCA investigation is continuing.



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Landing room only: Owl ambushed by his playful brother in the Colorado desert

By Daily Mail Reporter

Dropping in: The playful bird perched on his brother's head as wildlife photographer Rob Palmer took the amazing shots in the Colorado desert


This is the moment a playful owlet pounces on his baby brother to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek.

Spotting the perfect moment to surprise his unwitting sibling, the crafty six-week-old creature swooped in, talons outstretched, in the display of affection.

Caught completely unawares, his brother is almost bowled over backwards by the playful ambush.

The heartwarming antics of these two burrowing owls was captured by wildlife photographer Rob Palmer.

The 57-year-old was on the look out for burrowing owl dens when he came across these two, part of a brood of six.

As their name suggests, this species of owl nests underground in burrows that have been abandoned by animals like prairie dogs and badgers.

Mr Palmer, from Littleton, Colorado, USA, said: 'I spend a lot of time looking for burrowing owl dens, which are fairly common where ever you can find a prairie dog colony.


He's behind you: In another frame the cheeky burrowing owl creeps up behind his sibling


'There were six owlets in this brood and they would play in the early morning.

'I managed to get about 30 feet from them to take the pictures and, after a while, they had no problem with me being there. They were very tolerant of my presence.
'These two are just having fun so neither got hurt.'

The burrowing owl grows to around 10 inches in length and has a wingspan of 21 inches.





Brotherly love: But in a tender moment that seems almost human, the owlet appears to nuzzle up to his sibling


The small, long-legged species is found is usually found in the dry, open areas of North and South America.

Unlike their nocturnal relatives, these owls tend to be at their most active during day-light hours.

They hunt for food from dusk to dawn, their diet consists mainly of insects and small rodents.

They are preyed on by badgers, coyotes and snakes as well as cats and dogs.

The burrowing owl lives for around nine years in the wild but can survive for more than ten in captivity.


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