Chien C. Lee

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  • In the coastal forests of northern Borneo, a young Silvery Lutung (Trachypithecus cristatus) is groomed by its mother. Like many leaf monkey species, these highly social primates display brightly colored fur when born that gradually fades after several months into their adult coloration. The exact reason for this adaption is uncertain, but it may help in protection: members of the group can easily distinguish their vulnerable young at a glance, or locate them quickly in the dense foliage of the rainforest canopy. Another interesting theory is that certain predators such as Clouded Leopards, are red/green colorblind, so an orangish pelt may actually be an effective camouflage. Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • A young Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) peers out from the embrace of its mother's membranous wings. When fully grown it will be able to glide great distances from tree to tree in their nightly search for edible leaves, flowers, and sap. Also known as Flying Lemurs, they bear no relation to true lemurs, and in fact are so unique that they have been placed in their own mammalian order. Bako National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Mossy masquerade: a young Moss Mimic Katydid (Championica montana) doing what it does best. If you specialize in eating moss it’s a big plus if you look like it as well. In the damp cloud forests of Costa Rica, every surface is covered with dripping wet bryophytes, such as the leaf this katydid is perched on. Although abundant, it’s not the most energy rich food in the world, so these insects conserve their energy by moving slowly while they graze. Faced with a potential threat, they simply lay flat against the mossy substrate and disappear. Limón, Costa Rica.
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  • Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus), adult female with young. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Babbling Torrenteer (Hyloscirtus alytolylax), young froglet metamorph. Mindo, Ecuador.
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  • A female Bornean Orang-utan (Pongo pygmaeus) with her young infant. Semengoh Forest Reserve, Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Verreaux's Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), mother with young. Amboasary, Madagascar.
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  • A newly hatched Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) makes its way down the beach and feels the touch of the sea for the first time in its life. Many predators lie in wait and young sea turtles have an astonishingly low survival rate, but if it reaches adulthood it may well return to the same beach years in the future to lay eggs of its own. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Venezuela’s fabled tabletop mountains may have once inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s science fiction novel “The Lost World”, where he imagined the summits to be home to a plethora of gigantic prehistoric creatures that had been separated from the evolution of life on the rest of the planet for eons of time. Disappointingly, dinosaurs were never found on these mountains and, despite being home to many endemics and indeed a fair share of “living fossils”, recent genetic studies have shown that many species in fact have likely arrived well after the tepuis had been fully formed. This reveals that the imposing rocky cliffs, which seemingly isolate the summits from the jungles below, may not be as significant a physical barrier for dispersal as once believed. This young Boddaert's Tropical Racer (Mastigodryas boddaerti), encountered on the plateau of Auyán Tepui, is a widespread species in northern South America, and although prey is scarce on these mountaintops, it presumably hunts for endemic frogs.  Canaima National Park, Venezuela.
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  • Young Ring-tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta) will transition from riding on the belly to the back of their mother after 4-6 weeks of age. Amboasary, Madagascar.
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  • Paradise Tree Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi). Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Almost indistinguishable from the branch on which it rests, a Papuan Frogmouth (Podargus papuensis) perches motionless next to its chick. Like other frogmouths, these birds scarcely build any nest at all and rely on camouflage to escape the detection of predators. Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • A juvenile Parson's Chameleon (Calumma parsoni). More frequently occurring in shades of green, this is one of the world's largest chameleons, with adult specimens sometimes reaching the size of a house cat. They are endemic to rainforest habitats on Madagascar and are threatened by both habitat loss and collection for the international pet trade. Andasibe, Madagascar.
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  • Treehoppers (Alchisme inermis), adult with nymphs. Parque Natural Chicaque, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
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  • Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus chrysorrhous), juvenile. Central Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • The bright orange coloration of this infant Silvered Langur (Trachypithecus cristatus) helps them to be seen and hence guarded by the entire troop. They will gradually lose this coloration after 3 months of age. Bako National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Kirindy Leaf-toed Gecko (Paroedura rennerae), juvenile. Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, Madagascar.
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  • Katydid (Scambophyllum sp.), juvenile female. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Paradise Tree Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi). Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Leopard (Panthera pardus), juvenile. Ngamiland, Botswana.
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  • A juvenile Rock Monitor (Varanus albigularis). Mpumalanga, South Africa.
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  • Under the cover of darkness, a cicada sheds its nymphal skin to emerge as a fully grown adult.  Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • With an adult size of less than one meter in length, the beautifully patterned Children's Python (Antaresia childreni) is one of the smallest pythons. Cape Range National Park, Exmouth, Western Australia.
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  • Canopy Slug-eating Snake (Sibon canopy), a new species described in January 2023, endemic to Panama. Panamá Oeste, Panama.
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  • Bushy-crested Hornbill (Anorrhinus galeritus), juvenile. Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Dragon-headed Katydid (Lesina blanchardi), juvenile. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Iridescent Bark Mantis (Metallyticus splendidus), juvenile. Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Ant-mimicking mantis (Hapalopeza sp.), juvenile. Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo)
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  • Spiny helmeted katydid (Sasima sp.) from the rainforest of southern New Guinea. The bristly armaments on this juvenile specimen serve not only to deter predators, but also to disguise the insect in the mossy forest understory. Helmet katydids (Phyllophorinae) comprise some of the world's largest species. Digul River, South Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica), juvenile. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica), juvenile. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • A male Rough Guardian Frog (Limnonectes finchi) transports tadpoles on its back to a suitable pool of water where it will release them. Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Like other langurs, Silvered Leaf Monkeys (Trachypithecus cristatus) are highly social and travel in cohesive groups numbering up to 40 or more individuals. They have a specialized diet, feeding almost exclusively on high-protein leaves. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • A juvenile leaf insect (Nanophyllium australianum) from the rainforest of Iron Range National Park. Queensland, Australia.
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  • A juvenile leaf insect (Nanophyllium australianum) from the rainforest of Iron Range National Park. Queensland, Australia.
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  • A juvenile Spotted Cuscus forages in a small tree for leaves and fruit at night. Central Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • The endangered Bear Monkey (Trachypithecus vetulus monticola) is endemic the mountain forests of Sri Lanka. Central Province, Sri Lanka.
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  • Newly hatched Red Stink Bugs (Pycanum alternatum) cluster together to amplify the effect of their aposematic warning coloration. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Green Tree Python (Morelia azurea), juvenile.
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  • Planthopper (Flatidae), nymph. Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.
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  • Just a few millimeters in length, a tiny froglet (Microhyla nepenthicola) makes its first climb out of the watery chamber of the pitcher plant in which it was born. This species is exclusively reliant on pitcher plants for depositing their eggs. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Within the microcosm of a mossy tree stump, a tiny hidden predator lies patiently in wait. Still a juvenile, this praying mantis (Haania sp.) will eventually mature and shed most of its moss-like camouflage in favor of fully developed wings. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Like all cobras, this juvenile Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Naja sumatrana), also called the Black Spitting Cobra and Sumatran Spitting Cobra, inflates its hood when approached by a potential threat. As an additional defense this species is also capable of spitting venom at distances of up to 1 meter, which is typically aimed with great accuracy at the eyes of its adversary. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Matang Narrow-mouthed Frog (Microhyla nepenthicola), in amplexus.  This is the smallest frog in the Old World and it rears its young exclusively in the fluid of pitcher plants. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Like an ancient carven sculpture, the incredible buttress roots of this huge rainforest tree (Tachigali panamensis) belie its fleeting nature. Sometime called the ‘Suicide Tree’, it is truly monocarpic: after reaching maturity it will flower and set fruit only once and then die. Although monocarpy is a common adaptation among small herbaceous plants in seasonal habitats, it is extremely rare among large tropical trees, especially since rainforests are generally quite stable environments. This strategy may have evolved because it provides several possible advantages for the tree’s seedlings. For one, the infrequency of fruiting means that fewer seed predators can specialize on this species. Also, as the mother tree withers and eventually falls over, it creates an open gap in the forest canopy which is vital for the development of its young saplings underneath. Colón, Panama.
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  • Common Mormon Swallowtail (Papilio polytes). This young butterfly caterpillar avoids predation by appearing unappealingly similar to a bird dropping. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • By means of its extensive skin membranes, the Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus borneanus), is capable of gliding impressive distances between trees. This adult is carrying a young offspring on its underside. Bearing no relation to true lemurs, colugos are in their own unique order and are only distantly related to primates and treeshrews. They are nocturnal, feeding on leaves, flowers, and sap. Recent research on morphological and genetic variations indicate that the Bornean and Javan subspecies may merit recognition as distinct species. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Grandidier's Baobab (Adansonia grandidieri). The baobab trees of Madagascar are such an iconic sight that it's easy to overlook the fact that some species are highly endangered. In addition to habitat loss, Madagascar baobabs have very poor seedling survival rates and young trees are a rare find. It is theorized that their large pulpy fruits were only consumed by now extinct animals such as giant tortoises, baboon-like lemurs, and the enormous elephant birds, which served to disperse the tree's seeds. Since some of these animals only disappeared in the past thousand years it is quite possible that the oldest trees existing today germinated from the dung of Madagascar's lost megafauna. Morondava, Madagascar.
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  • The shy Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo) is a large megapode bird endemic to Sulawesi. They do not build nests but instead bury their eggs in huge pits dug in hot volcanic sand. The precocious young are able to fly and fend for themselves immediately after hatching. Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
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  • While pythons undoubtedly hold the crown for the largest and most famous constricting snakes of Indonesia, a single genus of boas also occurs in the rainforests of the eastern archipelago. Often overlooked, the Pacific Keel-scaled Boa (Candoia carinata) seldom exceeds a meter in length. It is an ambush predator of frogs and lizards, and like other boas, bears live young rather than laying eggs. Digul River, South Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • A young Parson's Chameleon (Calumma parsonii) in the rainforest of Masoala National Park. Antsiranana, Madagascar.
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  • With night vision hundreds of times more sensitive than ours and the ability to discern color even in near total darkness, Madagascar’s leaf-tailed geckos (Uroplatus spp.) are superbly adapted as nocturnal insect hunters. Large eyes, however, demand special maintenance. Like most geckos, Uroplatus have no eyelids and cannot blink; instead, they utilize their long tongues like windshield wipers, keeping their eyes moist and clean. This is a young male Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko (U. phantasticus), a denizen of the island’s rainforest zone and a superb mimic of dead foliage. Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.
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  • Hills covered with Traveller's Palm (Ravenala madagascariensis), habitat for Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat (Myzopoda aurita) which roost in the young unfurled leaves. Fianarantsoa, Madagascar.
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  • A Red-shanked Douc (Pygathrix nemaeus) munches on a handful of young vine leaves it has picked in the forest canopy. Although these endangered monkeys feed on over sixty different species of plants, they select their food carefully and in particular avoid sweet fruits which can upset the balance of bacteria in their guts. Like other leaf-eating colobine monkeys, doucs have large chambered stomachs – making them the only ruminant primates and giving them their characteristic pot-bellied appearance. Son Tra Nature Reserve, Vietnam.
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  • In the Borneo rainforest, a leaf isn't always what it seems. Many tropical trees and shrubs have pale or reddish young leaves as part of a strategy to deter herbivory: the absence of green chlorophyll reduces their nutritive value. Here, an orange morph leaf-legged katydid (Eulophophyllum lobulatum) mimics this exact foliage type. This insect  has been found to have a variety of colorations ranging from green to yellow and red, an adaptation that probably makes it more difficult for their predators to learn a fixed search image for any particular color. Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Undoubtedly one of the rarest and most peculiar of all Borneo's reptiles: the Bornean Horned Lizard (Harpesaurus borneensis). The males of this species are unique in possessing a distinctive horn at the tip of their snout, a trait not seen in the females nor found in any other Bornean lizard. Even more unusual, this is the only known agamid lizard in Southeast Asia to give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. As only a few specimens of this species have ever been found, its full life history and distribution in Borneo are still largely unknown. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • With delicate precision, a female leaf katydid (Phyllomimus sp.) uses her blade-like ovipositor to open a slit in the stem of a wild ginger (Etlingera velutina) where she will insert her eggs. The young, like miniature versions of their mother but without wings, will disperse soon after hatching. Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo)
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  • A Northern Bamboo Lemur (Hapalemur occidentalis) in the foothills of Marojejy National Park, one of at least five species of Hapalemur distributed throughout the forests of Madagascar. True to their name, these small lemurs subsist on a diet that consists largely of young bamboo leaves, a remarkable feat considering the high cyanide content found in the plant’s tissues. It is still not completely understood exactly how these lemurs are able to survive on a diet so tainted with cyanide that it would kill animals much larger than themselves. Antsiranana, Madagascar.
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  • Mutualisms between ants and treehoppers are so effective that sometimes multiple species can occur together on the same plant without conflicts. Here, a Myrmecaria ant worker tends to a short-horned Tricentrus sp., while an extravagantly adorned Pyrgauchenia biuni feeds nearby. Both of these treehoppers feed on the plant phloem, tapping into the stem with their proboscis, and secrete excess sugary fluid which the ants gather. In return the ants not only fiercely protect the treehoppers from predators, but sometimes also assist in distributing the young hoppers to suitable branches on the host stem. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • Threatened with encroaching cultivation and forest loss, a Southern Purple-Faced Langur (Trachypithecus vetulus vetulus) enters a tea plantation to feed on the fresh young leaves. These endangered monkeys are endemic to Sri Lanka’s southern wet forests, and although once widespread, are now facing severe habitat fragmentation due to roads and settlements. This can lead to human conflicts where the monkeys are inevitably forced to exploit agricultural areas for food. Sinharaja National Park. Sri Lanka.
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  • Competition for mates can be fierce at choice breeding sites, especially when the season to raise young may be limited. Here, among the ferns over an ephemeral forest pool, a male Black-dotted Tree Frog (Litoria nigropunctata) (on the left) uses his hind legs to kick an amplexing rival male in an attempt to dislodge him from the back of the female. Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • Huntsman spider (Sparassidae) preying on a young Madagascar day gecko (Phelsuma parva). Tomasina, Madagascar.
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  • Male parental care is quite rare in nature, but a variety of frogs throughout the tropics show instances where the father transports the young on his back. In most cases this involves carrying either eggs or tadpoles, but in a few New Guinean species, such as this Sphenophryne cornuta, actual froglets ride in piggyback fashion. A member of the Microhylidae, these frogs have direct-development larvae which means that the tadpoles morph into tiny frogs before leaving the egg, an adaptation enabling them to negate the need for a pool of water. The froglets will hitch a ride on the back of their father for several days before being dispersed in the rainforest understory. Digul River, South Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea)
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  • Grandidier's Baobab (Adansonia grandidieri). The baobab trees of Madagascar are such an iconic sight that it's easy to overlook the fact that some species are highly endangered. In addition to habitat loss, Madagascar baobabs have very poor seedling survival rates and young trees are a rare find. It is theorized that their large pulpy fruits were only consumed by now extinct animals such as giant tortoises, baboon-like lemurs, and the enormous elephant birds, which served to disperse the tree's seeds. Since some of these animals only disappeared in the past thousand years it is quite possible that the oldest trees existing today germinated from the dung of Madagascar's lost megafauna. Morondava, Madagascar.
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  • Within the chamber of a giant pitcher plant (Nepenthes rajah), an iridescent Elephant Mosquito (Toxorhynchites sp.) emerges from its pupal case. These large mosquitoes do not suck blood, feeding instead on flower nectar and plant sap. The larvae are voracious predators of aquatic insects, including the young of other mosquitoes. Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo).
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  • A female giant shield bug (Lyramorpha cf. maculifer) exhibiting maternal care of her young nymphs. Like other shield bugs, tessarotimids utilize chemical defenses and are capable of squirting a caustic liquid when disturbed. Highland Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).
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  • An adult Common Butterfly Lizard (Leiolepis belliana) keeps a watchful eye out for predators whilst her young remain at the entrance of the nest burrow.  Nine species of butterfly lizards are known from the drier sandy regions of Southeast Asia, but their life-history is poorly documented. Uthai Thani, Thailand.
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  • With his crop full of food and water, a male Plain-pouched Hornbill (Rhyticeros subruficollis) returns to his nest in the cavity of a tree wherein the female waits sealed inside. During the nesting period, which can last several months, his mate will be completely dependent on his regular visits to provide her with everything she needs while she incubates the young and raises the chicks. Unfortunately, his duties on this day have been complicated by the annoying attentions of a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) which has perhaps also been nesting nearby. Although much smaller than the hornbill, drongos are known for their bold and aggressive behavior, especially towards other birds that could be potential predators of their nests. Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand.
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