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Winners of the Close-up Photographer of the Year 2021
The top 100 winners of Close-up Photographer of the Year 03 (2021) or CUPOTY 03 are now featured on its website showing the winners gallery.The Close-up Photographer of the Year website was the brainchild of husband-and-wife duo Tracy and Dan Calder of Winchester, UK. They wanted to put close-up, macro and micro photography on the center stage and be celebrated in its own right.Tracy, a former editor of Outdoor Photography and a features editor at Amateur Photography, has over 20 years experience in the photo magazine industry. She’s also a photography instructor at West Dean College in Sussex, and an author of Close-up & Macro Photography, which has been translated into French and Chinese. Dan is a contributor to Black + White Photography magazine.This year’s Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY 03) has more than 9000 photos from 55 countries across nine different categories. These categories are insects, animals, plants and fungi, underwater, butterflies and dragonflies, intimate landscape, manmade, micro, and young.From each category, the top three winners were chosen alongside with the other finalists. Here are the top three winners per category.#photography #CUPOTY #MacroPhotography #CloseupPhotography #photographycompetitionInsects
Secret Lives of Baby Octopuses: They Develop Temporary Structures of Unknown Function Called the Kölliker’s organs that Look Like Tiny Brooms on Their Skin
Experts from the Mesoscopic Imaging Facility (MIF) at EMBL Barcelona studied a unique feature found in octopuses called the Kölliker’s organs. These organs are present on the skin of baby octopuses, but they disappear once the soft-bodied cephalopods reach their adult stage. To learn about the function of these temporary structures, the MIF examined specimens of hatchlings and juveniles of Octopus vulgaris, or common octopus.Roger Villanueva, the lead researcher in the study, described the unique organs as “mini brooms on the surface of the baby octopuses.” After a long period of observation, researchers noted that Kölliker’s organs were roughly the same size and were evenly distributed on the skin. As for the function of these organs, Villanueva stated that the “organs could be used by the young octopuses to increase their surface-to-volume ratio.” He also added that ““The distribution of these organs on the surface of the arms, head, and mantle of the octopus and their ability to refract light in two directions suggest that they might also have a role in camouflage.”#Octopus #KollikerOrgans #Camouflage #Animals image credit: Roger Villanueva/ICM-CSIC
Female Octopuses Throw Things At Males That Annoy Them
Female octopuses off the coast of Australia have a unique way of shooing away annoying pesky males: they throw things like shells and silt at them!Research by Peter Godfrey-Smith and others at the University of Sydney revealed that female Sydney octopuses (Octopus tetricus) hold silt, shells, and other objects under their bodies in their tentacles and then angle their siphon and shoot a jet of water to propel the objects towards another octopus, often hitting them.In 2016, Godfrey-Smith observed a female octopus throwing silt 10 times at a male from a nearby den that was trying to mate with her. "That sequence was one of the ones that convinced me [it was intentional]," he said to New Scientist.But not all octopus throw things at a target. Godfrey-Smith noted that sometimes the octopus throw things into empty space after intense interaction with another animal, suggesting that they were venting their frustration. In one instance, a male octopus threw a shell in a random direction after his mating attempt with a female was rejected.Image by Peter Godfrey-Smith with illustrations byRebecca Gelernter#octopus #frustration #throwing #anger #Australia
Octopuses Sometimes Punch Fish For No Reason At All
Octopuses are smart animals, that much we know. They have large and well-developed brain as well as complex nervous system. Scientists have observed octopuses use tools and solve complex problems like opening the lids of containers and unlocking latches to get at food inside. They're high social and can communicate with each other. They can even collaborate with other predatory fish when they hunt.A new observation by Eduardo Sampaio and colleagues has now shown that octopuses can also be a bit of a jerk: they recorded multiple events where different Octopus cyanea off the coast of Egypt were seen punching fishes, sometimes for no reason at all!Sampaio noted that during collaborative hunting, there were times where the octopuses had good reasons to punch their partner fish, for example to gain advantage over them while catching a prey, to forcibly relocate a fish to a less advantageous position in the group, or even to permanently ban a partner fish.But there were also instances where the octopuses seemed to punch a fish out of spite with no immediate benefit. Sampaio wrote that "punching could be a case of spite (no emotional connotation), used to impose a cost on the fish regardless of self-cost, for example, after defection (stealing prey) by a usually collaborative partner."#octopus #animalbehavior #cephalopod #animalintelligence #hunting #cephalopod #marinebiologyVideo: Sampaio E, et al.
Glass Octopus and Other Strange Marine Creatures Captured on Camera During a Scientific Deep-Sea Dive
Scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor went on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive in the Phoenix Islands Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and found this beauty: a glass octopus.The glass octopus or Vitreledonella richardi is a rare species of octopus that gets its name from its ability to being almost completely transparent. The only parts that aren't transparent are its optic nerve, eyeballs and digestive tract. It is one of the least studied octopus, with most specimens known to scientists being found in the stomachs of predators.The yellow dots in the glass octopus' skin between its arms are chromatophores, or pigmented organs that let the octopus change colors for camouflage.via Schmidt Ocean
Octopus Papercut Art by Masayo Fukuda
We are in awe of this lifesize octopus papercut art by Japanese papercut artist Masayo Fukuda. The octopus was cut from a single piece of A2 paper (16.5 x 23.4 inch).#octopus #papercut #MasayoFukuda #PaperArt
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