Photo Details: Male Vervet Monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops) on tree branch, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana.

Although many people think vervet monkeys are cute, they can become dangerous pests when they lose their fear of humans. This usually happens after people start feeding them in wildlife and nature reserves, in spite of pleas by wildlife authorities not to do so.

Should you ever be tempted to offer something to the resident monkeys, please think better of it. Have another look at those canine teeth in the picture above and imagine what would happen if a monkey decided to take a bite out of you!

Camera: Canon EOS 350D; Lens: Canon 100-400 F5.6 IS zoom; Focal Length: 220mm; Shutter Speed: 1/60; Aperture: f5.6 ISO: 1600

Photo Details:: Lesser Masked Weaver (Ploceus intermedius) is all concentration as he begins building a new nest, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

When masked weavers build their nests during breeding season, the action is frenetic as these small, colorful birds flit around, alternatively working on their new nests or flying off to gather building material which they strip from reeds and palm leaves. Nests when completed are kidney-shaped with short, narrow entrance tunnels and will often be built hanging over water.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel; Lens: Canon 100-400 IS zoom; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter Speed: 1/250; Aperture: f7.1; ISO: 200

A super useful and visually pleasing Desktop Calendar can now be downloaded absolutely free, compliments of Wildlife Pictures Online.

The calendar never expires; it is good forever - so you don't have to replace it each year and you can always check back on your previous planning and appointments.

Time is valuable, so any tool that helps you plan your days more effectively will ensure higher productivity - and less frustration. Now you'll never forget those important birthdays and anniversaries, and that means keeping out of trouble!

The calendar displays a different, eye-catching wildlife or nature photo each month. And if you get bored with these, you can easily customize the calendar by substituting your own photos.

As an added bonus, you can access a page from the calendar - using the built-in browser - that offers a batch of free pictures that can be used for personal or commercial purposes. The pictures are also optimised for using with the calendar should you wish to change the look.

Photo Details: Impala male and two females (Aepyceros melampus), their images reflected on the water's surface, crouch forward to lap water from Pete's Pond, a waterhole in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel; Lens: Canon 100-400 IS zoom; Focal Length: 310mm; Shutter Speed: 1/125; Aperture: f8; ISO: 200

Free Pictures: Please note that a larger version of this picture is available free for personal and commercial use (for example on web sites or as art reference). It can be easily accessed, together with other wildlife and nature pictures, via the Desktop Calendar and Planner that you can download and install at no cost from HERE.

Even if you're not interested in the free pics, the calendar is a seriously useful tool that will help you organize your life and ensure you don't miss important events and dates. It's also good-looking, featuring a striking wildife photo for each month of the year.

Photo Details: Hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius), its jaws resting on the substantial back of one of its brethren, looks amused by the egret sharing its "cushion", Mkhuze Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This photo is another from the batch of free images that can be accessed and used for personal or commercial purposes from the Desktop Calendar and Planner offered as a complimentary download.

Photo Details: Close-up of Lioness (Panthera leo) looking directly at the camera, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D)
Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS zoom
Focal Length: 400mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200
Aperture: f 8
ISO: 400

Free Pictures
This picture is one of 40 wildlife and nature-related images that I'm now offering as free downloads.

Although in the past I've resisted offering free images for commercial use - because I try to subsidise the costs of my web site by selling photos - I've now relented.

I get many emails asking permission to use pictures for various purposes, so decided to save everyone time and effort by offering a bank of free pictures that can be simply downloaded and used, without worrying about copyright infringement.

There are some restrictions and conditions, so please read these before downloading and using any images. But generally you can do a lot more with them than you can from pictures purchased from subscription and budget stock photo sites.

The search facility has been quietly beta-tested with the help of the 40,000-member Nikonians online community (Nikonians.org), which has been gathering news, articles, reviews, and lively forum discussions for the past six years.

As Nikonians.org grew in membership the free information available at the site expanded to a large resource library covering a wide range of photography topics surrounding the Nikon brand.

"Keeping up with that much information required an internal upgrade to the site's search engine" says Nikonians co-founder Bo Stahlbrandt.

"We have over 400,000 pages of Nikon related content on our site alone, and our members wanted access to that, as well as the rest of the Web, all from one portal," he said.

"The result is NikoScope, a fast search engine built on modern technology, designed to gather and sort not only our published information, but also the relevant resources of the Internet."

Photo Details: Zebra (Equus burchelli) walking past a huge boulder, Ithala Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Lens: Canon 100-400mm IS zoom
Focal Length: 400mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1250
Aperture: F5.6
ISO: 400

More Info: Ithala Game Reserve covers an area of 30 000 hectares, about a quarter of which is open bushveld that allows good game viewing. Much of the remainder is made up of spectacular valleys carrying rivers and streams, steep cliff-faces, and granite boulder outcrops. This mixed terrain allows a wide variety of plants and animals to flourish, including about 80 mammal species and 320 bird species.

The photo above, taken in the late afternoon, shows a zebra dwarfed by one of the massive granite boulders that lie scattered on hills and mountain slopes throughout the reserve.

Ithala is administered by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (formerly the Natal Parks Board), the formal body that runs many of the game reserves and conservation areas within the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

These are mainly wild animals, but also some scenic beach shots plus a couple of butterfly pictures. You are free to use these to spice up your website, whether personal or commercial, or as reference for arts and crafts.