Davide Bottacini

@davidebottacini.bsky.social

PhD candidate at Wageningen University and Research - Interested in fish ecology, behaviour and biodiversity

Here is one that I will see nowhere else in the world: a grey-green fruit dove. They are endemic to the Society Islands, in the heart of French Polynesia. I photographed this one in Tahiti, where I had the impression that there were more than in Moorea.

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I love spending hours watching large colonies of land crabs in their busy lives under trees at the beach. They are highly opportunistic and are always fast at grabbing any leaves the moment they touch the ground. They mostly eat leaves, but any other plant material is always welcome, of course.

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A leaf scorpionfish from the other day, close to a busy anemone (you can see it at the centre of the frame). The difference from other scorpionfishes is clearer when you see them frontally: they are much more laterally compressed, while other scorpionfishes tend to have bulkier bodies.

Blown by the wind, while I was lying on the ground photographing land crabs. Hibiscus flowers will stick with me as a symbol of this place. They are used a lot as decoration and I love seeing them worn behind an ear by colleagues and other people around.

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There are about 28 species of anemonefish in the world and they are all native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Some can be found almost across the whole Indo-Pacific but some, like the Mauritian anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysogaster), are endemic to small areas around specific islands or archipelagos.

Invaders helping invaders. Red-whiskered bulbuls are native to Asia and became invasive in many tropical areas around the world. In Mauritius they are invasive too and they have contributed to the spread of invasive plants.

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An endemic I did not have to look for in Mauritius: the Mascarene paradise flycatcher. This male just came to us while we were walking up a trail and posed for a while. In this species, the tail is much shorter than in other paradise flycatchers.

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This is an endemic from Mauritius that I thought I would have to leave the island without seeing: the Mauritius ornate day gecko. I managed to find quite a few in the end and I think that their upright posture complements their smiley face perfectly!

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I have never tried too hard to pick a favourite fish; there are just too many. When I am forced to pick, though, I often think of the Moorish idol (Zanclus cornutus). I wonder what it feels like to be the only member of a family...

It's a tough world out there, but animals are amazing. While I was watching it, I was too focussed on the amazing details of this beautiful rock crab to realise that it was completely missing a leg. Its agility was not compromised either and he seemed to be the boss among many other smaller ones...

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I have recently visited Mauritius, where I was constantly looking for animals that I had never seen before (both in the water and on land). The pink pigeon is one of the few endemic birds that you can see there. They were almost extinct in the '90s and are still pretty rare in the wild.

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I've recently been at a large aquarium event and it was very cool to see four-eyed fish there. I had seen them before, but only from above. They actually have two eyes, but they are shaped in a way that allows them to see above and below the water surface without changing position.

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