World's Biggest Albino Family

Pullan family from Delhi, India, is the world's biggest albino family that is awaiting official recognition of their status with a Guinness World Record. Roseturai Pullan, 50, his wife Mani, 45, and their six children, grandson and son in law are albinos.



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Masters of Disguise

Nature is amazing: how many interesting things are happening in it.

We do not know and see a lot of it.

Let's look at the fish, insects and other creatures, which can masquerade under the environment.

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Killer Plants

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients (but not energy) from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs and rock outcroppings. Charles Darwin wrote Insectivorous Plants, the first well-known treatise on carnivorous plants, in 1875.
Carnivory include about 630 species that attract and trap prey, produce digestive enzymes, and absorb the resulting available nutrients.

A Venus flytrap snaps shut if its tiny hairs are brushed twice.

A Venus flytrap snaps shut if its tiny hairs are brushed twice. 

Many of the world's 675-plus carnivorous species set passive traps. A bun-size butterwort bristles with gluey hairs that ensnare insects until digestive juices do their work.  

Thirsty bugs are drawn to what look like dewdrops on an Australian sundew, then find themselves entangled in sticky tentacles. 

 Like figures in a shadow theater, silhouettes of prey show through a Philippine pitcher plant. The waxy surface in the red tube stops bugs from climbing free. Below, enzymes leach nutrients from trapped insects.

To avoid capturing and consuming prospective pollinators, pitcher plants keep their flowers far away from their traps via long stalks.  

Blooms hang upside down like Chinese lanterns, luring bees into an elaborate pollen chamber. 

Size doesn't ensure success. If a gluey tentacle grabs too little of a big fly, the bug may suffer injury but still struggle to freedom. In the realm of carnivorous plants, says William McLaughlin, curator at the United States Botanic Garden, "some insects aren't digested but are still victimized." 

Largest of its kind, the South African king sundew unfurls. Leaves of this florid species can reach two feet in length. 

The thimble-size west Australian pitcher plant has a taste for insects that crawl. Its guide hairs and cloying scent encourage ants to clamber into its digestive depths. 

A water-filled North American hybrid tempts bees with the promise of nectar and a rim that looks like a prime landing pad. Carnivory is not the most efficient way for a plant to secure nutrients, but it is certainly among the most exotic.

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Iguazu Falls – Big Water of the Borders

In the local Tupi language, the word means big water. One look at the staggering Iguazu Falls, located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones and you realise that this is no exaggeration.

There is a local legend that says a god became besotted with a young and beautiful girl called Naipi – however she did not reciprocate his feelings. She fled from his advances with her earthly lover, Taroba, canoeing down the river to escape. The god in his anger sliced through the river and created the waterfalls. Naipi and Taroba were condemned to fall for all eternity.

The edge of the waterfall is almost three kilometers in length and it is dotted with numerous islands. These islands create a copious number of separate falls, all of them more than two hundred feet in height. Many have their own names – for example the narrow chasm down which half the flow disappears is known as the Devil’s Throat. (Phillie Casablanca)

On each side of the falls is a national park. Argentina has the Iguazú National Park which was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 while Brazil has the Iguaçu National Park (note the single letter difference!), designated in 1987. (*saxon*)

 It is difficult to take in the immensity of the place. However, the view from the air does help to lend some perspective. (Abel Jorge)

Little wonder then that Iguazu Falls was announced as one of the seven winners of the New7Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation. (Abel Jorge)



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