The Dead Sea and the Sundarbans

- the Dead Sea

Dina has a post about the Dead Sea and the Swiss-based New7Wonders of Nature poll. There are 28 finalists from which to choose and the voting ends on the 11th of this month. I visited the site and voted for the Dead Sea and six other places (you get seven votes), one of which I hadn't previously known about: the Sundarbans .....

the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world ... The forest lies in the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal formed by the super confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers across Saiyan southern Bangladesh. The seasonally-flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lie inland from the mangrove forests on the coastal fringe ... The Sundarbans provides a unique ecosystem and a rich wildlife habitat .... Fishing Cats, Macaques, wild boars, Common Grey Mongooses, Foxes, Jungle Cats, Flying Foxes, Pangolins, and spotted deer are also found in abundance in the Sundarbans ... The forest is also rich in bird life, with 170 species ... The endangered species that live within the Sundarbans are Royal Bengal Tigers, Estuarine Crocodile, River Terrapins (Batagur baska), Olive Ridley Turtles, Gangetic dolphin, Ground Turtles, Hawks Bill Turtles and King Crabs (Horse shoe) .....

Here are some of the creatures that live in the Sundarbans ....


- Mudskipper


- Oriental small-clawed otter


- Royal Bengal tiger

And this improbable little bird, the Blue-eared Kingfisher - they have read feet :) ....