A dolphin born in an aquarium in the Netherlands is to be named by the public.
As these amazing photos show his mother Finagain gave birth in her pool in the Harderwijk Dolfinarium on the 22nd May.Finagain, a common bottlenose dolphin, was herself born in captivity to Notchfin and Guy in 1992.
Her pregnancy lasted twelve months, and the as-yet unnamed calf is around 3ft long at birth, already fully capable of swimming. Unlike human babies dolphin calves are born “breech”, i.e. tail first.
It will live with its mother until it is six. Male dolphins become sexually mature around age nine to thirteen.
The Dolfinarium is home to sixteen dolphins and six harbour porpoise. As well as hosting dolphin displays it acts as a rehabilitation centre, taking in beached or injured cetaceans and preparing them for life back in the wild.
It was first opened in 1965 by Frits den Herder and his brother Coen. During its chequered history the park went bankrupt after an ill-advised expansion into other European countries.Only a state intervention by the Dutch government restored it to the not-for-profit animal rehabilitation centre it is today.
Bruno Torf is an artist that creates beautiful works of fantasy art in his sculpture garden. This garden resides in Marysville, Victoria hidden away in a magical rainforest setting.
Originally from South America, Bruno moved his family to Marysville in 1995. He originally started his career as a sign writer, but gradually made the transition to being a fulltime artist. He wanted a place to exhibit his artwork, so he opened Bruno's Art and Sculpture Garden.
He travels around the world quite frequently, studying different styles of art. This is definitely apparent in his garden sculptures. He decided to create the sculpture garden so that he could run it as a permanent attraction. The garden began with a little over 15 life-size terracotta sculptures and now has over 115 on display. Combined with his oil paintings, sketches and small sculptures, there are now over 300 works of art on display at Bruno's Art and Sculpture Garden.
I would love to go to this garden to see these sculptures. It reminds me of a Lord of the Rings type setting. Now that I think about it....I don't want to just visit, I'd totally live in a place like this. Imagine waking up in this fantasy world every day. But then I'd be on display for all of the tourists....they would probably think I was a scary gnome when they see what I look like waking up in the morning.
