WWF maxicards about Kampuchea/ Cambodia: The Banteng (Bos javanicus), The Water Buffalo or Domestic Asian Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), The Kouprey (Bos sauveli), The Gaur (Bos gaurus)

Stay away (or at least stay alert) from the crowds...including celebratory crowds, pilgrims, rioters, etc.

Not only bulls can create a deadly stampede.

Best wishes to the people of Cambodia! 

A country whose history is written in deep blood, especially because of their own countrymen, The Khmer Rouge members.

Read about the genocide: it's mind-boggling how the local power-players (and several countries!) have shifted alliances among them. Foe-turned-friend-turned-foe-turned....

What a tragedy...The Killing Fields...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge

On a more peaceful note (but remember the Latin adage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum ):

UL(upper left image): The Banteng (Bos javanicus), also known as Tembadau, is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia. Banteng have been domesticated in several places in Southeast Asia, and there are around 1.5 million domestic banteng, which are called Bali cattle. These animals are used as working animals, and for their meat.[2] Bali cattle have also been introduced to Northern Australia, where they have established stable feral populations.[3] *

UR: The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, north Africa, and elsewhere. * 

LL: Kouprey (Bos sauveli, from khmer [kuː prej] 'wild ox', also known as Kouproh or Grey ox) is a wild forest-dwelling ox found mainly in northern Cambodia but also believed to exist in southern Laos, western Vietnam, and eastern Thailand. It was discovered in 1937. *

LR: The gaur (pronounced /ˈɡaʊər/) (Bos gaurus, previously Bibos gauris) is a large, dark-coated forest animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The largest populations are found today in India. The gaur belongs to the Bovinae subfamily, which also includes bison, domestic cattle, yak and water buffalo. The gaur is the largest species of wild cattle, bigger than the African buffalo, the extinct aurochs (the ancestor of domestic cattle), wild water buffalo or bison. It is also called seladang or, in the context of safari tourism, Indian bison. The domesticated form of the gaur is called gayal or mithun.

Thanks, Wikipedia.org - my most favorite website!

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

Happy Thanksgiving! The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) - a dorincard/maximum card/maxicard/MC that I created using an Avery label to absorb the postmark ink. The postcard is very glossy - the postmark might have been ruined by that glossiness.

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) species from USA is NOT the ancestor of the domestic turkeys that we butcher and devour every Thanksgiving Day.

"The domestic turkey [...] was domesticated from the South Mexican subspecies of the Wild Turkey."

So we have our domestic turkey from the other United States: The United Mexican States - Spanish:  Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)).

"Turkeys are popularly believed to be unintelligent, with claims made that during a rain storm turkeys will look up until they drown. Despite this image, the turkey is no more or less intelligent than a comparable animal,^[6] and while the birds will look at the sky for up to a minute during a rain storm, this is due to a genetic nervous disorder known as tetanic torticollar spasms.^[6] Other jests include that it is clumsy and too stupid to realize it can't fly, but both traits are due to modern breeding that makes turkeys much heavier than their wild relatives.^[6]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_turkey}

This frog likes some trees, but not the forest: The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) - WWF maxicard from Liechtenstein

Frogs, in general, are very sensible to pollution - birth defects will soon appear, with extra legs and various other deformities. They are a "barometer" of their environment. We should pay more attention at how we are destroying our planet, day after day.

We all should make more efforts to stop that destruction.

Or else.

"The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) is a small frog that can grow to a maximum length of 4.5 cm.

They are the only members of the widespread tree frog family (Hylidae)indigenous to Mainland Europe. Characteristic are the discs on the frog's toes which it uses to climb trees and hedges. There are three or four species and many subspecies:

• Hyla arborea (Linnaeus, 1758) (common or European tree frog)
• Hyla meridionalis Boettger, 1874 (Mediterranean tree frog or stripeless tree frog)
• Hyla intermedia Boulenger, 1882 (Italian tree frog) (not always considered a species)
• Hyla sarda (De Betta, 1853) (Sardinian tree frog)

The European tree frogs actually don't live in forests, but rather prefer sunny forest edges, bushy heaths, wet dune pans, wet scrubland and extensively used meadows and parks with ponds rich in submerged vegetation without fish nearby. These habitats are increasingly influenced by human activity. Hyla arborea, the common tree frog, is endangered in western Europe (nearly extinct in Belgium) while the more common Mediterranean tree frog lives in wet gardens, treegarths, vineyards, campings, and near pine trees."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyla_arborea