Every year Guadalajara naturalist Jesús Moreno produces a desktop calendar/agenda featuring first-class photographs of Mexico’s flora and fauna. Curious to learn about this year’s publication, I caught up with him at his home on the northern edge of the Primavera Forest.
“This year’s theme is the biodiversity of Mexico,” he told me, “and, by the way, you don’t have to go to a jungle to appreciate biodiversity. I took all the insect pictures right here in my front yard.”
While last year’s agenda had contributions from six naturalists, the 2012 calendar features the work of 14 fine nature photographers, including two teenagers and, for the first time, two women.
Apart from 66 outstanding full-color photos of Mexican wildlife, the agenda includes interesting tidbits of information on Mexico’s flora and fauna. For example, when it comes to reptiles, Mexico holds second place worldwide (after Australia), with 804 species. I also learned that more than half the world’s species of cacti are found here (850 of 1,500 species) and perhaps most surprising of all – considering how much of this country is desert – Mexico has the widest variety of pine trees on the planet (44 species).
Among Moreno’s contributions to the agenda are two fine shots of a shy skunk and a curious cacomixtle (Ringtail in English). “I got these pictures by setting up a blind in the forest in front of a stump where I started putting a little cat food every evening. I then set up a motion-activated wildlife camera to see if there were any interesting animals in the area. The camera showed me a crow, a fox, a skunk and a ringtail, but, of course, of very poor picture quality. Over the next few months, I spent 15 nights in the blind, trying to get perfect shots of these visitors. The first night I only had to wait half an hour and got a great picture of the skunk. The fox put in an appearance on another night at 9 p.m., but the cacomixtle kept me holding vigil until 2 a.m. Many of those nights I got nothing at all ... including sleep, but this is pretty normal for nature photography.”
If you happen to be looking for a wall calendar rather than one for a desktop, you are in luck this year. Manfred Meiners of the non-profit organization Biodiverso has produced a stunning 2012 calendar celebrating birds, animals and landscapes of Jalisco and it’s in both Spanish and English. Like the agenda described above, this calendar features the best of Mexico’s nature photographers, most of whom have, in fact, contributed to both publications, but with different photos.
One of my favorites is Manfred Meiner’s choice for the month May, a shot of a rather surprised, even perplexed little otter, who popped up in front of the very alert photographer in a remote corner of Lake La Vega, which is located just south of the now famous archaeological ruins, the Guachimontones of Teuchitlán.
“Those are Tropical River Otters and they’re on the endangered species list,” says Meiners, whose photos have been published by National Geographic. “It took me three years to get that picture. These little guys are really important because their presence is an indication of the overall health of a body of water. In this case, La Presa de La Vega has both polluted and unpolluted zones. Fortunately, it was declared a RAMSAR site in 2009 (a wetland of international importance), putting pressure on local polluters to stop contaminating the lake.” To my knowledge, those polluters are principally, the town of Teuchitlán and the government-owned Tala sugar refinery and Meiners reports that both are building plants to process their waste.
Meiners also mentioned that proceeds from the sale of this calendar go to support Biodiverso’s educational and communication projects, as well as exhibits of nature photographers “in art galleries and on the streets.”
The desktop agenda and the wall calendar were prepared in honor of the U.N. Decade on Biodiversity, 2011-2020. Both cost 200 pesos and are available in Guadalajara at Sandi Bookstore. In Ajijic you can purchase the wall calendar at “The Bookstore” and the desk agenda will be delivered to your home if you call Beatriz Siliceo at (376) 766-2276. You can also contact Jesús Moreno or Manfred Meiners directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Both speak English.