iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Pre-dawn encounter from last week, in southern Spain while looking for Iberian lynx...

Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Here is one that I will see nowhere else in the world: a grey-green fruit dove. They are endemic to the Society Islands, in the heart of French Polynesia. I photographed this one in Tahiti, where I had the impression that there were more than in Moorea.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I love spending hours watching large colonies of land crabs in their busy lives under trees at the beach. They are highly opportunistic and are always fast at grabbing any leaves the moment they touch the ground. They mostly eat leaves, but any other plant material is always welcome, of course.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

From the mountains of Moorea: the flowers of an African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata) frame a silvereye (Zosterops lateralis). Neither species is native to the island.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

A leaf scorpionfish from the other day, close to a busy anemone (you can see it at the centre of the frame). The difference from other scorpionfishes is clearer when you see them frontally: they are much more laterally compressed, while other scorpionfishes tend to have bulkier bodies.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Blown by the wind, while I was lying on the ground photographing land crabs. Hibiscus flowers will stick with me as a symbol of this place. They are used a lot as decoration and I love seeing them worn behind an ear by colleagues and other people around.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Lovely! Red-vented bulbul decided to validate my new tire...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

First model of my photography sessions here in Moorea: a land crab (Cardisoma carnifex) from the neighbourhood. A bit diffident for now, but they will grow to like me...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

My favourite shots always tend to be the ones that come from the edge between two worlds...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Last week I finally managed to have some fun time watching bearded reedlings! This male posed for a while before taking off from the golden reeds for what was probably his last flight of the day.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The profile of a she-merganser at the end of a winter day at Lake Garda.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

There are about 28 species of anemonefish in the world and they are all native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Some can be found almost across the whole Indo-Pacific but some, like the Mauritian anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysogaster), are endemic to small areas around specific islands or archipelagos.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Invaders helping invaders. Red-whiskered bulbuls are native to Asia and became invasive in many tropical areas around the world. In Mauritius they are invasive too and they have contributed to the spread of invasive plants.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Here is one that I have seen for the first time a few weeks ago: the spotted boxfish, Ostracion meleagris. The one in the video is a male, much more colourful than females.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

For me, this will always remain THE photo of my trip to Mauritius. Extra excitement because I saw this little guy make the scratch on the leaf close to its finger...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

A scene that I already had in mind while travelling to Mauritius: village weavers building nests. It's amazing to see them busy weaving!

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

An endemic I did not have to look for in Mauritius: the Mascarene paradise flycatcher. This male just came to us while we were walking up a trail and posed for a while. In this species, the tail is much shorter than in other paradise flycatchers.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This is an endemic from Mauritius that I thought I would have to leave the island without seeing: the Mauritius ornate day gecko. I managed to find quite a few in the end and I think that their upright posture complements their smiley face perfectly!

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I have never tried too hard to pick a favourite fish; there are just too many. When I am forced to pick, though, I often think of the Moorish idol (Zanclus cornutus). I wonder what it feels like to be the only member of a family...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

It's a tough world out there, but animals are amazing. While I was watching it, I was too focussed on the amazing details of this beautiful rock crab to realise that it was completely missing a leg. Its agility was not compromised either and he seemed to be the boss among many other smaller ones...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Oriental garden lizards are an introduced species in Mauritius, so they were often not what I was looking for. I still enjoy it when I can see all those details on an animal through my lens, though.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I was lucky during my trip to Mauritius: many birds were sporting their breeding plumage and had incredibly vivid colours. In case you are wondering, in the red fody the main colour is red!

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

They fly and they are endemic to the area too, but they are mammals: Mauritian flying foxes. Very entertaining to watch around sunrise and sunset, when they are very active and start looking for fruit.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Another endemic from Mauritius: the Mauritius kestrel. The only bird of prey on the island. I had never been that close to a raptor in the wild!

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I have recently visited Mauritius, where I was constantly looking for animals that I had never seen before (both in the water and on land). The pink pigeon is one of the few endemic birds that you can see there. They were almost extinct in the '90s and are still pretty rare in the wild.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

The other day I thought I lost a few thousand flamingo pictures due to sloppiness during a back-up. It took me a while to find them back, but they are safe now. I think this beautiful youngster is happy too...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Yes, peer-reviewing can take a while...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Two shots, just 180° apart. About a year ago, after a long day out in the field, we found ourselves in a very privileged position: right between the Moon rising and the Sun setting.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I've recently been at a large aquarium event and it was very cool to see four-eyed fish there. I had seen them before, but only from above. They actually have two eyes, but they are shaped in a way that allows them to see above and below the water surface without changing position.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

I am in Monaco for a meeting on lionfish and I had to visit the local public aquarium. Seeing a live nautilus was a treat! It might be the first in my life.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Predator and prey. A common buzzard showing us her nictitating membrane, a structure that birds of prey use to protect and moisturise their eyes.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

From a rice paddy in... Greece! The last place where I was expecting rice paddies...

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Unusual friendships at the water surface.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

A memory from last year in Santorini, Greece. Not much wildlife over there, but I could entertain myself watching a group of chukar partridges (Alectoris chukar) feeding at sunset.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

By far, my favourite grouper in the Mediterranean Sea: Mycteroperca rubra. I hadn't seen them in a decent size for a while and the other day we had three checking us out from the blue, as they usually do.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

An Eleonora's falcon from my last trip to Crete; a common sighting there in the right season.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

A (sleeping) Mediterranean parrotfish (Sparisoma cretense). This species is typical of the warm waters of the southern and eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea but has been expanding its distribution to more northern locations as part of a phenomenon called 'meridionalisation'.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

A sea becoming tropical: we are used to seeing more non-native fishes than native ones here in the eastern Mediterranean, but the yellow bar angelfish (Pomacanthus maculosus) is a first for me too. Kudos to our students that spotted it first.

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Davide Bottacini @davidebottacini.bsky.social · 19/05/2025