My zoo photographs

I decided to start a little topic to share some zoo, aquarium, and farm park photos. These are all older pictures I'm digging out of my archive folders cos I'm not visiting any public places during the pandemic, but I thought they might be well-appreciated on here, rather than sitting doing nothing on my laptop where nobody can see them but me
Note, they're also taken on my older camera, so they're not sparkling pin-sharp shots, but they're animals and I'm sure that's what matters most

First, a Banham Zoo visit in 2010. I did take a lot more pictures, at least one of every species I saw, but so many came out blurry or spoilt by enclosure mesh, I just picked out the ones which made a clear and aesthetically pleasing image  

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Owls indoors are usually difficult to get a picture of, this was the only one who's shot came out nicely

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Otters, but I can't remember what species - this was a long time ago!
[edit] Short-clawed - thanks Pardofelis!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Again, I can't remember the species for this mongoose family. I'm sure these are really obvious to a lot of you
[edit] Dwarf mongoose - again, thanks for putting me right!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

There's one I DO know, the red panda!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Looking very photogenic

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The giraffes were extremely friendly

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

They took leaves from visitors hands

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A somewhat less-than-photogenic llama

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Quite a young baby, I think!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Not many photos of the insect and spider room, the lighting in there was terrible

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The snow leopards were among my favourites, the adults were out and about while the cubs stayed curled up asleep

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Lovely face, these will come in handy when I eventually paint that custom project!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This would've been lovely without the wire, but he even looks handsome behind it

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The neighbouring cat, I think this one's an ocelot cos his rosettes merge into blobs and streaks in some places

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

On to the bird section, a lorikeet

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This beautiful bright colour conure reminds me of ice lollies

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The vultures came out for a flying display and talk to convince kids they're actually cool and not scary 'bad' birds, by the end I'm not sure everyone was convinced, but I love them anyway

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Cat nap

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And another!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Meerkats much more willing to pose for a portrait

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Pudgy little prairie marmots dogs who eat and eat no matter what crazy person's crawling around on the grass for a good angle

[imghttps://i.postimg.cc/tRMGYfwQ/zoo20.jpg[/img]

The Poitou donkey Douglas (no, I don't have a superb memory - his name sign was in one of my other pictures)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And another, just cos I know we have fans of this breed in model form around here

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The bald eagle, another who was very easy to get a flattering portrait of

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Grévy's zebra grazing, shortly after this he had a mad five minutes and raced round the field bucking and playing, it was sweet and reminded me so much of my domestic horses, all equine behaviour is pretty similar in the end

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The wondrous round ears

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A very handsome red kangaroo, there was a big red male hopping around too but sadly all my pictures are blurred

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Kookaburra, probably glad I wasn't singing that song at him

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Crowned pigeon, they're far bigger than I expected!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A grey peacock pheasant

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And finally, a sleepy ring necked parakeet

Very wonderful to see your nice photos!

George wrote:

Otters, but I can't remember what species - this was a long time ago!

Short-clawed otters, Aonyx cinerea, they're the most common otters in captivity by far :)

George wrote:

Again, I can't remember the species for this mongoose family. I'm sure these are really obvious to a lot of you

Dwarf mongooses, Helogale parvula :)

George wrote:

The neighbouring cat, I think this one's an ocelot cos his rosettes merge into blobs and streaks in some places

Yes it is. It's a beauty I love ocelots!

George wrote:

Pudgy little marmots who eat and eat no matter what crazy person's crawling around on the grass for a good angle

Actually prarie dogs. Confusion is easy because both marmots and prairie dog are just chunky squirrels with short tails.

George wrote:

A very handsome wallaby, they had red kangaroos too but sadly all my pictures of them are blurred

Actually a red kangaroo!

George wrote:

Crowned pigeon, they're far bigger than I expected!

They're the largest of all pigeon species


I love the pics of snow leopard, Grevy's zebra and grey peacock-pheasant :)

Hah, I think I muddled myself up there, I've looked back through my folder - the red male, who looks red, is blurred, the female sitting still turned out better, but none of the wallaby shots were any good. So I didn't post what I thought I had I'll edit it to correct the caption [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Great collection of photos and species.

Thanks for sharing all these pictures with us! Some animals are really spectacular creatures. Some great pictures, I won't tell my favorite but the other way round, I always think there is something wrong with llamas.

I like this kind of topic and your pics are really nice George

Thanks!

It makes sense to share them, rather than just letting them sit here doing nothing people may as well enjoy seeing some pretty and interesting creatures.

I wish I could get hold of the pictures I took of the animals I looked after in my keeper job, but that was the 90s, before digital photography took over, and although I borrowed a camera, I couldn't afford much on film reels and development - I only took half a film's worth of photos - and the prints ended up in one of my mum's albums somewhere, I'll have to ask her if she knows where that one is.