Welcome to the zoo : The pictures - New pics 23 january 2021

great to see so many other wildlife/zoo photographers here! I am a zoologist and spend a lot of time photographing animals, here are two from my trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park last weekend...

asian short calwed otter pup
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Lac Alaotra Gentle Lemur
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and a shot from my 'home' zoo that I visit most often, Edinburgh zoo...

Sumatran Tiger
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The animals are so beautiful! I love the picture of the tiger and the otter! Thanks for sharing!

Very nice pics!!

Wow, amazing photos! Portrait of tiger is just perfect, those eyes, wow
Congratulations (o)):

Your photoes are absolutely STUNNING
WOW!

Good to have a zoologist here in the forum
I am thrilled to see a picture of this extremely rare tiger, do they have a breeding programme there ?

[quote="SaF-86"]great to see so many other wildlife/zoo photographers here! I am a zoologist and spend a lot of time photographing animals, here are two from my trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park last weekend...

asian short calwed otter pup
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Thanks is so amazing
Thanks for sharing

thanks everyone! glad people are enjoying the shots ^-^

Susanne - they do have a breeding programme at Edinburgh, they had a brother/sister pair for years (Tibor and Chandra) but last year they exchanged Chandra for an unrelated female from a european zoo (Baginda) so they are currently trying to breed them! No cubs yet but they are both young, fingers crossed.

Great pics         I hope we will see more soon  

Ohhh I love them! Such beautiful pictures! I love the tiger, just look at those eyes!

Fantastic pictures!
Looking forward to see more!

They are BEAUTIFUL photos!!!

SaF-86! I love your photos!

Hi all

It's a rainy day here and I've just finished looking through this thread. Great photos - thanks everyone! I've copied pictures from my visits to zoos below.

This is a postcard showing the Marquis of Bath and his lion Marquis in his home, Longleat House. The first safari park in England was created in the grounds of Longleat House in 1966. Marquis was the first of hundreds of lions born there. I read a book about Longleat when I was a kid and I had always wanted to visit.

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This giraffe was in a walk-in area at Longleat Safari Park - I could have touched her!

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This young gazelle was also in a large open area, at Whipsnade Zoo in England (the largest zoo in the UK). I can't identify the species. The gazelle came right up to me, expecting food I guess, but all I had for her was a friendly pat. Then a zoo keeper drove up and asked me to leave the area as it was only for driving through...

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This four-horned sheep at Whipsnade Zoo was not just a mutated individual - it was a typical Manx Loaghtan sheep, one of several breeds that can have two to six (!) horns. I saw that Kristie posted a photo of one of the other breeds - the Jacob sheep - in this thread in July.

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This is a Heck aurochs at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium. I was surprised to see an animal that looked like an aurochs - the wild ancestor of European cattle, extinct since 1627. This is an example of back-breeding to try to recreate the aurochs from domestic breeds. The Heck aurochs was developed in the 1920s by two German zoo directors, brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck. I think the breed could still be improved - it's not as close to the original aurochs as Harriet's model on her blog!

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The Augsberg aurochs. This painting (which is in the public domain) is a copy - the original probably dates from the 16th century. The horns face more forward than with the Heck aurochs above.

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This polar bear at the Singapore Zoo had an enormous pool with a depth of at least 10 metres (about 30 feet). You can see a car tyre in the background, which was used as a toy. I watched the polar bear dive to the bottom to pick up the tyre, bring it to the surface and drop it again, a few times.

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One thing that stood out at Singapore Zoo was that water was very clean, even in enclosures with crocodiles or hippos. Also, the animals (and keepers) all seemed happy and relaxed.

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I took this photo during three weeks working as a volunteer helping keepers at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. I hope you like it - personally I prefer tigers that are 'coloured in'!

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This is 'Eesa' the fossa - a San Diego Zoo 'ambassador' animal, regularly taken out of his enclosure to meet the public. Fossas are the largest carnivore native to Madagascar.

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This panda was also at San Diego Zoo. The exhibit had a very long queue.

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This is a Sichuan takin - one of four takin subspecies - at San Diego Zoo.

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Cheers

Ian

WOW! Such fantastic photoes from all opver the world

I am especially awed by the fossa.
They are SO beautyful, and this pictures show a lot of detail, - just look at the paws

Thankyou very much for sharing, Iam

So many pics of so phantastic zoos all over the world!!! Phantastic !!

It is one dream of my life to visit the zoo of San Diego

Wonderful photos Ian Thank You for sharing I love polar bear in water Gazelle looks like blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) female :)

Very nice pictures and additional information.

ana wrote:

Wonderful photos Ian :cheers:Thank You for sharing :DI love polar bear in water Gazelle looks like blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) female :)

Hi Ana

You're right - what I thought was a gazelle species was a female blackbuck - thanks for solving the mystery!    I had looked at all sorts of gazelles before I posted my message.  I've just checked Google images of blackbuck and the first female I saw was almost identical to the one in my photo.  The only problem I have with Google searches for animals is that some images displayed are of (human) hunters with animals they've killed for sport.    To me that causes what's known as 'scroll shock'.    I'm sure most STS Forum members also prefer pictures of animals that are alive.  

Cheers

Ian  

Very nice pictures Ian   I hope you will show more soon.
Lucky you ! There is so many zoo I would like to visit.
How was your volunteer experience ? Could you explain us ?

widukind wrote:

So many pics of so phantastic zoos all over the world!!! Phantastic !!      
It is one dream of my life to visit the zoo of San Diego        

And now, I would love to visit Singapore zoo too  

Cheers

Christophe

Ian wrote:

ana wrote:

Wonderful photos Ian Thank You for sharing I love polar bear in water Gazelle looks like blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) female :)

Hi Ana

You're right - what I thought was a gazelle species was a female blackbuck - thanks for solving the mystery! (o)): I had looked at all sorts of gazelles before I posted my message. I've just checked Google images of blackbuck and the first female I saw was almost identical to the one in my photo.

Ian wrote:

The only problem I have with Google searches for animals is that some images displayed are of (human) hunters with animals they've killed for sport. To me that causes what's known as 'scroll shock'. I'm sure most STS Forum members also prefer pictures of animals that are alive.

Cheers

Ian

Yes Worst I have seen was family with kids, all smiling, standing with shotguns around dead giraffe Sick

Kikimalou wrote:

Very nice pictures Ian (o)): I hope you will show more soon.
Lucky you ! There is so many zoo I would like to visit.
How was your volunteer experience ? Could you explain us ?

widukind wrote:

So many pics of so phantastic zoos all over the world!!! Phantastic !!
It is one dream of my life to visit the zoo of San Diego

And now, I would love to visit Singapore zoo too

Cheers

Christophe

Hi Christophe - thanks - those are some of my favourite pictures collected from zoos I've visited over the past 22 years.

My three weeks of volunteer work was at the start of 1994. Taronga Zoo had a 'work experience' program for people to find out what it was like to be a zoo keeper. (Philter4 at the STS Forum would know all about it from having had his own zoo - Hi Philter4!) I spent a week in each of three sections - Veterinary and Quarantine Centre, Birds and Asian Mammals. It was all really interesting - every day was different. It was very hands-on apart from when I was in the operating theatre, which was definitely hands-off for me! I watched about a dozen operations. I was surprised that the vets treated any sick animal, even a hybrid duck from the children's petting zoo! :) They said it all added to their experience for when they had to look after rare or valuable animals. I was amazed at the vets' knowledge and skills, like when one vet could tell that an echidna had a swollen liver. How much would you have to know to be able to tell where the liver is in that one particular species' abdomen and that it feels swollen?!

Apart from the Zoo's display animals the Veterinary and Quarantine Centre looked after injured or orphaned native wildlife, eventually to be released. I helped with snakes, lizards, fruit bats, possums, parrots, penguins, kookaburras and magpies (a very common bird in Australia but the Zoo still cares for them). As in other countries we have networks of members of the public who also do this good work.

The animals were classed as harmless, hazardous or dangerous (no-one went in with them). I was given instructions when I entered enclosures with hazardous animals, including Asian golden cats ("Don't turn your back to them or they might attack you") and Andean condors ("Duck when you're under the male's ledge so he can't peck you"). It turned out that the only animal that bit me was a deer trying to eat my shorts!

Some of the first animals I helped look after were a pair of clouded leopards in quarantine. At the zoo shop I bought a postcard of a clouded leopard to remember them by, which I've copied below. (I've noticed Harriet's latest avatar is also a clouded leopard - that's a beautiful photo Harriet!) The male was basically wild but the female had been raised like a pet. She probably wondered why she wasn't allowed to live in someone's house anymore...

Cheers

Ian

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ana wrote:

Yes Worst I have seen was family with kids, all smiling, standing with shotguns around dead giraffe Sick

That must have been very sad, Ana - giraffes are such beautiful, gentle animals. I can't understand people like that.

At least there are lots of other people who are just the opposite, like park rangers, wildlife carers, zoo keepers and veterinarians. :)

Ian

widukind wrote:

So many pics of so phantastic zoos all over the world!!! Phantastic !!

It is one dream of my life to visit the zoo of San Diego

I've been twice to San Doego Zoo-belive me, it isn't defnitely NOT the best zoo, but one of the biggest dissapointments when it comes to zoos.

No Question-they do have an excellent animal collection, but this is the biggest problem of that zoo-too many animals, too many speciesin too many old, outdated and too small enclosures, and even the new exhibits teher are not the best.

But the tropical vegitation is phenomenal. There are much better Zoos in the USA than San Diego, so the San Diego Wild AnimalPark,Phoneix, Miami, The Living desert, jacksonville.

Strange, most of the big and well known and famous Us-Zoos are often a dissapointment....

Yesterday we visited Blijdorp diergaarde in Rotterdam. That was really nice day in this great zoo! I have just a quick few pictures to share Probably I will post few more later today Unfortunately I was able to see only about 75% of the zoo because it's a little too big for one day trip. Well, it's actually good reason to come back, hopefully soon

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Wow Anna, thank you fir share the pictures with us!