A trip to the zoo

     Welcome to my blog.  I am planning to put this out on a weekly basis, time permitting. Life gets busy sometimes, and last week it happened to me and I didn't get a new blog post done, so I guess I'll do it now.

A trip to the zoo
     We have been having nice gentle weather here with lows of 19 to 20 degrees below zero, and highs getting up to around zero.  So, maybe I can't be blamed too much for thinking a bit about a warmer place.  Last spring, after working my bees in California, I made a trip down to the San Diego Zoo, and took a bunch of pictures there, so I thought that I would use a selection of them for my blog this time.  I hope that you enjoy them. 

     Last week my blog was about otters.  Here is a African Spot-necked Otter.  It doesn't look a whole lot different than the ones I photographed on the north shore of Lake Superior.



     Ever see kids stick their noses up at foods that they don't think they like?  That's what it looks like this young giraffe was doing.  He was eating, but from the look on his face, it is questionable how much he enjoyed it.  Also, look at the hair on his lips.  It looks like all the giraffes I took pictures of had this.  I'm not sure I would like hairy lips.

     Not all the critters in the zoo are captive.  This Great Blue Heron and the Great Egret below are what they called moocher birds at the zoo.  These were birds that had figured out there was free food there and would come and stay for supper.  I think that they are beautiful birds nonetheless, and enjoyed being able to get close enough to photograph them.

     Unfortunately I did not record what kind of bird this was, but if my memory serves me correctly, this was some kind of exotic wild turkey,  Whatever he is, he is an interesting bird.

     No trip to the zoo would be complete without stopping to see the monkeys.  This Schmidt's Spot-nosed Guenon is from Africa.  It is listed as a vulnerable species, which means that there is some danger of them becoming extinct.

Spread the word

     If you enjoyed these pictures, be sure to let your friends know about this blog spot.  Also, you can view more of my zoo pictures at: http://beekeepersupreme.smugmug.com/Animals/Zoo-Animals/Zoo-Animals/15559057_9jWfF#1165633429_fDeVW

Contact me

You may contact me at: disrael@arvig.net.  My web address is:  http://beekeepersupreme.smugmug.com

Copyright notice
Copyright 2011 by David Israel.  All rights reserved.  This blog, including the accompanying photographs, is copyright protected and it is a violation of the law to make unauthorized copies. Because the San Diego Zoo does not grant property releases of the animals included in this blog, the photos in this issue are not available for download.  However, other photos are available at:  http://www.pleasantvalleyphotography.com/

Welcome to my new blog.  It is replacing my e-newsletter.  I plan to post a new blog every week, time permitting, each on a dfferent topic.

Otters

It has been my experience that seeing river otters is a rare occurrence.  While I do see signs of them being here once in a while, in my whole lifetime, I have seen otters in the wild only twice.  I spotted the first one while driving near my home here in Central Minnesota.  It was crossing a newly mown hay field on its way to the Wing River about a half mile from my house.  The second time was last summer while we were camped at Gooseberry Falls State Park.  We were spending some time at the mouth of the Gooseberry River when two otters came in out of Lake Superior, played on the gravel bar for a little while and then swam on up the river.  They appeared to be a mother and a young one.  All this happened while I was standing there with my camera in my hand and a long lens attached, so I was able to get some pictures.  I am sure that they are not the best otter pictures that have ever been taken, but they are the best ones I have and I like them.  

 

 

When we first spotted these two otters, they were just coming out of Lake Superior.  When they spotted my grandson, they went back into the water, but came back out again when he backed off.  From the time we first spotted them until they had disappeared was maybe three minutes.  The time span from when I took the first picture until the last one was only 2 minutes, 46 seconds.  During that time I took 94 pictures, something I couldn’t and wouldn’t have done had I been shooting with film.  Film and developing costs too much, and even if I had wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to change film three times quickly enough.

 

Taxonomically, otters are mammals belonging to the order Carnivora, which includes other meat eaters such as dogs and cats.  They are in the same family (Mustelidae) as weasels, mink and skunks, which means that they share many things in common with these critters, but most people have a warmer spot in their hearts for otters than they do for skunks. 

  

Otters are known for their playfulness, and these two showed it during the time they were with us, romping around on the gravel bar.  It would seem, however, that at least one seagull had no love in its heart for otters.  It flew over and began swooping down at them and chased them off. 

 

   

I had my eye behind my camera when the seagull arrived and I didn’t even know what was happening until someone said something, although I did get a couple pictures with the bird’s shadow in it.  When I realized what was happening, I zoomed out and got one final shot with both an otter and the seagull in it.  While technically it is blurry and one of the worst pictures of the bunch, I like it for the humor in it.   

I could go on, but if you are interested in further information about otters, I’ll refer you to some of the links below.

Questions anyone?

Here is a new feature to this blog. If you have questions about nature or photography, send me an email at disrael@arvig.net.  It doesn’t need to be related to the topic of the week.  If I know the answer, or can find it, I’ll give you and answer in this column.  If I can’t find the answer, I’ll say so.

Question

What is an order or family that you mentioned above?

Answer

Many years ago, Charles Linnaeus was brainstorming on how to bring order to the naming of plants and animals.  He came up with a plan for grouping them in ever smaller groups, based on physical characteristics that they shared.  For instance, all animals share common traits with each other that they do not share with plants.  His system had seven levels – Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species.  These are frequently broken down further into other catagories, such as Sub-Phylum or Super- or Sub-Families.

Many modern taxonomists (people who study life on this earth and give everything names), try to show evolutionary relationships by what groups they stack them in, trying to build a family tree for all life on the planet.  As a firm believer in creation, I do not agree that all life on earth is related (except that it was made by the same all-wise, all-knowing, very awesome God), but our classification system is quite useful for bringing order to our naming system and showing similarities between the plants and animals on our world.  The orders and families mentioned above are a part of that classification system, with the order being the higher and larger group.

Suggested links:

http://www.ottolontra.furtopia.org/River%20Otter%20Facts.htm

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/river-otter/

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/american-river-otter.html

http://luddist.com/otter.htm

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/facts-about-river-otter-1758.html

Visit me on the Web

I would like to invite you to visit my web site: www.beekeepersupreme.smugmug.com/  where I have over 600 pictures posted, most of which are wildlife or nature related.  Viewing the pictures is free.  They are also available for purchase in a wide variety of styles and sizes of prints, as well as digital downloads suitable for use as screen savers, slide shows or printing on  your own printer.  There is also a variety of other merchandise offered, including mugs, refrigerator magnets, cards, t-shirts, mouse pads, etc...

Copyright notice

Copyright 2011 by David Israel.  All rights reserved.  This blog, including the accompanying photographs, is copyright protected and it is a violation of the law to make unauthorized copies. If you would like copies of the pictures included in this blog, they are available at:  http://www.pleasantvalleyphotography.com/ .