We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog...

Okay, so while the Zombie March was the best thing to ever hit my blog's stats, I do realize that most of you are here for the cute, the fuzzy and even the scaly or chlorophyl-filled.  While going through a bunch of old folders and making back-ups of my shots, I realized I'd gone to the Nashville Zoo back in March and never put any of those shots up.

So, here are a few of this blog's more usual denizens.

Let's start with these guys.  How cute are they?  While they look a lot like kangaroos, especially with nothing to use as a size scale, they're actually wallabies.  The little guy there is an albino male and very young.  Well, not like born-yesterday young, he's obviously out of the pouch, but still young enough to stay Very Close to mom at all times.  His dad is albino too - you can see his tail in the bottom of the shot.  I always thought albinism was a recessive trait, so either it's not so much or mom has one gene for "brown wallaby" and one for "albino wallaby" and the baby picked up the recessive from her.  Either way, he's adorable.

Okay, less 'adorable' and more 'awesome'.  Look at that *massive* paw!

And back to adorable.  It's hard to tell with giraffes, again with not having anything to gauge size by, but this is a wee baby giraffe.  Of course when you're born at six feet tall "wee" may never quite apply.  But compared to mom and the rest of the herd, he's very small.

There was a Red-tailed Hawk circling the zoo, but not actually a part of it.  My guess, since he was circling the tiger enclosure, is that he's looking for any scraps the resident population may have left over.

 One of the first things you see when you enter this zoo is this pair of Hyacinth Macaws.  This guy was busy peeling the bark off the tree he was sitting on.  What I love about this shot is that the *side* of his black tongue has a dotted yellow line going all the way down it.  It's like someone painted a street on his tongue!

 I think this camel was trying to blow me a kiss.  Or spit in my face.  Really it could have gone either way.

  Again, with slightly less cute.  But a neat shot.  I really wish I had my tripod for it, because setting up the right f-stop and getting the camera to focus behind the closest element... not easy handheld!

Here's one of his buddies.  There's that famous 'smile'.  Doesn't he look like the cat that got the canary?  Or is that the gator that got the cat???








Okay, tomorrow I've signed up for a work day at Willowbrook Wildlife, so things will go back to normal around here.  Unless it storms like it's supposed to. :(  Well, in that case things will probably still go back to normal, I just won't have shots from Willowbrook.

Lincoln Park Zoo - 2.16.11 - Show Me Your Teeth!

Apparently Lady Gaga has been at the zoo.  All the animals felt it necessary to Show me [their] teeth! (The little monsters...)

*NOTE*  The last two pictures in this post are of carnivores, you know, being carnivores.  The tiger and the wolves were given some kind of bone with meat on it.  Personally, I don't find it any more disturbing than walking through the fresh meat department of your neighborhood grocery store.  It's not like you can even tell what kind of animal the meat comes from.  But if you're sensitive to that kind of image... you've been warned. :)

Stripping Branch

 I spent an inordinate amount of time watching the giraffe strip the bark off this branch.  They didn't want to eat the wood, but they seemed to really enjoy pulling off the bark with their tongues and lips.

Nimble Lips

It was amazing to watch how deftly they use their lips to maneuver the branch.

The Gang Says "Ahhhhh!!!!"

All the meerkats were into showing their teeth.  I think the guy on the left wanted me to see if meerkats have tonsils!

I'z not fat!  Dere's Two of us!

This shot cracks me up because it looks, at first, like there's one huge meerkat in the foreground.  There's not.  There's one in the foreground and one in the midground, with his back turned and face hidden.

What do you mean, you're "missing" a dentist?

Polar bears are the biggest bears in the world.  Which means their teeth are right up there in size.

This Siberian Tiger was actually enjoying the snow.  He was rolling in what was left of it.  And showing his teeth while he did it.  But we got an even better view when he got fed a few minutes after this shot was taken.

Teeth: This is what they're made for

 Those are some serious incisors.  That 'upstage' paw holding dinner still is a healthy size too!

Hungry Like the Wolf

There's something very classical about this image.  A wolf eating a piece of meat.  I think it's the kind of thing we all think of when someone mentions wolves to us.  Well, that and a certain young lady in a red cape. ;)  Or you know, if you're me, a certain Duran Duran song.





Later... eyes and toes.

Lincoln Park Zoo - 2.16.11 - Animal Raspberries

Okay, so the weather in Chicago has changed drastically since my last set of posts.  There is no snow left under the homemade snow gauge and for the last few days the weather has been hovering around the 50's (F).

It's not exactly beach weather, but when you get a nice day in Chicago in February you take advantage of it.  I went to the zoo.  It was almost deserted.  I mean, if I ever wanted an entire zoo to myself, this was my day to have it.

Annoyingly, I grabbed the footplate from one tripod and the other tripod.  I've also discovered through chatting with someone from another blog that my camera needs to go in for repairs.  The graininess isn't from too high an ISO or something I can correct on my own.  It looks like I may have knocked my sensor out of alignment.  *sigh*  I have a shoot this weekend with a local group, and I'm annoyed that I'm going to have to make this trip with a screwy camera, but after that I'll be able to send it in for the two weeks it'll take to get it repaired.

Anyway, I decided that I'm bored making posts from zoos that just say, "Hey, I saw a lion!  I saw a hippo!  I saw a bird!" in either alphabetical order or chronological order of whatever I saw first in the zoo, so I figure you all have to be tired of seeing them.  Instead I'm going to make theme posts for this trip.

One of the things I find really funny for no particularly good reason, is animals sticking out their tongues.

So here is the animal world sending you a great big raspberry! (Or a carton full of them!)

And you thought small children had some bad habits.

A tongue to keep up with that neck.

This polar bear doesn't think much of your idea.

Doesn't care for that one either.

It seems that tongue length is proportional to body length.  First the giraffe, now this guy.

Mmm... you look tasty.

I know that last one is cropped a bit oddly, but she was eating what I think was either a deer or cow leg.  It was clearly prepped in the zoo kitchen and not nearly as gross as it could be, but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea.  I'm going to put up some shots of the carnivores doing their thing, but I want to let people opt out of viewing that if they'd like.

In the next few posts we'll be looking at teeth, eyes and feet!