A rough 24 hours in my animal world

I don't talk about my own animals much in this blog.  I think the last time I brought up my ferrets was when Magick passed away almost a year and a half ago.  Well, last Tuesday, I lost the last of my original "business" (Business being the collective noun for ferrets - like a herd of cows or a pack of wolves or a murder of crows.)  Gaia was 7 1/3 years old and had two different cancers for the last two years of her life.  The high protein diet she had to be on to keep one of the cancers in check pretty much destroyed her kidneys, which was what ultimately brought her down.  I got her when she was about six months old (which is an estimate, since all my ferrets are rescues from the Greater Chicago Ferret Association and we don't have her initial paperwork).  But given the best estimates the vets could come up with, we decided that she and I shared a birthday.

Gaia ferret - 9.27.2004 - 1.31.2012

Given that she was so young when I got her, and that she was at least three years younger than Magick and Spirit - the first two ferrets I ever adopted - she was always known as 'the baby'.  Even at the end, when the two new ferrets she was sharing a cage with were less than half her age.

This is one of the earliest shots I have of her. You can still see some of her baby-shape in the pudginess of her back legs and bottom.  And how short her nose is.

She was the last of the original business as seen here, moving into their new and improved cage.  From left to right, Gaia, Spirit and Magick.






In less personal news, one of the "Mane Attractions" at the Lincoln Park Zoo has also passed away.  If you come in through the main gates to the zoo, one of the first exhibits you see is the outdoor lion habitat.  And usually, sunning himself on a large rock in the middle of the exhibit would be the male lion, Adelor.  He was put down yesterday due to very, very poor health.  He was 18 years old.  According to the news reports, most lions only make it to 14, the oldest captive lion was 26 when he died.  It strikes me as odd that such a huge, strong animal should have such a short lifespan, especially in captivity where he isn't being preyed on.

Adelor had an extremely impressive roar.  You could be at the other end of the park and hear him when he felt like letting you know he was around.  If you were near the rail of the exhibit when he let loose, you could feel the vibrations of the sound go right through you.

Anyway, here's Adelon welcoming people to the zoo.

Rest in peace our beloved carnivores, big and small.

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!

Chicago Done Naturally (Post 4 of 10) - Lincoln Park Zoo

Lincoln Park Zoo

One of the great things about LPZ is that it’s free. It’s open 365 days a year and if you pack a lunch, you can get in and out without spending a penny. Going to the zoo in the winter in Chicago sounds kind of nuts, but a fair number of the exhibits are indoors, and in the winter there are very few people at the zoo. School groups get thick starting in about April, but the good news is, most of them leave before 1:00 or so. So if you really want to cover the whole zoo when it’s less crowded, think of spending two half-days instead of a whole day. Easy to do when you don’t have to pay admission. Once the schools are out for summer it does not get any better. In fact it may be worse, because that’s when the camp groups start showing up. Again, the later you can go in the day, the less crowded it’ll be.

The grounds are tripod-friendly for the most part, but look out for small children, who don’t see you/your tripod. The vast majority of the indoor exhibits are marked ‘no-flash’, and since most of the exhibits are either glass or plastic-enclosed, you probably wouldn’t want to use it anyway. Outside, flashes are fine.

To hit:There’s a duck pond with several interesting breeds of ducks and geese that you can shoot from the picnic porch without glass, bars or fencing interfering with your shots. The ground is concrete and flat, which makes setting your tripod easy. You’ll see it as you walk through the grounds, near where the flamingos are in warmer weather, but the best shooting is from the opposite side where the picnic tables are under the shelter, so it’s worth taking the walk around.

Regenstein African Journey: The pigmy hippo often likes to sit right in front of the glass, with his mouth open, showing off his teeth. And his tonsils, if he had any. Further down, the meerkats are in an open-air enclosure. The plastic partition is about four feet high – so as long as you’re taller than me , you’ll be able to lean over it, again, shooting without obstruction.

(Yeah, this shot is pretty crap; I think all the good ones got lost in the great I-dropped-a-half-Terabite-harddrive crash earlier this year.)

 

 

 

The monkey house is fun, but it’s very dark, so you’ll need a tripod. Of course, an interesting monkey is a moving monkey, so it’s a tough shot. On the good news side, there’s almost always at least one baby in the exhibit.

To miss:
There is a penguin house, but they have a serious humidity issue and the glass is constantly fogged up and impossible to shoot through.

In the spring and fall they have to soap outside windows (like the ones on the polar bear exhibit and the lion glass observation area) to avoid bird wrecks, which makes them messy and tough to see through, let alone shoot through.