The Octagon - Exotic Animal Sanctuary (not the Mixed Martial Arts kind) - 10/6/12 - Post 1

I seem to have fallen off the face of the internet for the past few months.  There's nothing like an insanely busy Etsy season on top of a 10-hour-a-day day job.

But I'm on break now, so I can go back to editing the seemingly billions of shots I've had waiting around since at least last October.  So with no further ado...

The Octagon!  

The Octagon in Punta Gorda, Florida has nothing to do with MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).  They're an amazing Exotic Animal rescue.  They take in animals that your typical shelter can't handle... you know... lions, tigers, bears, monkeys,  lemurs and the like.  Most of these animals come from private zoos or individual owners who either discover that these large and typically wild animals can't be controlled as pets any more or who lose them when the state wildlife or law enforcement agencies discover that people who shouldn't have these animals do.

They take in animals who have been abused, starved and otherwise mistreated.  They are a no-kill, long-term operation where animals are cared for and given medical treatment and kept in a humane environment where their well-being is the primary concern.

To that end, they are less concerned with how well a certain enclosure allows for photographs.  They have visitors come to see the animals as a way to generate revenue, but they really aren't a *zoo*, so to speak.

I know exactly what they mean, but I get this mental image of some kids trying to break out the Scrabble board and get the lemurs to take a turn.  I think they'd spell "We Are Not Monkeys".

 So they warn you in many places that these are not domesticated animals.  They are not pets.  Do not try to touch or feed them.  And in case you missed it... YOU COULD LOSE A FINGER!

Speaking of lemurs...  

Like I said, this place isn't set up to be a Brookfield or Lowry Zoo.  The enclosures are for the safety and comfort of the animals.  Not photographers.  So I don't have a lot of pictures of the actual animals worth sharing.  It was incredibly hot the day I was there, so most of them were hiding in shade boxes or just sleeping somewhere in their space.  This lemur was interested in what was going on around him, but he was pretty much the only critter who was.

There's something just amazing about a tiger's eyes, isn't there?  This is Rajee.  She was abused by her former owner - hit with a garden hose.  Needless to say, she's not too keen on people now.  After hearing about someone doing something like that to an animal that depends on them, I'm not too keen on some people either. 

So this guy had no interest in people, but I had to get a picture of his coat.  I've never seen a tiger with anything other than black stripes.  I've seen white with black Siberian and orange with black Amur tigers, but this was very new to me.  How beautiful!

One of the things I found kind of funny about this trip was the amount of uncontained wildlife I was able to shoot there.  So in my next post I'll have dragonflies, a snake, some anoles and a few others that weren't *kept* there, but seemed to really like hanging out with the permanent residents!

And if you have a few extra bucks laying around (and if you're in the US and still looking to make a charitable donation for your 2012 taxes), the Octagon has a donation link on their website.  Please think of helping them out with this incredible mission they've undertaken.

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.

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.