June at the Zoo

As usual I went to the zoo at the beginning of the month. More picture will come later at my photography blog, Plus a couple bonus posts here of some things I did, but for now here’s just a few general things I saw while I was there,

Woah! How’s this for a starter picture? :) It is so hard to get good pictures of the tarantulas. Their cages are pretty messy, and covered in webs, but this one was pretty decent. Not quite good enough for my photography blog, but better than most.

A Dama Gazelle. These things never seen to do anything but lie down.

Love the giraffes. :)

I also love that penguins live with them. :)

The ostriches were finally on display. I haven’t seen them yet this year.

I love it when there’s actual wildlife in the exhibits too. :)

A huge moth was just finishing emerging from its cocoon in the hatching room.

There are some real pitcher plants hanging from the walls in the insect pavilion. I wish they’d get some Venus Flytraps too. That would be so cool!

This bird was in the insect room. Little kids were following it around with their parents close behind them telling them not to touch him.

Adults were following him too, though more for photography purposes than to touch him.

This giraffe proves the old saying true. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

I really wish I could get better shots inside of the shark tunnel. To do so I would need lights and tripods and absolutely no huge masses of humanity practically squeezing the life out of me as I try to make my way out of the tunnel. Yeah It was REALLY bad that day.

I love seahorses. :)

Lionfish are amazing.

Hammerhead aren’t as big as they seem in pictures. I had always imagined them as enormous man-eating monstrosities around the size of a great white, but they really aren’t more than just a few feet long. Unless of course, there is a much bigger, more dangerous version out there somewhere.

I have been trying to make it up to see the rhinos for the last few times, but I have never seen more than just the rear end of one from a distance. I guess it was always too cold for them to stay out for long. This month I rode the Skyfari up to see them and I got a lot of pictures. More of those will show on on J. North Photography later this month. Plus I am planning a separate post of all my birds-eye view pictures I took from the Skyfari itself.

The zoo’s newest addition to pachyderm hill is the Indian rhinoceros. It is actually rather rare. It was nice to get to see these as not many people have the privilege.

While I was up so far I decided to quickly go see the sea lions before taking the Skyfari back down to the giraffes, but it turned out that there was a show starting within the half hour, so I waited. I had never seen the sea lions perform before, so that was really cool. I have a whole post planned about that, plus one with the up close shots for J. North Photography.

While I waited for the show to begin I got some good picture of this bird. I think it might be a starling, but even if it is that messy nasty bird, it is still pretty in its own way.

I think the male sea lion got lonely after the show was over. He kept coming out of the water and barking after the trainers had left.

Before I left I found a little garden are with a birdbath and benches, with no sidewalks. It was pretty peaceful there. More pictures coming to J. North Photography soon! :)