Melbourne Trip: Part 6 Animals
Oct. 4th, 2011 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithI have a lot of photos here. So I stopped to think about why I'm putting them up. It's certainly not to impress you with my really cool photos of wild animals, although I rather like the elephant photos, and the lion one, but overall, you know... Then I remembered: so we can remember what we did when we visited there! (Also, because you can't have too many photos of cats, even wild ones.)
Day 2, Zoo
The first thing was to do was to prioritise the exhibits. What did we each what to particularly see? That was easy:
Penguins, seals, tigers and elephants.
"And the butterfly house."
"Of course. And they have a good orangutan display."
*consult map* The seals and penguins are on the same "island", and one of the loop paths goes past the tigers, the butterflies, the elephants and the orangutans. So ...
"Let's go there and then there, and then the big cats afterwards."
"And then the free flight aviary if we feel up to it."
"And the platypus."
(And after walking past the reptile house.) "The crocodiles too, but they're on the way out."
And that's what we did.
Sort of.
There are four Australian Fur Seals at the zoo, at least there are four listed on the webpage, all rescues, but they weren't all visible at the same time. We got there in time to see the training demonstration. I have more photos of that, which I'll put up another time.
This is the animal in the last photo of my previous post, neckless ducks.
Oops, I meant Little Penguins, or Fairy Penguins as we usually call them. They're found along the coast of Tasmania and the southern part of the mainland (and in the zoo).
An old-style zoo cage, showing how it used to be in the olden days.
Otters are very cute, but small and shiny and quick.
Especially in the water and the TIGER FEEDING IS ABOUT TO START.
Tigers are also very fast. At least too fast for neglected, unappreciated cameras.
One of the tigers took off with her rabbit. The other settled here a safe distance from the onlookers, while the keeper talked. (These two girls were born at the zoo, along with two males. Their mum is over with the other big cats, on the other side of the zoo.)
I took some half-hearted photos, and consoled myself that at least I could see them this time. From my last visit, I have a photo of a dark shadow amongst the trees. After a while, I wandered down to the other end of the exhibit to see where the other tiger was.
Under a shelter quite close to the viewing window :)
Was optimistic about photo opportunities in the butterfly house. The butterflies are big and just hang there, and I have some good photos from last time.
"You expect me to take photos of things that are just sitting there close-up? Me?"
Obviously not.
As I was about to leave, we reached a compromise. Half-zoom worked. Sort of.
That's the bull Asian Elephant.
And there's the rest of the herd. The two babies were born last year, it seems.
The Orangutan display is interesting, but the lighting through the window isn't good.
Who is watching who? There were two guys there with a big film camera.
The small cats were a washout as far as photos go. The cage bars are too far from the viewing area and the cats were too active. But they're lovely animals, so I'll include one. That's a serval, I think.
Even cranky camera couldn't mess up with the lion.
Not sure I'd want to be licked by that tongue.
African Wild Dogs: that was a half-hearted photo but no worse than some of the others.
Repeat the previous comment about the cats for the Snow Leopard
That must be a Brown Bear. I was getting a bit tired at this point. OK scratch the "getting". One more scheduled event.
Penguin feeding! Except I, um, snuck around the corner to take photos of something else and missed the feeding.
Being close to the dining area, we had an ice cream break. Then onto the final exhibit, the reptile house.
With a quick detour to look at the meerkats, because you have to.
Wasn't expecting much photowise from the reptile house. Camera and me were both flat, and I couldn't be fussed doing the messing with the settings that would be required to get decent photos out of glassed, inside enclosures.
Iguanas.
I'm thinking that's a cobra
and those are star tortoises.
Then a crocodile, to finish.
The first thing was to do was to prioritise the exhibits. What did we each what to particularly see? That was easy:
Penguins, seals, tigers and elephants.
"And the butterfly house."
"Of course. And they have a good orangutan display."
*consult map* The seals and penguins are on the same "island", and one of the loop paths goes past the tigers, the butterflies, the elephants and the orangutans. So ...
"Let's go there and then there, and then the big cats afterwards."
"And then the free flight aviary if we feel up to it."
"And the platypus."
(And after walking past the reptile house.) "The crocodiles too, but they're on the way out."
And that's what we did.
Sort of.
There are four Australian Fur Seals at the zoo, at least there are four listed on the webpage, all rescues, but they weren't all visible at the same time. We got there in time to see the training demonstration. I have more photos of that, which I'll put up another time.
This is the animal in the last photo of my previous post, neckless ducks.
Oops, I meant Little Penguins, or Fairy Penguins as we usually call them. They're found along the coast of Tasmania and the southern part of the mainland (and in the zoo).
An old-style zoo cage, showing how it used to be in the olden days.
Otters are very cute, but small and shiny and quick.
Especially in the water and the TIGER FEEDING IS ABOUT TO START.
Tigers are also very fast. At least too fast for neglected, unappreciated cameras.
One of the tigers took off with her rabbit. The other settled here a safe distance from the onlookers, while the keeper talked. (These two girls were born at the zoo, along with two males. Their mum is over with the other big cats, on the other side of the zoo.)
I took some half-hearted photos, and consoled myself that at least I could see them this time. From my last visit, I have a photo of a dark shadow amongst the trees. After a while, I wandered down to the other end of the exhibit to see where the other tiger was.
Under a shelter quite close to the viewing window :)
Was optimistic about photo opportunities in the butterfly house. The butterflies are big and just hang there, and I have some good photos from last time.
"You expect me to take photos of things that are just sitting there close-up? Me?"
Obviously not.
As I was about to leave, we reached a compromise. Half-zoom worked. Sort of.
That's the bull Asian Elephant.
And there's the rest of the herd. The two babies were born last year, it seems.
The Orangutan display is interesting, but the lighting through the window isn't good.
Who is watching who? There were two guys there with a big film camera.
The small cats were a washout as far as photos go. The cage bars are too far from the viewing area and the cats were too active. But they're lovely animals, so I'll include one. That's a serval, I think.
Even cranky camera couldn't mess up with the lion.
Not sure I'd want to be licked by that tongue.
African Wild Dogs: that was a half-hearted photo but no worse than some of the others.
Repeat the previous comment about the cats for the Snow Leopard
That must be a Brown Bear. I was getting a bit tired at this point. OK scratch the "getting". One more scheduled event.
Penguin feeding! Except I, um, snuck around the corner to take photos of something else and missed the feeding.
Being close to the dining area, we had an ice cream break. Then onto the final exhibit, the reptile house.
With a quick detour to look at the meerkats, because you have to.
Wasn't expecting much photowise from the reptile house. Camera and me were both flat, and I couldn't be fussed doing the messing with the settings that would be required to get decent photos out of glassed, inside enclosures.
Iguanas.
I'm thinking that's a cobra
and those are star tortoises.
Then a crocodile, to finish.
