nothing wasted
only click on the pictures below if you aren't eating. changes your perspective on the top picture doesn't it !
zoos archives
only click on the pictures below if you aren't eating. changes your perspective on the top picture doesn't it !
auckland zoo
walking the pigs, but not the lions
one of those long nosed things
a proud lion (and friend)
running ostriches are always funny
and a kiwi
kiwi hippo
it's an aucklandish hippo. which makes it a kiwi i guess.
exit via the alligator
do you see what they did here ? it's a good way of making sure no one ever gives the zoo a bad review AND it keeps the alligator fed
hassock of the week
it's a bishop's bonnet !
some animals
here are some animal from a zoo we went to back in january. just found them in my pending pile.
zoo thing
i can't remember what these things are called or even where i took the picture. oh well.
arthur the camel
i recon this camel is called Arthur ('R4'). Probably txt spk for the younger zoo visitor.
baby rhino
esther thought the baby rhino looked like a robot. which it did
penguins
penguins are great. each of these photos deserves it's own caption. but you'd be sick of penguins if i posted them all separately, so have a giant penguin post instead.
danger at the zoo
i like zoo signs like these. it suggests there's some real danger about.
for example you might have a chunk bitten out of your little finger
for example you might have a chunk bitten out of your little finger
or perhaps 2 of your fingers and most of your hand pecked off
which is probably why they left some gloves on these railings
here's a good danger medley
even apples are forbidden
and of course, special signs for the lemurs are in order.
never smile at a lemur when you've got food near by
whipsnade zoo
we had a fantastic last-day-of-daddy's-holiday day out to Whipsnade Zoo yesterday. Cold as anything it was, which the siberian tigers seemed to be ok with. i've got tons of pictures so i'll just put up the interesting ones over the next few weeks and link to a gallery with a few more shots, if that's ok with you.
(colour version here)
this enclosure is temporary empty
there are two signs here in case you don't see the first one. i was very tempted to scrawl "because the man-eating crocodiles escaped". but i didn't.
sponsoring the animals
where do you draw the line on animal sponsorship ? what other animals would make good sponsorship choices ? do you worst !
wellplace zoo
what other zoo has a hub cap collection ?
and a phone box full of old boxes so you can't get in ?
or guinea pigs running around the feet of fibre glass mammoths ?
the end of wellplace zoo
we've been going to the funny little place called 'wellplace zoo' for over 10 years i think. certainly before we had kids. and so i was saddened (but probaby not that surprised if i think about it) that it's shutting down in September.
it looks like we're too late to reserve any of the animals, but there's some other stuff going if you're interested. Ever fancied the zoo's giant dinosaurs, or wooden bears.
the thing i'm going to miss most is the fantastic zoo museum with it's curiously crusty mannequins and stuffed animals (nothing is ever wasted). i took a few final shots in case we don't go back before it finishes, so watch out for their photos in the next few weeks
another great zoo sign
here's another zoo sign. this one is great. click it to read the details !
do not feed the animals
andrew sent me this fine zoo signs from South Africa.
cotswold wildlife park
we went for a family outing to the Cotswold Wildlife Park yesterday and it was very good.
i knew it would be good when i saw this sign, which covers so many different categories and includes the word 'poop' ! Expect lots of pictures of animals over the next few days.
guineas on the loose
jane was busy doing a toy sale at preschool yesterday so i took the girls to the various curious Wellplace Zoo.
the place has free-range guinea pigs everywhere. esther counted 32 but i think there may have been some double counting as they kept running down little cut-throughs.
in addition to the guinea pigs and taxidermy (nothing is wasted!) they have a collection of fibre-glass dinosaurs !
this one was holding the no-guinea-grabbing sign
expect lots of photos over the next few weeks (i'll spread them out so we don't have zoo animal overload).
lots of thunder and lightening and rain
i took the day off today so we could go to Marwell Zoo as a family day out. we had a good day despite the 2 massive thunderstorms.
on the first one we sheltered in the giraffe house and the second one we were near the rhinos.
animals in a storm are always interesting. unfortunately it was all a bit too gloomy to get a decent picture. so you can have this one of some chairs instead.
careless
what happened to all these animals :
temporary as in "it died but we'll get a new one" ?
or temporary as in "it got away, but we hope to catch it soon"
i liked this one best. it's like the old "this page deliberately left blank" thing in a printed report.
generic mouselike creature
zzos always have loads of little animals which look a bit like mice but aren't. he's a classic example. no idea what it is.
ugly ponies
the sign said one thing:
but we've all seen the invisble man. we know their heads have actually disappeared
modern zoos
in my day you were lucky with a guidebook. these days you can hire a PDA whilst you wander round the zoo so you look like a business man on his day off.
i was tempted from a technology point of view to hire one, but then i noticed you needed to leave a £300 deposit !!!
a very wet zoo trip
we went to marwell zoo today. it's our favourite local(ish) zoo.
it was chucking it down with rain and very cold, but we decided to do the British thing and go anyway.
here is kez in the car on the way there:
one advantage of going on such a horrible day was that there was hardly anyone else there. this meant all the animals were really excited to see us ! The penguins were in an especially showy-offy mood:
All the giraffes were shelting in their house, so i was able to get some close ups
we all got very wet:
kids love umbrellas:
Here are some more animals:
and here are some wallabies. also known as 'wobbalies' (esther) and 'big mouses' (kezia):
Marwell Zoo is usually excellent for getting great animal shots, but the low light level and the fact most of them were hiding behind glass in their warm beds reduced the quality considerably !