tcastleb

Okay, it's been a while. Zoo's been crowded 'cause of spring break and I was out of town last week, sooo . . .

Went today with a friend from work and his friend and walked around almost the whole zoo.



And it's starting to be baby season. Meet the newest giraffe, only two weeks old.



And here's a young yellow-backed duiker.



And two baby sun bears (up in the tree limbs on the left) which are only the third and fourth sun bears ever to be born in captivity. SD Zoo had #2, also.



And just 'cause this Cuban iguana is one of my favorites to photograph:



But the pic of the day lies beneath the cut.

( Cut for the squeamish; snake eating dinner. )

Hightlights of the day included seeing the flamingos get fed. Okay, well, not terribly exciting, just funny watching the flock follow the keeper around the pen. And listening to two very knowledgeable keepers in the bug house talking about how this one bird-eating tarantula doesn't actually eat birds (it got its name because the guy who named it saw it with a bird, but it's too heavy to actually go after them on purpose) and has dangerous hairs; if you get one in your eye, it'll be swollen shut for two weeks. If you get some in your nose and throat--bad news, dude. And they have five layers of mesh in the cage to protect the keepers from it. I kept trying to think of a nifty SF story or something to use that in.

Anyway. On to slightly less dangerous critters. These are, um, African short-nosed crocs, I think.



( lizards and snakes and pythons, oh my! )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Twelve handsome oryx/gemsbok,



(Went to the Wild Animal Park" tonight and got to ride the tour bus at night and see the critters. Got to see a few gemsbok right up next to the fence, including a year-old juvenile who was very cute. This pic is from earlier this year though.)

( Eleven )

And thus concludes the 2008 12 days of zoopics. Thanks for stopping by and enjoying them, and I will now return you to your normal, non-whacked out weekly zoo pics. (Unless I manage to get my hands on a copy of photoshop; then all bets are off. Bwa ha ha ha ha.)

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Ten nifty beetles,



(I love bugs. Y'all should know that by now. These were taken at the National Zoo, and are part of a, um, mosaic of sorts making up a very big beetle.)

( Nine )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Eight sable antelope,



( Seven )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Six creepy turtles:



( Fiiiiiiiive )

. . .my zoo love gave to me:

Fiiiiiiiive of birdhousefrog's Chickens!



(Or, at least, their eggs. Mmm. French toast with freshly laid eggs. Yummy! Okay, yeah, so I know these aren't zoo animals, but since I live in a concrete jungle they're exotic to me so you get chickens today.)

( Four )

. . .my zoo love gave to me:

Three tiger cubs:



(Yeah, yeah, I know you just saw them, but they're cute enough to use again. And if you follow the link above, it goes to the San Diego Zoo blog on the tigers and there's a YouTube interview with a keeper about the cubs. It's fun.)

( Two )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

A guanaco looking at me!



(and of course these all come with the caveat that I majorly tweaked the pics because I could.)

Just posted this on helpvera:

For sale, one custom-made calendar, poster, mug, mousepad, whatever, with photos I've taken. I'm not a pro, but I do have a DSLR camera that gets some great shots. All my pics are up on my Flickr account and you can choose whichever pics you like.

I live in San Diego, which has lots of scenic places, like the San Diego Zoo: (links go to specific sets.)



Balboa Park:



The ocean (this is Coronado island):



and Sea World:



Products will be made using Quoop, which is associated with Flickr. Item chosen needs to be $18.99 or less (sorry, that's all I can afford right now, UPS ground shipping in addition is $8.95) which gets up to an 18"x24" poster. There's also mugs and prints and books and things; basically, you can pick what you want/need and I'll work with you to make something nifty.

Also, if there's something in San Diego you want a pic of, like, a certain animal, since I have a membership to the Zoo & Wild Animal Park, or more architecture or whatever, I'll do my best to get it for you. I don't have photoshop, so I can only do minimum tweaking to any pics chosen. Any questions, feel free to e-mail me at traci (at) orossy (dot) com. And if you get outbid but would still like something, let me know and I'd be happy to make something as long as the retail price and shipping are covered.

Bidding starts at $25 (Which is retail for the calendar plus shipping.)