Leaving this area, the ramp up to the pedestrian bridge across Anthony Wayne Trail (a large and busy road) to the rest of the zoo wraps around this enclosure with bald eagles.
It was amazing to see eagles, living their eaglish lives, in Alaska. It is also amazing to see them up close and personal as one can only do when they are in captivity. The two eagles in the Toledo Zoo both are unable to live in the wild due to injuries suffered earlier, so they are ambassadors to humanity.
(Between putting the camera right up to the fence, and the zoom, no apparent barrier, hooray!)
Cheetahs are pickier than other big cats about reproduction. They require space and privacy. The Toledo Zoo has been successful at breeding them, so you know that they are well kept.
Like the polar bears, they have big feet.......
Encouraging the kitties to spend time where the gawking hairless monkeys can see them..... What else, a heat lamp.
Having no heat lamp ourselves, we decided to walk through the aquarium to warm up a little.
Here is something else the zoo has been successful at breeding. These are leopoldi stingrays (found in the wild only in the Xingu River in Brazil).
This little guy was keeping his burrow clear by spitting mouthfuls of gravel over the rocks/shells you see behind his left "shoulder".....
Love the colors.......
Taking pics in an aquarium is really hard. (You remember those bad pics of seals when we just got to the zoo!) The light is low, the plexi is thick (and throws lots of unwanted reflections), the critters move. The light is funny, too, much of the time. Verrrrrrry blue. In addition to all that, the camera really likes a nice sharp line to focus on. Wet stuff is harder..........
These guys had better light than usual, and they were reasonably still.
From the sublime to the ridiculous -- this has to be one of the uglier creatures on the planet........
The aquarium houses some air-breathers.
It's interesting to me that when I'm taking pics, some part of my brain disengages and I don't think to take pics of the signage unless I really concentrate on it.
Um. River turtle of some sort, with snorkel nose. This guy is about 10" long.
This one I recognize with no caption. Snapping turtle. This one's shell is about two feet long. We have snapping turtles in Michigan. Golfers see one, sometimes, as they may live in the water hazards on golf courses. I've never seen one in the wild, and the ones around here do not grow this big. These "aligator snapping turtles" live in the southern USA, amongst other places.
I thought the camera might do ok with the lionfish, as they are boldly striped and weren't moving very fast. But no.
It's kind of a cool pic, though, I think, as it shows the motion of its fins.
These were big. About a foot long, I think.
Clearer, but more boring...... And I think the color is less true.
Even clearer, and yet more boring. Ah well.
Now *this* is typical of my aquarium pics. Nice colors, at least........
I don't remember this tank of jellies from our previous visits. The water circulated, well, in a circle, and these guys floated round and round. They were relatively big -- 4-5".
This was my only clear shot.......
Couldn't you watch them all day? Like clouds, or the shadows under a tree on a sunny day?
(wondering why, when a sharp still photo was so hard to come by, the video is sharp......)
Clownfish, in anemone.
Deep water Japanese anemone; no fish.
These are huge. "Wing"span of 4-5'. But they are mere infants of their kind; the info said big ones are 12'....... Wondering what they eat............... I saw teeny tiny claws -- less than half an inch for the business part -- in front of the face of the second one. Busily grabbing I don't know what (or randomly pinching the water, I suppose), but I didn't see any "putting what was grabbed into a mouth"......
Aren't they cool, in a weird and "thank goodness they live at the bottom of the ocean" sort of way?
Do appreciate the shadows........
.
2 comments:
That jelly fish video was so cool. They looked alien like.... but at the same time it was so tranquil to watch.:)
Thanks. I feel the same way, so tranquil.....
I think they are very hard to keep -- providing the right sort of very tiny live stuff for them to eat means you have to raise that stuff, too, I think, but very nice to watch.
Round and round and round.........
:-)
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