Frogs, takinis and snow leopards
As noted in yesterday’s macro-photography posting, spent a couple of hours today in Korkeasaari, the Helsinki Zoo.
The weather was pleasant - cloudy but warm, but not warm enough to cause the animals to go lethargic.
Which was good, since I aimed to take plenty of photos on the island.
Exercised the telezoom mostly, and used the macro lens only in the couple of buildings housing terrariums.
On my previous trip two years ago the tigers and leopards were the stars of the show, both growling in their enclosures while walking around lean and hungry. This time they both were extremely sluggish, both of them confined to just lying around in the rear regions. Fortunately the lesser cats put up a good show instead. Korkeasaari is famous for its program that’s provided lots of snow leopards for other zoos, and the himalayan cats were quite active - walking and pouncing in the cliffs of their large cage. Lynx is another cat that’s usually well-hidden, happened upon a trio of them in plain sight.
The other highlight of the visit was the selection of frogs in the Amazonia-house. This year being dedicated to amphibians, it was nice to see multiple species up close and personal. While the south american poison arrow frogs can’t be beaten in their color scheme, I was quite impressed by the camouflagy abilities of the vietnamese moss frog.
Didn’t spot any major new arrivals amongst the animals, apart from an eurasian hobby falcon (that’s nuolihaukka in finnish) that was being nursed to health. The body of the bird was surprisingly small, and it seemed to be not thoroughly enjoying its confinement.
All in all snapped more than a hundred photos, which will be flickred in due course, this post has just a skimming off the top of the animals mentioned - there was plenty more available: including a very playful otter for the lutraphobic, an icecream-eating squirrel and a kangaroo in quite an inappropriate pose.
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