Taexalia

wild.life

Zoo Day

Penguin Sun Worshipping

I think a day at the zoo fits nicely into Leah's totally optional theme for January... Play.

It has to be said that I have mixed feelings about zoos - the idealist in me feels that animals are best seen in their natural habitat. Unfortunately we humans seem to be destroying natural habitats at a rate of knots and zoos are now serving as vital links to saving/trying to save species after species after species.

One likes to hope that zoos also create a connection between urban human and wild creature, fostering an interest in preserving and respecting our wild heritage. Sadly a walk through the monkey house wincing as children bang on the glass, whilst their parents ignore the signs explaining how much this upsets the monkeys, leaves me disappointed that it doesn't work every time.

Hopefully zoos won't become the only place you can see, for instance, a Polar Bear...

Mercedes the Polar Bear

This is Mercedes and she is the only Polar Bear in a UK zoo. I don't need to tell you about the way her natural habitat, and her distant relatives, are disappearing before our blinkered eyes.

We were most impressed to see the Beaver enclosure - "Animals In Quarantine" - as we have been following with interest the campaign to return Beavers to the wild in Scotland. It seems the Beavers we saw today are part of that programme, perhaps even some of the family groups due to be released in Argyll later this year.

Speaking of animal versus human controversies (not everyone can see the benefit Beavers will bring by helping create important wetlands), we visited the Tooth and Claw exhibit in the Budongo Centre and found some of the photography stunning (in a good way) and some of the comments stunning (in a bad way)... according to one human disconnect it seems foxes should simply be eradicated. I don't get it. There was also a section on Pine Martens and the conflict growing as they successfully re-populate areas whilst also being a predator of the troubled Red Squirrel.

Frankly, given the latest news from Fetternear Estate (more on that in an upcoming post), it is not the Pine Martens who are the worst threat to Red Squirrels, it is rich land-owners intent on habitat destruction for houses. But the Pine Martens make an easy target, don't they.

Getting back to the subject of Play ~ one of the treats of the day happened in the monkey house (after the brats and their glass banging children departed)... The Diana Monkeys put on an hilarious show as they chased each other, indulged in some play fighting and chased a piece of tube around in the straw. One of them even pulled it's buddy across the floor by the tail. I was more interested in watching (or perhaps joining in!) than fiddling with my camera - today was not the day to figure out how to get my camera to deal with low light and fast movement (I never use a flash in zoos or aquariums and frankly despise folk who do)... but I got this zippy shot of one of the monkeys mid jaunt:

Superfast Diana Monkey