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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Trip to the Zoo: Camera-Critters #56

A couple weeks ago I enjoyed a few days off with the family in celebration of spring break. My wife is a school teacher so spring break is always a big deal around my house. One of the days was spent at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk, VA. I always looked forward to going to the zoo when I was a kid, and now that I'm grown nothing has changed in that regard.

The Virginia Zoo is home to 350 animals, on 50 plus acres of beautifully landscaped grounds that borders the Lafayette River. Here are a few of the animals that we saw...

A new addition to the zoo was this red panda. Red pandas live in bamboo forests of Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces in China, the Himalayas and in Myanmar. Red pandas are endangered, with fewer than 2,500 adult red pandas in the wild.

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The giraffes were our favorite animals at the zoo. There were three of them there. Giraffes are the tallest land mammals.

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Here is one of three African elephants at the zoo (South African Bush Elephant). Elephants are the world’s largest living land mammals.

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Here we have a cool looking little Meerkat.

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A sleeping African lion...

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I'm not sure what kind of monkeys these are, but aren't they cute? At first I thought they were little stuffed animals until they moved. They were about the size of a kitten.

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These little Squirrel Monkeys were fun to watch. They very seldom sat still. It was like they were putting on a show for us.

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This is a very cool looking bird called the 'Grey Crowned Crane'. They are native to Africa.

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A nearby Canada goose (not part of the exhibit) was setting on her eggs near the pond. We saw a couple nest in the park.

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I hope you enjoyed this brief zoo tour. For more critters check out the Camera Critters website over at http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/.

...and if your interested, the zoo has several web cams set up throughout the park so you can watch many of the animals online. Here is the site: http://www.virginiazoo.org/our-animals/animal-cams.asp

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

16 comments:

Adrienne Zwart said...

Thought I'd check to see if any of my other blogging friends had new posts up yet (since CC hasn't updated for today). These are some great shots! I just love the variety of animals at the zoo. I particularly like the shot of the grey crowned crane. What a pretty crest he has!

Alan Pulley said...

Hey Adrienne; yep I'm still waiting for CC to update...figured I would just go ahead and post mine...

Snap said...

Wonderful shots! I do love the zoo. I have Toby, the Red Panda up today! I'm waiting for CC, too.

Norm said...

hope i can visit the zoo this month also, all series of your photos are beautiful..

Julie said...

Beautiful photos! I love the red panda and the meerkat.

kayleen said...

Thanks for taking us along to the zoo! Great series of photos. Love the crane and his crest.

Nebraska Birding

April Lorier said...

how cool! I got a trip to the zoo in my jamies! :-}
All of the creatures are wonderful, but I fell in love with the giraffe. There's always been something about the funny face on the giraffe that makes me laugh.
Of course, the crowned crane is 'just divine, dahling' and looks like she would fit in at any Hollywood bash!
VERY good job, Alan! Thank you.

Unknown said...

Wonderful shots !!

Love the one of the red panda. I never knew they existed, until I saw one on another blog, earlier today.

Larry Jordan said...

Great captures Alan! I enjoyed the Meerkat immensely but for me, the Gray-crowned Crane takes the prize.

DrowseyMonkey-Photos said...

oh wow -great photos!

Les said...

Before my wife (also a school teacher) and I got married and made things legal, we lived just a block or so from the zoo. It was great when the windows of the apt. were open and you could hear the call of the jungle in the wee hours.

Kelly said...

Nice photos!!! It's always nice getting out as a family. My son, now 13, loved our zoo visits so much, he now is going to volunteer for the summer (and wants to be a zoo vet).

Jane Hards Photography said...

Can you believe we have red panda in the wildlife park here. Gorgeous montage.

Carol said...

The two little black monkeys are adorable.

www.wildlifearoundus.blogspot.com

Vickie said...

Great images! You must have had a blast taking them.

On On said...

wow tooooooooo cute!!! I would like to take a look of the pandas too!

I love Panda... and just bought a Panda Bag from the following Blogshop:
panda.cwahi.net

Nice to meet you.