Category: Environment

Categories
Critters Places

Zoo Stories

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The St. Louis Zoo is a favorite place of mine, but the web site for the Zoo doesn’t provide all the back stories to the animals. Or at least, not as many as I would like.

Happily, I spotted a story on the Amur Tiger cubs’ father, Khuntami by Dr. Jeffrey Bonner, in St. Louis Today—the latest in a year long series on the Zoo. I asked the St. Louis Today for links to the other articles, and the site was kind enough to link the others in.

This is a wonderful series, which I now see is also linked more prominently at the Zoo site. What I especially like about the series is that it focuses on the Zoo’s conservation efforts, rather than the “entertainment” items, so many other zoos feature so prominently. For instance, the Amur tiger cubs are winners with the public, true. How could they not be? What’s more important, though, is that the Amur tiger is one of the rarest cats in the world, and these five tiger cubs are especially critical for the program to save this endangered cat. The cubs’ father, Khuntami, was born in the wild, and orphaned as a cub. His genetic contribution to the Amur Tiger breeding program has been invaluable in the desperate attempt to save this beautiful cat.

But yeah, OK, they are cute little buggers.

Amur tiger cub

Categories
Critters

My old girl

Sixteen years ago this charmer came into our life. We don’t know when Zoë was born or how old she really is, so we call this her birthday. She’s probably closer to 17, but I don’t think she looks a day over 15. She wasn’t in the mood for a birthday picture. I had to finally bribe her with a neck scritch, which made taking the photo one-handed a little challenging.

Little girl gets stiff nowadays, and spends a lot of time on her towel wrapped heating pad on my bed, but she plays every day, and can still climb her cat tree in the living room. Not bad for an old girl, I only wish I was in as good a shape.

Zoë's 16

Categories
Connecting Critters

Surviving the times with help from one’s friends

As for the stories on the economy this week…we can survive anything, with a little help from our family and friends.

Grooming session at the zoo

Categories
Critters Photography

Not just butterflies

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

My last trip to the Botanical didn’t just result in some butterfly photos. I was also able to grab some photos of birds, including a rather proud looking goldfinch.

male goldfinch

Our bright fellow wasn’t by himself, though. This female goldfinch, with more subtle coloring, was busy either trying to hack loose a leaf, or sharpening her bill.

female goldfinch

Categories
Critters Photography

First Monarchs

I spotted my first monarchs this week, and managed to get a couple of photos of them and some of their friends at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

Monarch butterfly:

Monarch

Monarch

I was finally able to capture an image of a Cabbage White. Though they are common, they’re difficult to photograph because they move about more than most of the other butterflies. They’re also a very aggressive butterfly, chasing away other types of butterflies and, on a couple of occasions, small birds.

Cabbage White

The following dainty beauty is most likely a male Clouded Sulphur :

Clouded Sulphur

There’s always room for one more Painted Lady photo:

Painted Lady

At first I thought this butterfly was a male Taxiles Skipper, but the Butterflies and Moths of North America guide say that this species has never been spotted in Missouri. Running through all of the Skipper photos, I then found the Fiery Skipper, which is known to be in Missouri. The two are very similar, at least to someone new to butterfly identification.

Taxiles Skipper?