Minnesota Zoo - Cuttlefish, Macaques, Otters

[guppiecat]

More from the recent Minnesota Zoo set.




Cuttlefish (Sepiida) - Not so much an Elder god as a very very young one.


Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata) - "What the heck did they put in here now?"


Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata) - "Shhh, he has no idea what's coming."


Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata) - Running to individual mommies in 3... 2... 1...


Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata) - Airplanes are overrated.


Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata) - Jujutsu practice.


Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata) - Step 1, up the tree. Step 2, over the wall. Step 3, take over stock market... humans are making a mess of things.


Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) - Before they go home at night, the zookeepers have to remember to turn off the sprinkler otters. (Better viewed large.)


Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) - Otter art from the 70s looks interesting, but makes no sense out of context.


Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) - "I has a abalone, (clap clap clap), I eats my abalone, (clap clap clap)..."


Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) - "o/~ My abalone has a first name, it's H A L I O T I S! My abalone has a second name, it's R U F E S C E N S! o/~"

Comments

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Love the sprinkler otter! I also appreciate the macaques--when I lived in Japan, you used to be able to see wild monkeys when you went hiking. But some places they were quite...used to being fed by humans, willy-nilly. (If you had a picnic, you need to make very sure you guarded your food.)

I particularly like the "airplanes are overrated" photo where the monkey is just hanging there. Nice!

Btw, I asked a friend of mine about the Otter Duet photo, just pointed him to the photo and asked him what he saw in it, and he said exactly the same thing--otters singing a duet. So I'm probably not mentally ill.

[guppiecat]

Huh, it never crossed my mind that Japan would have random monkeys scattered about. They probably get into the cities and raid the garbage cans like raccoons do here, don't they?

I'm much amused.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I never saw any monkeys in the cities; perhaps because the population is so dense? So I don't think they are like raccoons in that way.

They weren't a real problem when I went hiking, it was just that, being from Michigan, I'm not used to monkeys that aren't in cages.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Nicely snapped!

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Awesome action shots of the macaques. (My silly brain wants to morph their scientific name, Macaca fuscata, into Hakuna matata.) The Zoo has quite a crowd of young'uns. They're wonderfully entertaining, aren't they?

[guppiecat]

Yeah. I've been going to the MN Zoo for about three years now, and every year there is a new baby. This time was the first that all of them were old enough to play together.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

My cuttlefish were not successful.

I love the young macaque dropping, and there are some nice sea otters.

I was back yesterday testing a 1.7x teleconverter on my 70-200, there should be some more macaques and a camel and some prairie dogs (and a Norska who somehow got in there with them).

[guppiecat]

Where do you post your photos? Is there an RSS feed I should be following?

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I've got a "real photos" page and a "snapshots" page, and I sometimes but not always post about them on my blog, and my blog is syndicated on LJ as ddb_net. There's a direct RSS from the blog, and there's a new snapshots RSS (bottom of the page), but no new "real photos" RSS.

Sometimes I think this scheme is more complicated than is strictly ideal.

[guppiecat]

OK, I've subscribed to the subscribables. I guess I missed them the first time around. Sorry. I'm looking at the photos now.

[trishtrash.livejournal.com]

The fourth macaque picture is exquisite in contrast, colour and... some sort of metaphory thing about youth and safety nets that I'm too tired to articulate.

Is that a fertility totem in the macaque compound? Apparently Minnesota zoo is in need of funds for their special breeding programmes.

[guppiecat]

I think it was supposed to be a teapot. The macaques seem to breed fairly easily. Th zoo would focus the fertilities totems on the Red Pandas or the Siberian Tigers, methinks.

[trishtrash.livejournal.com]

I think it was supposed to be a teapot

I laughed hard at this, and then realised you were probably right. It makes slightly more sense as a fertility symbol, but hey, I'm all for surrealism in zoo environments. Playing with rubber tires must get old.

I would love to see a photo of a Siberian Tiger with a teapot; he would be all 'I am NOT Indian, fools'.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Okay, your otter pictures kick the ass of my otter pictures. I'm going to blame the lighting conditions (and not-ideal camera). ;)

[guppiecat]

I actually went back when I saw the sun was at the right angle to hit that part of the enclosure. It was at the cost of some bear photos, but them's the breaks.