The last few times, the cheetah has been a no-show, but with the cooler weather, the two of them were pretty active on my last visit, on the winter solstice. Got plenty of shots of them, only two of which I am posting here.
As I think I have noted several times, the Living Desert is a relatively "small" zoo, but there are several relatively expansive animal exhibit areas that provide the opportunity for natural-appearing photos. I love it, here.
I suspect the sand cat was a relatively new arrival. He seemed pretty unhappy, and walked continuously while we were there. Hopefully, he'll acllimatize, quickly. Most of my shots were a blur as he moved past, and it's hard to focus thorugh the glass or chainlink. But I did manage a few shots I'm happy with.
Meanwhile, the cougars, who I have seen on each of my visits this year, have been sleeping on their little ledge every time I've come. That's the opposite extreme of the continual pacing of new arrivals.
Their exhibit is a few to the left of the bobcat habitat, so my photos are out of order.
One dramatic-looking bird, which was in an outside exhibit area. Can't remember for sure if I came across him before or after the sand cat, but he was somewhere between the cheetah and "Eagle Mountain," where the North American species are shown.
Then, many pictures of bobcat. I'm pretty sure they are all of Joann. David is the male bobcat, and greyer, but less often posing for me.
Joann, meanwhile, was on the rocks, standing or sitting, and making her way in the tree, which she's been playing in since she was a wee little kitten. She's redder on the back, and has a red tuff on her chest, so all three of the shots I posted here have that coloration, which is why I think all three shots are of her.
The two have grown a great deal; I suspect they're about full-grown size, by now. They arrived back in April, so about nine months old, now. David is substantially larger than Joann, and has been since they were tiny.
They are not quite as constantly in motion as before, but they do still spend a lot of their days trying to ambush each other, and running around the enclosure. I can't help but laugh out repeatedly as they dash about. Makes me think we'd all be happier if we could just sit around and watch them for good chunks of each day.
Immediately to the right of the bobcat habitat is a smaller habitat for the tiny Channel Island Fox. That's him, on the rock. He's about the weight of a small house cat.
I saw but did not photograph a Channel Island fox on a past birthday hike on Santa Catalina Island (back when they had free trips to Santa Catalina on your birthday), and got plenty of shots of one or more on my hike on Santa Cruz Island. They're as cute in the wild as they are in captivity.
Immediately to the right of the Channel Island fox exhibit is the kit fox exhibit. He's slightly larger, lighter in color, and with bigger ears than his Channel Island relative. Channel Island fox are decendents of grey foxes (explaining their coloration), but after getting isolated on the various Channel Island, became smaller, to more successfully survive on the small islands.
By contrast, the kit fox lives in deserts, and are also smaller than their grey fox relatives, but, as noted, larger than a Channel Island fox.
Right after leaving the indoor-outdoor exhibits of Eagle Mountain is an aviary, which I have also visited before. Just walked through this time. Took a shot of the great egret, who was sitting near the "stream."
We actually started our day on the other side of the park. It was "World Giraffe Day," honoring the longest-necked creatures on the shortest day of the year.
They let us wander into the exhibit area (before the giraffe were released into the area). Various experts were there to talk about giraffe. I discovered giraffe like leaves, normall things like acacia or willows, or palo verde. Their tongue and saliva cover the thorns, and they pull off the leaves to eat.
I also saw giraffe poop, up close. :D
One of the people we talked to was a "trainer," by which they mean they get the giraffe (and other animals) to learn behaviors that help them receive care. They use a tennis-ball tipped stick to keep their attention, and first get them to poke their nose on it for food, then use the tennis ball to lead the animals where they need to go, then learn behaviors that allows for caring for their feet, drawing blood, doing ultrasounds, etc.
They needed to do the ultrasound-thing recently prior to the birth of several giraffe babies. They're still "babies," but not small by any means.
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