Hawaii Picspam! Part three: Urban Birds

Of the dozen or so urban birds I've encountered in Honolulu, I'm most taken with this one, the zebra dove Geopelia striata. It's as tame as a rock pigeon, but smaller than a robin. They are very attractive, and show a lot of interesting social behavior. They were introduced to Hawaii from Asia in 1922, and are now common throughout the islands.( Read more... )

Honolulu Zoo, part one

These white-handed gibbons are engaged in some grooming.( Read more... )

3:00 snapshot, #156.

We can see the famous "Pink Palace" from our hotel. This snapshot is a bit of an anticlimax, but we went back to the hotel between 3 hours at the zoo and 2 1/2 hours in the ocean. :)

Best moment of the day: tossup between seeing a Komodo dragon, and realizing that squeals of delight as the ocean tosses you around are universal.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Moon jelly. These must be conspicuous down by the Fort Point Channel lately, as two friends emailed me asking about them.

Honolulu Zoo, part two: the tax deductable pictures

When I visit a zoo I take pictures of details that interest me as someone who works in the field. Every zoo does things a little differently, and there's always something to learn.


This is the white-handed gibbon exhibit. It's an island with a big climbing structure made of pipe painted to look like bamboo, firehose, and a real tree. The feature most interesting to me is the children's step, painted yellow to make it visible. At Drumlin one of the common complaints is that the children can't see over the barrier fences.

( And now some behavior-directing signage, none of which actually contains the word 'pie hole' )

Honolulu Zoo, part three: behind the scenes.

I was watching a keeper at her job and asked her a dumb question, but one that showed that I was in the business. (I actually wanted to know the answer to the question: "Are you removing toxic plants, or cutting browse?" I wasn't just trying to show that I was cool guy who knows zoo jargon.) She explained what she was doing (cutting browse--though I never learned what the climbing ground cover she was cutting actually was) and asked if I worked in the field. Quite unexpectedly, Becky--a herp keeper--offered to give my dad and I a tour behind the scenes in the reptile area! Here's what we saw:


A Suriname toad, a bizarre looking amphibian with an even more bizarre form of reproduction. I'll let you google it--it gives some people the creeps just imagining it.( but wait, there's more! )