3:00 snapshot #1135

Christopher, the African lion, on his heat rock perch at the top of the zoo.


Zoo visitors are sometimes disappointed by seeing animals sleeping on exhibit. Chris is almost 20 years old, what do you expect a 20 year old cat to do most of the day?

You can't expect him to do this all the time:

(not my video, obv)

100 More species #71: Tiger crane fly

Tiger crane fly Nephrotoma ferruginea

As a light snow falls gently outside, we can revisit a warm day in May when I photographed these crane flies mating on a leaf. An expert at bugguide.net identified the flies to genus and another went ahead and identified the species. (That second link includes some very cool pictures, including some of this species of crane fly being preyed upon by smaller predators such as Phiddipus audax.) Tiger crane flies are large, common, and harmless animals that in New England occur in the spring and summer. They spend most of their lives as beneficial detritus-feeding larvae that live in, and contribute to, the soil. Despite tripping the switch in our brains that makes us think of mosquitoes, tiger crane flies are not closely related to them, and they do not behave like nor feed on mosquitoes.

They follow you wherever you are in the room

These six demon faces are actually the hind ends of six different crane fly larvae. Chen Young is the new Hieronymus Bosch.

Daily Zoo Animal #32: Amur leopard

Ussuri, a male Amur leopard Panthera pardus orientalis, in the Children's Zoo at Franklin Park Zoo.

The Amur leopard is the most endangered subspecies of big cat in the world. Fewer than thirty survive in their native range in the eastern boreal forests on the border of China and Russia. According to Zookeeper's Journal, 169 additional Amur leopards live in captivity around the world. Unlike leopards in Africa and India, Amur leopards are adapted to cold and snowy conditions. They live alongside Amur (or "Siberian") tigers, the largest cat subspecies; the presence of the tigers does not negatively impact the leopards, and conservation efforts are geared toward protecting both cat species and their habitats.

Ussuri appeared in this journal earlier here.