The Urban Pantheist

HEY THERE A.L. THANKS FOR YOUR DONATION HERE'S THE GIRAFFE FEEDING POST!

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Sometimes I wish I was a monomaniac, obsessed with only one thing. Sometimes you have to pretend to be a monomaniac for the sake of a project. It would be cool to post only pictures of red-tailed hawks wherever I found them, challenging myself to make every photo interesting in some way. I'm happy to photograph them whenever I find them, and integrate them into my blog as it is.

I received a donation for AAZK with this note: "I am fond of elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and hippos." Who isn't? Our giraffes are a big hit with our guests, impressive beasts that they are. They are our largest animals at the zoos, with only the Bactrian camels coming close to the same size. Unfortunately, we don't have a winter exhibit for them, and they are very sensitive to cold temperatures. Fortunately, I do have cause to go into the giraffe barn every now and then! Here's Jana, our female Masai giraffe.



Isn't she pretty?

But what about the hippo? In our Tropical Forest exhibit, we have a pygmy hippo. Her name is Cleopatra, and she is about the size of an adult pig. The more familiar Nile hippo is a much larger creature--we don't have any of those. Pygmy hippos are from the dense rain forests of Liberia in West Africa where they do most of their feeding at night, on land. Cleo is exhibited with a pair of Rüppell's Griffin Vultures, beautiful carrion birds that hold the record for highest recorded altitude of any bird.
( See Cleo back here )

Thanks for your donation, Amanda! I'll be sending the stickers later on.

If you have a request for a zoo animal you would like me to photograph, simply click the button and donate $5.00 to the New England Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers! Thanks!

Still to come: Lemurs using their hammock.

Masai Giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi

Giraffes are among the most bizarre of all mammals and the most familiar of all zoo animals. They are the tallest mammals (male Masai giraffes can be 18 feet tall) with extremely long legs and grotesquely long necks, adaptations for feeding at treetops. Their long black tongues grasp twigs, stripping acacia leaves from their thorny branches. Whole branches can be torn off and the giraffe's powerful molars can grind the acacia thorns up. Like most large mammals, giraffes are generally diminishing in population, though they suffer less from competition with domestic animals than some other African wildlife. This may be because domestic livestock forages on much lower growing plants.

This individual is Jana, "the most genetically valuable female Masai giraffe in North America." Currently, the giraffe barn is being renovated, and it is always possible for the Jana and her mate Beau to be on exhibit. When they are out, they are with the Grevy's Zebras, at Franklin Park Zoo.

On this day in 365 urban species: Great golden digger wasp. This post has a number of anonymous comments from people (apparently alarmed to find a big orange wasp in their yard) who found their way there via Google searches.