Elephant Reflections

Tests have shown elephants to exhibit mirror self-recognition.
I can’t claim that these photos confirm it, as the elephants weren’t so close to the water as to actually look down at their own reflections…

But my camera caught them!  

Elephants are also among the species known to use tools.

I’m not sure what this one was trying to do with this tree, though… Just some trunk-to-trunk stretching exercises, perhaps…?

The elephant’s trunk, containing over 40,000 muscles, is undeniably a rather handy tool in itself - used for breathing, smelling, touching, grasping, and producing sound, all-in-one.

Sharing with Weekend Reflections 

Sunny Day at the Zoo

Today was a wonderful sunny late summer / early autumn day. Wanting to spend the afternoon outdoors, I decided after lunch to make use one more time of the season pass to the zoo that I bought back in June. This was actually my 4th visit this summer – a personal record, I think! (I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to the zoo more than twice in one year before.)

Each time I’ve had my camera with me, of course – so by now I have lots of zoo pictures.

In this post, I’m choosing a selection from today to confirm that the animals too seemed to be really enjoying the sun:

Bongo antelope

Seal

Bear

Lion

Tiger (yes, they like to swim!)

Cheetah

Elephant

Giraffe

Linking to:
Through My Lens

 

 

Reflections in Pink

Flamingoes at the zoo. The kind we have at our zoo here in Borås is the African Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus. From the zoo’s website I learn that flamingoes get rather old compared to most birds – while in the wild it is common for them to live at least 30 years, in a zoo they can live to be 80. The oldest one at our zoo is over 40 years old. The grey one I understand to be a young one, though - not yet having attained the pink colour.

…

Weekend Reflections 

Pink Saturday

Weekend Reflections: Bear Hugs

Some more photos from the zoo, from my visit last week.

The bears are always good fun to watch, especially at snack-and-swim time…

▲ Growl & hug ▼

Friends again!

Kids! Always such a drama…

Weekend Reflections

Good Fences – Lynx

Yesterday I had a kind of weird start to my day: In spite of sunny weather setting in (after weeks of mostly rainy), I slept so late that breakfast became more like brunch! … After which I thought I had better do something more memorable with what remained of the day; so I decided to go to the zoo again (making use of the season pass I bought on my first visit earlier in the summer).

This time, I made a new acquaintance: The lynx. They’re usually hard to catch sight of, even in our zoo, as they have  been allotted rather a large piece of woodland to hide in.

However, this time I happened to arrive at feeding time, when a member of staff was throwing meat over the fence for them.

One rather big piece landed up in a tree, and – humans watching or not – that was obviously just too tempting to resist.

I must be able…

… to get that down somehow …

Gotcha!!!

And now off to enjoy the prey somewhere more private, out of sight from all these people…

The Eurasian lynx is the third largest predator in Europe after the brown bear and the grey wolf. It is a strict carnivore, consuming about one or two kilograms of meat every day. --- The lynx hunts by stalking and jumping its prey, helped by the rugged, forested country in which it resides. A favorite prey for the lynx in its woodland habitat is roe deer. It will feed however on whatever animal appears easiest --- [Wikipedia]

 

Good Fences

Thursday – Good Fences

From my visit to the zoo back in June.
Swedish Gotland pony foal (above) – and his mummy (below).

Gotland pony or Gotland russ is an old Swedish pony breed. Gotland ponies are claimed to descend from Tarpans that lived on the small island of Gotland that is on the South-Eastern coast of Sweden right after the last ice age. The Gotland pony is the only breed of pony native to Sweden.
(Source: Wikipedia. Click on the link to read the full article.)

For Good Fences

Far Out – Among Bears and Wolves

Friday My Town this week asks us to share “favourite remote places around your town”. Well, not having a car, I very rarely get around to the really remote places… But one of my pretend remote places is the zoo.

In yesterday’s post I showed some photos from the ‘African savannah’. At the opposite end of the zoo, in more typical Swedish nature, we find some of the big animals from our own fauna. I was in luck and happened to be visiting at feeding time for the wolves and the bears.

The bears waiting expectantly in the back enclosure while staff are spreading snacks for them to find around the outer areas.

In the wild, in summer, our Swedish bears like to eat blueberries. However, when there are no blueberries, they don’t say no to an imported melon instead…

‘'

Daddy Bear also enjoys a swim before his snack.

‘'

Shakin’ it off…

Joining the rest of the family to see if there’s any more food left.

 

The wolves are rather more shy, and really prefer to eat when there aren’t so many humans watching… So they were rather hesitant to come out of the wood to fetch their snack.

Here is one

And there’s the prey, down by the river…

I really want it…

No, I daren’t…

Well, if you don’t want it, there are others who do!
(Who’s afraid of a cowardly wolf?!)

Hey! What’s that thieving magpie up to…

That’s MY meat…

Ha! Got it! 

 

Friday My Town – Far Out