Monday, April 16, 2012

Zoo Cuties

Here are more of my favorite shots from our day trip to the Virginia Zoo. I made sure to bookend it with the two cutest types of animals there, too, so don't miss the end:



Did you know some people have Fennec foxes as pets? And they can get along with house cats? Just sayin'. (JOHN.)


(I used to think meerkats were cute, until I looked at this one after looking at those Fennec foxes. Now, not so much.)

Apparently this zoo is also home to a rare two-headed kangaroo:

:D

And speaking of accidentally funny photo perspectives:

CHOMP.



Boo'tiful PLUMAGE.


Here's my personal zoo crew, hamming it up for the camera:

That's my folks on the right, and my grandmother in the chair. John is the one who suggested they all point and laugh, and then failed to realize no one else was doing it.

We chased this butterfly for several minutes, waiting for it to land. When it did, it only stopped for less than a second, so I'm *amazed* this shot turned out.


Now I'm going to show you something pretty, and then I'm going to show you some nightmare fuel. Ready?

Ok, here's the prettiness:

Fix this image in your mind.


And now....


NIGHTMARE FUEL:



[Pyscho shower music]


(That's his inner eyelid; his actual eye is red - but still manages to look less evil than this.)


This guy was hanging out near an observation window, waving at people:

The sun was directly behind us, but I did my best with the reflection on the glass:


And now: big kitties!!



Those shots were all taken through glass, too; I just managed to block the glare with my own reflection.

I saved the best for last, though, so hang on to your socks, cute fans.

After hanging out in front of the red panda habitat for ages looking for the elusive little fella, we finally spotted him directly over our heads, fast asleep in a tree branch that stretched across the path:

At this point I made everyone stand around with me for nearly 20 minutes while I camped out underneath him, waiting for him to wake up.

Eventually, he did. Sort of. Just enough to yawn and reposition, which gave me this:

OMIGOSH LOOK AT THAT LITTLE TONGUE.

And, finally, if you think you can stand it, check out the cutest picture I have ever taken in my whole entire life:
SQUEEEEE....!!

[falling out of chair]

[collapsing from cuteness]

58 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness - GREAT shots, Jen!

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  2. Yes, the Red Pandas are always my favorite whenever I go to the zoo. :)

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  3. The Fennec foxes are adorable. :D I still love meerkats, though - they always seem to have the Hahnii subspecies at zoos, which confuses me slightly. They're still cute.

    That crowned crane is spectacular! His head looks like a fireworks explosion.

    And the emu IS vaguely alarming. Of course, he would be less frightening if his milky lens slipped round the back. . .

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  4. Our little local zoo has a family of red pandas - the baby just got named. SO cute. Some pics here: http://stuffgrowing.blogspot.com/2011/11/very-roanoke-afternoon.html

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  5. It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!
    LOVE those pictures, thanks Jen!!

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  6. That red panda is adorable! I used to work at Dixie Stampede taking care of the animals and the ostriches were the freakiest things ever. They'd watch you turn the horses out in the field next to their pen and wait until you had to hang the halters up on their fence, and then they'd strike at you and try to kick you through the fence. I was afraid of ostriches (and emus) before I worked there, and I'm terrified now! LOL

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  7. Too. Cute. Makes me want to go out and snap up some adorable pics myself!

    -Barb the French Bean

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  8. I fell off my chair from the cuteness too... squee... Pandas are my favourite, though I'm more partial to the giant pandas. I've only seen them in person twice, but they will be coming to my local zoo in Canada in 2018, so I will get to see them again someday :) Thanks for the awsome shots. What kind of camera do you use again?

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  9. Aw, I loved the red pandas too when I went to the Bronx zoo:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/alucier/4637640408/in/set-72157624130394614

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/alucier/4637640912/in/set-72157624130394614

    I think one of them was named Walter!

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  10. AWWW! I want a fox - but I'm sure my Jack Russell would hate it. Great shots! You are making me want a new camera!

    On a completely different note - have you seen this Downton Abbey spoof
    ?? LOL! (I wish you didn't have to watch an ad first, but it is so worth it!)

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  11. Did know the giraffe looked like it was eating the ostrich when you took the pic or did you notice it later? That pic made me giggle!

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  12. I really really love red pandas, but as foxes are my favorite animals, I'm gonna give the fennecs my vote of cute! I've watched a lot of videos on YouTube of people's pet fennecs....those things are hyper to the power of ten!!! It's funny about the meerkat....I love meerkats too, but they can't hold up to close cute scrutiny alongside a fennec fox!

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  13. That last one is pretty darn cute! :D

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  14. Sqquuueeeeeeee! *faints*


    I actually got to hold and snuggle a fennec fox once. We were hanging out in our friends' club and it was a pretty quiet night. This girl who has one and took it with her everywhere brought it in and let it loose. Frankly the poor thing was freaked out. I managed to coax it to me and SNUGGLED IT SO HARD. I never wanted to give it back. It's just as soft and fluffy and ADORBZ as you think. *sniffle*

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  15. i love the cutesy aminals! *squee* The giraffe noming the ostrich is hilarious as well.

    *hrmph!* Meerkats are still cute! Even compared to Fennec Foxes who I now think I need to own if they really do get along with cats.

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  16. Oh, awesome photos! Foxes are adorable and you're right--that panda is the be all, end all of cute.

    I hope there was no levitating grandma on any boats.

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  17. Okay, I was AOLing. That's "Aww" out loud -ing. While giggling. I, too, collapsed from cuteness!! Love it!

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  18. The red pandas at my local zoo are my favorites too. Here's a video clip from our zoo of the red pandas. I think it's an old clip because they had three babies a year or two ago. The zoo gave them to other zoos before I got back to see them.:-( Can you imagine anything cuter than red panda babies?
    http://www.greenvillezoo.com/video.aspx

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  19. Last shot = EPIC PRECIOUSNESS!!!!

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  20. I LOVE the red pandas. The ones I saw at the Sydney zoo when I visited there last year were so adorable I thought they'd have to drag me away so they could close the zoo for the evening.
    Where have they been all my life? I never remember seeing them while I was growing up; now I see those squishy little things everywhere.

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  21. I literally squealed OUT LOUD at those last few photos. It's pretty rare for that to happen! SO damn cute!!

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  22. Cuteness overload!
    Sandy

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  23. The red panda's always adorable- and, as far as I can tell*, always in the tree. Love the tiger pictures, too, and the fennecs.

    *I live in the area, and go to the zoo several times a year. I have more pictures of the giraffes (they like me) than of my own family. If I could live at this zoo, I probably would. If only to see the red panda get out of the tree.

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  24. Oh what lovely photos. My daughter loves tigers, my preference is for the hungry meerkat!

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  25. Most Aussie kids have an irrational phobia of emu's - they make this horrible drumming noise, have a toe that can rip you open after they've chased you down (they're very fast) and will steal anything that resembles food that you might be holding in your hand. OK, so maybe I was the only one to be attacked by an emu (and a goose, and a black swan). I'm pretty sure there are many other people petrified of oversized birds that aren't featherless and oven roasted.

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  26. Love these shots from your day at the zoo!
    The scariest bird I have ever seen would have to be the cassowary at our local zoo. Have you seen those things?! Terrifying!
    (Folks think it’s funny that we even visit the zoo considering that we have enough animals around here that we could charge admission! It’s not that bad though; who doesn’t have a hamster, a canary, budgies, a hedgehog, turtles, various fish, bunnies, chickens and ducks? Coming soon; miniature goats, a chameleon and maybe a chinchilla. I guess that is a lot.)

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  27. Aw. I keep meaning to go to the zoo, and I keep putting it off. *sigh* someday. Someday.

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  28. Fun photos! I LOL'd at the pic of John pointing and laughing...and the giraffe eating the ostrich. :)

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  29. Your pictures are so cute. I also love to go to the zoo. I love the red pandas. I can stand there for ages and watch them even if they are asleep. Meanwhile my hubbie is taking action shot of the ice bears. He has also a trick for reflection on glas photo problem. He has a lens hood made of soft plastic. He places his whole camerawith the hood on the glas (hood is touching glass not the lens) and so he never got reflections. The soft lens hood is good if you don't have a 90 degree angle, you can move a little.

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  30. Jen, you crack me up! Thanks very much for sharing those photos. The adorable ones were certainly..... ADORABLE!! Love the fun pic of the giraffe, too.

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  31. The last picture is DELIGHTULLY cute!!! :D

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  32. Cute overload!!! The foxes are hilarious! Thanks for sharing! I'm on a work trip and I've been in a conference room in DC all day when I saw this post on my break - THANK YOU! Sanity returned.

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  33. Hahaha OH JOHN EVER THE COMEDIAN

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  34. I squealed so much my BF thought the dog was whining...SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!! I want to hug them all and tell them how cute and cuddly and adorable and lovable and fluffy and cute (wait, I said that twice...snap out of it!)they are.

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  35. Eeeee fennec foxes and red pandas in one post!?! Thanks for the smilies. :)

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  36. At my zoo back home they have a Lorakeet exhibit that you can actually walk into. They have little cups of apple juice (for a couple extra bucks of course) that you can feed to the birds as they perch on your hand.

    It was kinda awesome.

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  37. I adore red pandas. They had them at a zoo we stopped at on vacation last summer while I was three months pregnant. Let's just say that Mr. Whit is now the proud (if somewhat unwitting) possessor of a stuffed red panda. Squeeeeee!

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  38. My 16-month-old approved. He called the foxes "bunnies", but he is now obsessed with the "padas."

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  39. So cute. Now I need to take my kids to the zoo so we can look at the red pandas. We have baby red pandas at our zoo - or at least we did last year. They grow up so fast.

    Love the bigger pictures. The landscape pictures are perfect but the portrait are a little too big for my monitor. I can't see all the cute at once. :)

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  40. Did you see this: http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/animals-with-stuffed-versions-of-themselves

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  41. Love the pictures!

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  42. I love the new size of the pictures! They are far clearer and more detailed than before. As you said, they might be a little too big--maybe a 10-20% reduction? But even that is hard to say--they are so pretty! Especially the fennec foxes! The ears!

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  43. I's not just emus - ALL ratites scare the heck out of me! Their eyes seem to be full of hatred, and they have been known to occasionally kick someone to death.

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  44. Oh my God, those are ADORABLE. The red panda, the Fennec foxes! I think the cutest pictures I got at a zoo may have been of otters while they were being fed... they stand up and hold out their paws and it's super cute. But not as super cute as sleepy red pandas!

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  45. I came here from your facebook post... you definitely asked us a question, something about... something. I have no idea. The cuteness was too much, my mind has gone all fluffy.

    Gee

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  46. Squeeee! Such extreme cuteness!

    Also, you really have quite a talent with your camera, Jen. Those pictures are amazing!

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  47. What zoo was this? It didn't look like the Richmond zoo, and the only other one I know about is the Virginia Living Museum (haven't been there in ages).

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  48. What great photos Jen! I love them all, but the tiger and the red panda shots are my faves! If I even encounter a tiger in the wilds, all they will find left of me is my hands still tightly grasped hug-style around its cute little furry neck.. just sayin'!

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  49. You took some really fantastic photos, Jen!! I can't believe how cute (and how terrifying) some of these animals are!!

    Also, I love the new big photos. You can really see detail, and I think it'll be great for your craft tutorials. :)

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  50. I love John's t-shirt!

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  51. Did you take these with your new camera?

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  52. @ Jen - Yep! I've officially switched to the 7D now.

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  53. SQUEE!!!

    Red pandas are my fave animal, and fennec foxes are in second, so you get, like, triple bonus points. Best pictures ever. : )

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  54. Our favorite animal is the red panda. The first few times my husband and I visited zoos together we always saw the red pandas, and they were always right there in the front ready for us to ogle them for ages. In fact, we like them so much that I have a couple of stuffed ones on display in our bedroom, and I'm planning on making a red panda cross stitch to hang in the room. The shots you got of this little guy are ADORABLE! I totally want one.

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  55. OMG! I just noticed John is wearing a Care Bears shirt. Dude, that is effin EPIC! If he's a Brony too, my daughter will be in heaven.

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  56. Awesome photos! I work with gibbons at a zoo, and I thought you might care to know that your "guy" waving at the window is actual a "gal." Female white-cheeked gibbons are that beautiful tan, while their male counterparts are black with white cheeks.

    I'm loving all the animal shots, except the emu. ;) Keep up the great work!

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  57. awww!

    (but my favourite is the secret bunny face shape in the tree.)

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  58. I keep asking the SO for red pandas and fennec foxes but NOOOOO, they're endaaangered, we have nowhere to keep them, they would fight with the cats! he's no fun.

    also one downside(?) to red pandas, THEY DON'T STOP.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOFq5q8Lo18

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