Sometimes it’s really difficult to decide who to vote for in the primaries.
Category Archives: Mammal
North American River Otter
Invisible manicurist.
Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus)
This klipspringer doesn’t think that photo you shared was funny and is a bit disappointed in your choice of Internet friends.
Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)
The warthog mafia doesn’t start with the knees.
Pygmy Hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis)
This terrible cat doesn’t think humans are that great at taxonomy.
Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus)
You have to keep your wits about you when hiking in Africa as you never know when a waterbuck might be stalking you.
Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata)
Some day he’ll be bigger. Some day he’ll go off and join or take over some other troop and start a family of his own. Some day, he’ll be gone from her life.
Until then, she’ll hold him as much as she can.
Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus)
And you thought answering the riddle of the sphinx was difficult.
Dhole (Cuon alpinus)
Some days are so lazy that it’s not worth the effort to retract your tongue.
Japanese Macaque (Macaca fuscata)
If you’re lucky enough to find a four leafed clover, don’t try to increase your wishes by asking for a monkey’s paw.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
True story time.
The National Zoo is weird. It doesn’t so much have hours of business so much the animals have hours for which they work. Since the zoo is, in some ways, a National Park, it is functionally open really early to really late. It’s just that if you get there early, the buildings are closed, but the grounds are open. Basically, all the animals are still having their morning coffee and reading the comics, so you don’t get to see much.
However, the sea lions don’t really go “home” for the night, so they’re out (in as much as sea lions get an “out”). They’re also extremely bored. Now, I’m not crazy enough to throw anything into the pool for them (seriously, don’t do that). However, what I did do was set my hat down on the ground up near the glass and this little guy had all sorts of fun trying to bite it or bubble it away. In the process, I got a decent little portrait here, but feel free to click through and see the other “playing with my hat” photos.
Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
Once they become successful with using two sticks in two hands, they progress with two in one. Then, they practice with smaller and smaller sticks. Eventually, when the sticks become sufficiently small, pandas may begin to to eat rice, greatly expanding their possible range.
Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)
Now would be a bad time to be a pig.
#justsayin
White-cheeked Gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys)
This gibbon just realized that it’s been over a decade since we had a new episode of Star Trek.
Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx)
When they’re young, to prevent accidental injury, oryx parents put corks on the horns of their children.
Gerenuk (Litocranius walleri)
I was a little too slow with the camera and just missed the big pillow fight. It’s a shame, really. It would have been a fantastic photo.
Prairie Dog performing Cymbeline
O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her!
And be her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a chapel lying!
The Selection
It was the morning of his twelfth year. As all in his tribe do at that time, he stood on the edge of the desert, preparing himself for his spirit journey. He wasn’t worried that he’d lack a guide, but he did have some concern as to who would select him.
As he walked the Trail of Selection, he thought back to his youthful dreams. As a small child, he had admired the strong guides. The tribe was led by a bear-chosen, rare but powerful. His parents were both puma-chosen – like often attracts like – and had been wonderful protectors, though relatively solitary ones.
He ducked through the briar, taking care not to tear his ceremonial questing coat. He was pretty sure the older kids were trying to scare him with stories of careless children being saddled with toads or worms, but there was no point in taking a risk.
Later, when he had had to run from the older bullies rather often, he had dreamed of joining with swift spirits. Pronghorn- and falcon-chosen grew into great messengers, fleet of foot and able to get away from all that threaten them.
He reached the boulder at the end of the trail, and paused, thinking about the spirit he truly wanted.
More recently, as he quietly watched adults, he had begun to desire a stealth spirit. A fox could lead him to become a great tracker. An owl could help him become more aware, and help guard the tribe at night.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, turned the corner and dropped to his knees knowing that when he opened them, his life-long spirit animal would be there. When he could hold his breath no longer, he exhaled and opened his eyes to see his new partner, his god, the extension of his own soul reaching out to him.
He was rather disappointed.
Ground Squirrel
Ground squirrels are surprised when automated posts that worked for months stop working on LiveJournal.
Ground squirrels like to test this odd behavior with posts that are similar in HTML content to those that failed earlier.
Gerenuk (Litocranius walleri)
Sometimes choosing to do something according to a schedule is a bit of a stretch. Stuff you can reach some days you can’t reach all days. Also, sometimes you really work hard and reach a lot of important things, but it leaves you too tired to get everything done.
Which is a long way to say, my priorities are doing my real(tm) job, taking photos, and posting photos, in that order. Hopefully, my schedule has adjusted so I can get back to posting. I expect it’ll be erratic for a while though.