Capturing sea otters is fairly easy. One need simply slide the otter through the glass while still small. After surprisingly few feedings, the otter quickly grows too large to pass back through and is then in captivity.
Category Archives: Mammal
Black and White Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata variegata)
Papa Lemur sometimes grows weary of leading the others, but recognizes that without him, Hefty Lemur and Brainy Lemur would fight, Jokey Lemur would upset everyone, and without his organization to bring in the crops, Farmer Lemur wouldn’t be able to feed the village. Every morning, he sighs over his lot in life, and prepares for a day of calming down the others, maintaining their focus, and directing the stupid.
Collared Mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus)
That thing you’re looking for? It’s over there, to your left.
Monkey
This monkey made the mistake of reading the comments and now has some hard questions to ask about humans.
Collared Mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus)
This monkey inventor is exploring the possibly of doubling work production though the controversial application of knee-grease.
Wolf Cub
They’re more scared of you than you are of them.
Seriously.
Black Footed Cat
Black-footed cats are the smallest breed of wild cats, seldom exceeding three pounds in weight. Despite this being extremely clear on the sign, grown adults will coo over it and call it a baby. I must conclude that this is because they’re so cute that their mere presence temporarily overrides a human’s ability to read. Because the alternative, that zoos attract a stunningly large number of babbling idiots on Saturdays, is too horrible to contemplate.
Pygmy Marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea)
Marmosets can be identified by their distinctive call of “ca-caw! ca-caw!”, used to notify their compatriots that their portion of the bank heist has been completed.
Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata)
I didn’t realize until after I’d taken the shot, but there was a weeping angel behind me the whole time.
On Porcupines
Hi. I’m a porcupine.
Porcupines are pointy.
Well, not when we’re babies. Or if we have mange.
Or, I suppose, if we shave off our quills, but only the weird porcupines do that.
Anyway, the point here is if you meet a porcupine, odds are, that porcupine is going to be pointy.
In fact, if you get to know a porcupine, there’s a chance you may get poked.
That kinda goes hand in hand (or paw in paw) with the whole porcupiney lifestyle.
We don’t mean to do it. We’re normally careful.
Sometimes though, it just happens. Usually because we don’t communicate well beforehand.
Well sorta.
I don’t like to admit it, but some porcupines are assholes.
They poke you on purpose.
They think it’s fun.
When we talk about porcupines, we don’t really think of those porcupines.
When we were growing up, we avoided those porcupines. They were mean.
Still, the rule growing up was, “all porcupines gotta be put together”,
so there they were, hanging out in the locker room, being all pointy and stuff.
You had to watch out too, ’cause as soon as you weren’t watching, you’d get poked and they’d all laugh.
Not only that, but you had to laugh when your friends got poked, because otherwise, next time, they’d poke you.
We avoided them then as much as we could, and now that we’re all grown up, we still do.
I mean, who would hang around with assholes on purpose.
The thing is, they’re still around. I can recognize them, ’cause I’ve met a lot of them over the years.
When I meet one as an adult, I just mentally think “pointy asshole” and find somewhere else to go.
Sad to say, I’m still a bit afraid of getting poked.
Anyway, the “point”, of all of this is that you’re probably not a porcupine.
Not being a porcupine, you probably can’t tell the regular occasionally, accidentally, pokey porcupines from the asshole pokey porcupines.
I’m know you know that #NotAllPorcupines are pokey assholes. But I also know that some are …
… and not being a porcupine, it’s probably hard for you to know ahead of time which ones are the assholes.
So you’ll be wary.
Probably because you’ve either know someone who has been poked, or have been poked yourself.
I’m sorry.
That sucks.
Chimpanzee
You’ve got to crawl before you can walk, no matter your species*.
* Well, unless you’re a bird, I guess.
Snow Monkey
Introducing the new personal monkey force field … available at a troop near you.
Binturong (Arctictis binturong),
According to Wikipedia, binturongs plantains, figs, eggs, rodents, and fowl’s heads … which seems rather specific to me.
Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
Most of the hull was breached, but rhinoceroses have air in their heads to keep them afloat in just such dire circumstances.
Japanese Snow Monkey
The Japanese snow gator is an ambush predator that occupies the hot springs of the islands. The geothermic-heated temperature allow the alligators to thrive at an altitude that would normally get too cold. Lacking defenses against attack, prey species have learned to be extremely wary when visiting watering holes.
Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis)
Though they have extremely thick skin, rhinoceroses are far from impenetrable. Here, you see one that has just struck an iceberg and is taking on water. Will he make it? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Japanese Snow Monkey
Back in the day, zoos were mostly bars and fences (a lot of older zoos still have a lot of fences). Eventually, zoos realized that humans felt better about looking at the animals if there weren’t bars in the way and they started digging pits. Interestingly, this works for real life humans and is the exact opposite for photography. With photography, you want the animal slightly above you, so you feel a sense of connection, even through bars. If the animal is below you, it reinforces the common “humans are better than animals” view, and creates distance. The greater the height, the more the distance and the photos just don’t resonate as much.
That is, unless the animal is interacts directly with the viewer. Then the image can still work.
Gibbon
Though they shut up at night, gibbons draw in the water from the evening rains and fully unfold to welcome the noontime sun.
Lynx Kittens
This lynx kitten hasn’t lost it’s mittens, so it knows it’s getting some pie.
Snow Monkey
Due to their small size and wide range of expressible emotions, captive monkeys prefer to play the air harmonica.