Last Day Out

As I'm off to have my left shoulder replacement on Wednesday and will be unable to drive for a while afterwards, I had to use up my free pass to Howlett's Wild Animal Park, which is the new home of London Zoo's Sumatran tiger "cub" Achilles.

He's the proud lord of his own territory now.

I just missed the snow leopards play fighting, they were retuning to their den by the time my camera was out.

The clouded leopards were as difficult to see as usual.

As a bonus I saw a housemartin feeding her young in a nest under the veranda roof of the restaurant. She flew past people's heads and they appeared not to even notice.

Maya the Jaguar and the Big Cats Open Day

Every year the Wildlife Heritage Foundation's Big Cats Sanctuary has four open days. Last year I was laid up after my surgery and had to give away my ticket. All I asked for was lots of pictures and all I got was almost none.

This year I was determined to make it, so I bought my ticket as soon as I received email notification of their going on sale. This turned out to be fortunate - later there was a 4-episode documentary about the place which featured a tiny black jaguar from a neighbouring park that had been rejected by her mother that was being raised there, and suddenly the open days were fully booked, the website crashed, and they had to add an extra day to cope with demand.

The day arrived in the middle of  a horrendous energy-sapping heatwave.

The sanctuary manager Giles Clark raised the cub, called Maya. During filming a young cheetah called Willow, who had a broken leg, was added to his care. One of my first encounters on Thursday was with Giles, seen here putting back his shades after posing for a photo with a little girl.

Compared to the really big cats, the serval looked tiny.

The Amur leopard is severely endangered, but numbers are recovering thanks to serious intervention by Russia, where their range lies, and they are just back into triple figures.

The North Chinese leopard is redder in colour than other leopards and is a very shy and secretive animal.

Maya stayed in the shade on this roasting hot day. Who can blame her?  These were my best two pictures of her.

Willow's keeper played with her till they were both exhausted, then got her reward. Cheetahs are probably the closest big cats to being able to be trained and trusted in human company.

If only trophy hunters, sadly most of them American, would shoot big game with cameras instead of guns. I can assure them it would make their dicks feel really big.

The Whole Wide World in an instant

The happiness before the tragedy.



I'm having fun - and geting very annoyed - following Twitter these days. The selection of people who post against Trump is impressive - George Takei, Ron Perlman, Michael Moore to name but a few of the more famous ones - and I retweet lots of lost pets, pets looking for homes, and I sign many petitions for good causes, especially animal and environmental ones.

Just to add to the Ahh factor, the ultimate in relaxation is a cat, and this is the ultimate in cat.

Aye-aye, what have we here? Slothful tigers

A little bit of Vincent to get you going.



I have been desperate to get a photo of London Zoo's aye-aye, but they are nocturnal, and so eve when they are visible in the nighttime world, getting a picture is almost impossible. This is the best I've managed.

Aye-ayes are a nocturnal type of lemur. They are persecuted because they look like little demons, with wide stary eyes and an elongated finger to tap bark to find insects, and then fish them out. They are bigger than you think with grey shaggy fur. I love them.

The sloths have a baby. They snuggled up in branches just above the walkway in the rainforest zone.

Dad JaeJae was relaxed as usual even though they've taken his daughter off to Heidelberg Zoo.

Meanwhile mum Melati, having given son Achilles a good wash, rested her head on him.He'll soon be off to Howlett's one of the Kent animal parks I visit, so I'll still be able to see him.

The Dangers of Twitter on iPad and Other Nonsense

First a sweet memory from Thumbsucker. I have Photobucket and Blogger on my iPad but can't make them do what I want, so I only post on here. But I haven't been here since February. Once I check my emails and read an online newspaper, it's on to Twitter, and I'm stuck there for hours.

Following Trump's latest insanity and pretty kitty pictures. Signing petitions and retweeting lost pet tweets.

My laptop is terminally slow, so I don't often feel like waiting for it to go through its motions. One of my favourites on Twitter continues to be the black jaguar cub Maya.She's getting so big.

I'm still waiting for a date for my next shoulder replacement. I'm getting scared it may interfere with my activities this late spring and summer. Should be off to see May on July 26th.

Brooklyn's Finest with Zoo Angels

We always used to complain that Vincent's character was dead by the end of a film. In this one he was dead within minutes!



Yesterday I managed to get to the zoo for the first time in ages. Apart from meeting up with the other regulars, Chris, Tina and the other Val (who's Australian and relays news of the female tiger and her cubs to her friend Kath, who knew Melati and her father in Perth Zoo) It was great catching up with the animals.

Achilles' favourite keeper Katie was on hand to feed him directly through the back gate to the enclosure. I wonder if his adoring look is for her or for his food?

After their feed the twins had a sleep in their den. Sibling love.

Before his nap Achilles had a game retrieving a log from the pool. Like any cat, he then ost interest in it.

Bhanu has at last laid cliam to the covered den with the heated rocks. But he doesn't seem to be making much headway with the sisters. He went off roaring impressively to find them, They lined up one by one to face him off.

The meerkats found a perfect way to enjoy the sun on what was quite a chilly day, with a cold wind.

Marilyn the sloth had found a comfy perch above the human walkway in the rainforest zone.

These pictures have uploaded in a different order from the one I expected. This was my last visit of the day, to one-month-old Megan (or maybe Meghan after Ms Markle?) the baby okapi.

Tiger mum Melati was in the heated den with her (very large) babies. At 19 months they are now both bigger than her petite self.

Back in the rainforest, the tamandua, or tree anteater, was doing a monorail impersonation.

I didn't manage to get any film of the emperor tamarin Marcel chasing the red titi monkeys. I never knew a tree branch could bend so far without breaking.

Counterfire and Maya

Such a mean young thug in The Equaliser.


Much more recently Maya the Jaguar has been delighting the world. This should be a link to a video of her trying to decide which of her new toys to play with, but it may not work. Maybe you can copy and paste. It's worth it.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/945649901660200963

She's simply the cutest, sweetest future murderer in the world!