Hay There

It's a photograph of a giraffe eating hay. Hurrah! The giraffes at London Zoo were a little sad when we saw them, because they weren't able to go outside as the ground was just covered in ice. I've never seen a giraffe slip over, but I imagine it's not something to be desired.

Simba...

Asian lion cub at London Zoo

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to London Zoo was to see the baby Asian lions they have at the minute. They were born in October 2011 so they're growing up fast but they are ludicrously cute. When we got to the lion house, it was late afternoon and they were snuggled up in a big pile of fur with their mum in a patch of sunshine, right up against one of the viewing windows in their enclosure.

Asian lions are super endangered. Although they used to have a range that continued as far west as Greece and Italy, these days they are only found in the wild in the Gir forest of Gujarat, India; a census of the lion population in 2011 indicated that there were about 411 Asiatic lions in the world, up from a total of 234 in 1936 when the first ever census was taken. They are threatened by habitat destruction, and are killed by electric fences and open wells.

Flutter By

Butterfly in London Zoo's Butterfly Paradise

It's a butterfly! And a very pretty one too. I like going in butterfly houses and admiring the pretties (and also, they're really warm and cosy, which is nice when there's snow on the ground outside). Admittedly I am less keen when they flap in my face, but as long as they're hanging off leaves looking pretty/eating rotten fruit, I'm happy.

While we were in the butterfly house, my boyfriend told me that some butterflies drink blood. Thinking he had gone briefly mad, I laughed and said he was confusing them with bats. But no! I was entirely wrong. It was there in black-and-white on one of the signs in the exibit. I googled it, and found this picture of butterflies drinking blood from a sock. Yes, you heard me. A sock. If you didn't know already, it turns out that butterflies are one of the sock's few natural predators. Also, here is a National Geographic article about vampire moths. Apparently in Slavic folklore, vampires were able to take the form of butterflies.

This whole discovery has rather changed the way I view these insects. I used to think they were nice decorative creatures to have around the place, sort of like nature's bunting. Now I know they are opportunistic greedy blood-sucking horrors. The butterfly house will never be the same again.

Tell Me A Tail

Squirrel Monkeys at London Zoo

And... we're back to the squirrel monkeys. Because they're oh so adorable. I took a frankly worrying number of photos in their enclosure, and I don't regret it for a moment. Although the foolish lady who tried to prod one and got a nip on the finger for her trouble may do. Seriously, there are signs everywhere that say "Don't touch the monkeys. The monkeys will bite you. Just don't touch them. They bite. No really, they do. LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF A BLEEDING HAND-STUMP. THAT IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU TOUCH A MONKEY".

And what did she do? Tried to touch a monkey. Oi vey.

High Speed Sloth

Linnaeus's Two-toed Sloth

It's a Linnaeus's two-toed sloth! The silly thing about two-toed sloths is that they have three toes. They have two fingers. You'd really think biologists would know the difference. It's like the sperm whale all over again, except somewhat less gross.

Sloths are amazing because they're the only living mammal that looks more realistic in CGI than in real life. The way they move is so laboured, it's like every moment they're wondering if they really want to get to where they're going at all. That or they're stop-motion animated.

It's not a particularly exciting photograph, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the rainforest building's accurate recreation of a rainforest environment steamed up both my glasses and my camera. But who cares. Sloths are cool.

Mineral or Vegetable?

Brief break from my zoo pictures with a quick return to the snowy days of February. Fret not: more animals coming soon!

Peck

Juvenile penguin at London Zoo's Penguin Beach

Another photograph of the very fine juvenile penguin I mentioned in this previous post. I'm not sure quite what he hoped to achieve by pecking this rock, but penguins are not known for their intellectual capacity so I guess we'll just have to cut him some slack and hope he learns to distinguish rocks from fish sometime soon.