Golden White-eye

At the Toledo Zoo, a golden white-eye ...

... lives with a Palawan peacock pheasant ...

Photos are better when he's not up front, by the mesh. Sometimes he has a lady friend.

 ... and a many-colored fruit dove.

Male many-colored fruit dove

Last October (2024), a keeper was working in the enclosure, and I asked a few questions. I jokingly asked if he could bring the white-eye forward so I could get a good picture. He said, yeah, she's often hidden in the foliage, but she comes closer to the front when the mister is on. The next thing I knew, the water was on and the keeper was standing next to me.

Enjoying the mist

Some preening

In March of this year, I found this:

Komodo Dragons

I've visited four zoos that have Komodo dragons.

Columbus, July 2019

Minnesota, December 2019

Cincinnati, December 2021

I continue to have trouble with white balance when shooting certain reptiles indoors. It's not the reptiles' fault; it's the enclosures' lighting. I'm never satisfied with my pictures of the Malagasy leaf-tailed gecko at the Columbus Zoo, for example. I've tried cloudy, shade, fluorescent, and specific color temperatures, but none gave me colors on the camera's screen that matched what I saw.

At the Toledo Zoo, in March this year (2025), a Komodo dragon was at his or her posing rock and looking fine. The rocks and dirt are sort of tan, but my first shot didn't look quite right. I have no patience for this, so I tried only two other settings before moving on.

Daylight

4000K (I admit I rather like this one.)

Auto

Toledo has at least two of the world's largest lizards. Here's the other one:

40 minutes later...

 Back to the first one:

I've adjusted a focus setting, so videos are more in-focus over all, but the lens hunts every time it refocuses, which I find annoying.

Orangutans in Columbus

I visited the Columbus Zoo's Bornean orangutans October 1, 2024.

Dumplin was separated from Clementine and Khali.

 

Or was she?

A docent who was there explained that there is a similar grid inside, and Dumplin weaves fabric through it. She has not done that outside, though.

Khali has a lock!

(This reminded me of an orangutan in a zoo that hid a key in his mouth and used it to open a door. My memory was faulty in that there was no key, which makes the story even better. Read or listen to RadioLab.) 

It appears that kind of lock is used to secure things in the enclosure. In the first photo, one of these locks attaches the green cloth to the grid. An orangutan could probably detach a hook or carabiner easily.

Clementine: "Look at me, Mom!"

Oddities

I went to the Columbus Zoo April 1 and was not motivated to take the camera out of its bag. I did use my phone, though, firstly in the aquarium.

In Animal Encounters Village I found Melvin celebrating her 15th birthday!

Have you ever seen a large hairy armadillo?

 Me, neither.

Recent Snakes

Here are some somewhat-recent snakes.

Red-tailed rat snake and skin. Columbus Zoo, January 2, 2024

 

 

 

A red-tailed rat snake's tail. WikiPedia says the tail is sometimes red but is usually brown. Columbus Zoo, March 25, 2025

Lake Erie water snake. Columbus Zoo, January 2, 2024.

Canebrake rattlesnake. Columbus Zoo, February 11, 2024. Focus stack of 5 images

Red spitting cobra. Columbus Zoo, February 11, 2024. Focus stack of 5 images.

Mandarin trinket snake. Columbus Zoo, April 23, 2024

Scrub pythons. Columbus Zoo, November 6, 2024

Arizona black rattlesnake. Toledo Zoo, March 1, 2025. Focus stack of 3 images

Russell's viper. Toledo Zoo, March 1, 2025

King cobra. Columbus Zoo, February 11, 2025:

Rhinoceros Hornbill

I've seen rhinoceros hornbills at three zoos.

Kirana at the Toledo Zoo in 2018. Females have white eyes.

 

Andaru at the Toledo Zoo in 2019. Males have red eyes.

Cincinnati Zoo in 2021

A juvenile at the Minnesota Zoo in 2024

Kirana and Andaru have lived at the Toledo Zoo since 2008. They seem to be compatible, but there have been no chicks.

In January, 2025, the missing gardener and I attended a rhinoceros hornbill keeper talk. The keeper was inside the enclosure, tossing grapes to the birds, and he said the hornbills have excellent beak-eye coordination. He also explained that their upper and lower mandibles meet only at the tips of their beaks, so they catch the grapes at the tips and toss them into their mouths. I don't have shots of that, but I did catch a silvery-cheeked hornbill's toss in 2023.

Here, Kirana and Andaru share a tender moment and a grape:

In the Manatee Pool

At the Columbus Zoo, Florida manatees live in the manatee pool during their rehabilitations, 

but other animals live there, too.

Lookdown fish are silvery and very thin. Do you see its spine?

When this one turns, you can see how narrow it is:

 

Brown pelican

I think the residents should be trained to clean the glass:

Maybe this southern stingray is trying to clean the glass, but it needs to work above the waterline.

 

Buddy is a hawksbill sea turtle. (Her story)

 

The manatees eat lettuce, and this leaf was positively glowing. I don't know how to capture that in an image, though.

All photos and videos are from January 14.

Woverine Romp

A wolverine romped in the snow at the Columbus Zoo January 7. I was calling this one Guillotine because she was famous for somersaults, but I learned today that Gui was euthanized in April, 2024. So this must be Alvar (thank you, sister), who seemed to be having a good time.

Somersaults and paper:

I'm still having trouble with autofocus when shooting video:

Summer Insects

Here are some insects from last July and August.

great spangled fritillary (June)

Japanese beetle on hyssop (focus stack of 4 images)

large milkweed bug on milkweed (focus stack of 6 images)

male ebony jewelwing, a damselfly

northeastern hammertail, a robber fly (focus stack of 5 images)

Is it just me, or does this ant have transparent rings in its abdomen? (focus stack of 2 images)

immature large milkweed bug on milkweed (focus stack of 5 images)

twice-stabbed stink bugs on hyssop (focus stack of 4 images)

Zethus spinipes, a wasp, on celosia

Cheetahs Running

In my previous photos of running cheetahs, I used a fast shutter to freeze the action and limit motion blur. Here's Bob in 2023, shot using a shutter speed of 1/2000s. The focus is good, there's no blurring, and we can even see his claws.

In the summer of 2024, I tried for a sense of movement and speed by using a slower shutter, panning with the cheetah, and zooming in further. On June 4, I started with a shutter speed of 1/125s for Dave and Adrienne. I suspected that would be too slow, but it was an experiment and I forged ahead. The shots of Dave were forgettable, with lots of blurry fur and too much distance thanks to only 92mm of zoom.

For Adrienne, I kept the shutter at 1/125 but zoomed to 220mm. Most shots were like this one, with too much blurry cat:

The next frame was a winner. The background and grass have streaks of speed, and her feet and tail are a little blurry with motion, but her head is pretty sharp. All four feet are off the ground and she's looking intently at the lure.

What would happen if I increased a shutter speed to 1/180s? Here's Adrienne again, a week later:

In July, I used a 1/350s shutter to capture this unknown cheetah:

Later in July, two more, also at 1/350s. I again failed to record the names so I could give them proper credit.