Literally! – This is a portrait of a Cape Hunting Dog which was taken when the pack was feeding on a kill. The face of the dog was still wet from the Wildebeest’s blood.
Almost back!
I will be leaving for South Africa tomorrow evening, so I thought I post a few of the animal images I took at the Zurich Zoo. I have also included a picture of a stag which I took in a small local deer park.
I enjoyed my vacation in Europe – even if it was very cold and wet – and now I am looking forward to going back to the African bush 🙂
Oriental Short-clawed Otter
Indian Lion
Red Phanda
Egyptian Vulture
Panther Chameleon
Red Deer Stag
Auberge de l’Ill
Picture: Dinner at the Auberge de L’Ill
Another short update from my vacation in Europe. The last two days I was with friends in France. For my 50th birthday present they had invited me to a weekend at the Hotel des Berges and a dinner at the Auberge de L’Ill. We stayed at the boutique five-star hotel and had a wonderful dinner at the “Three Michelin Star” restaurant. What a present! Thanks a lot to Gabi, Ruth, Bernhard and Juergen. In my life I have eaten in many excellent restaurants around the world, but the Auberge de L’Ill is my all-time favorite!
Only the weather did not play along. Since I have arrived in Europe the weather was very cold and wet (the South African Winter is much warmer than the European Summer :-)). The river near the restaurant had already flooded the boat landing (with the bronze geese!) and threatened to invade the beautiful gardens. But there is hope, the weather forecast for the next few days looks much better.
Picture: Flood at the Ill and the entrance to the Hotel des Berges
On the way to dinner we stopped in the historical center of Colmar, France:
So far I had a great time in Switzerland, Germany and France – with lots of lunches and dinners with family and friends. More to come …
PS: For those of you who are interested: Links to the websites of two of my favorite restaurants in Switzerland which I have visited during this trip: Restaurant Federal in Zofingen and the Old Swiss House in Lucerne.
Unusual
When working in a game reserve in South Africa one has many opportunities to take images of Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Giraffe, Zebra, …….
Going to a Zoo in Switzerland presented me with some – for me – unusual images.
The first image is of a baby Golden Lion Tamarin – my nieces thought that this little one was the cutest creature in the zoo. The second image is of an Elephant Shrew – one of the small five :-). The third is of a Carmine Bee-eater, one of my favorite birds.
I love the African Wild, but I also enjoy well run zoos! They have such an important role in education, research and conservation. They are an important “tool” to ensure that the 99% of mankind – who will never see the animals in their wild habitat – have an appreciation for the need to preserve nature.
The Golden Lion Tamarin is a small New World monkey. Native to the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil it is an endangered species with an estimated wild population of approximately 1,000 individuals and a captive population maintained at approximately 490 individuals among 150 zoos.
Elephant Shrews are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa whose name comes from a “fancied resemblance” between their long noses and the trunk of an elephant, and an assumed relationship with the shrews in the order Insectivora.
The Carmine Bee-eater occurs across sub-equatorial Africa. This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly colored,striking bird, predominantly carmine in coloration, but with the crown and under-tail coverts blue.
Contrast
Well, this is not a blog about wildlife, but quite a few people have asked me what I am doing during my vacation in Germany and Switzerland. So, here is a short update:
Today I went to the premiere of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the opera house in Zurich, Switzerland (see picture collage). It was a very modern interpretation. Half of the audience enjoyed the 3.5 hour opera and half of them “buuuhhh-ed” at the end. I was part of the first group 🙂
For more info about the opera go to http://www.opernhaus.ch/en/activity/detail/don-giovanni-26-05-2013/
The singing was superb, no matter how one thought about the staging and acting!
Besides getting a good rest and reading a lot, I am having lots of lunches and dinners with family and friends. I will also visit the Basel Zoo, the Zurich Zoo and the Wildlife Park in Arth Goldau (not to be without animals for too long 🙂
Watch out for more vacation blogs!
PS: I will be back at work on Thanda on 10 June 2013
Lions and Leopards on My Mind!
I was playing with various images today and this is a resulting collage. I have called it “Lions and Leopards on My Mind”.
PS: I will not be at Thanda from 20 May until 10 June so there will be less Wildlife posts during that time (I will be in Europe on vacation :-)).
And the answer is …
… the Jacobson’s organ inside the mouth of an African Elephant.
This was a really tough one!
More about the Jacobson’s organ:
The Jacobson’s organ or vomeronasal organ is an auxiliary sense of smell organ that is found in many animals. This organ is the sense organ involved in the flehmen response in mammals. The Jacobson’s organ is mainly used to detect pheromones, chemical messengers that carry information between individuals of the same species. Its presence in many animals has been widely studied and its importance for reproduction and for social behavior has been shown in many studies.
Its presence and functionality in humans is controversial, though most studies agree the organ regresses during fetal development. Elephants transfer chemo-sensory stimuli to the Jacobson’s organ in the roof of their mouths using their “fingers”, at the tips of their trunks.
Can you identify …
… the subject of this image?
What species and what part of the animal?
I am looking forward to the answers!
Ears!
I love the back-light ears on this little Baboon!
Fourteen Bulls and a Webcam!
This is a collage of the fourteen different Elephant Bulls I observed at the “Masahlela” waterhole at Tembe Elephant Park. Last Friday all of them came to drink at the waterhole between 10:00am and 2:00pm.
If you want to have a look yourself you can tune into their 24hr webcam at the waterhole – just remember that South Africa is 6 hours before New York Time (EST) and 2 hours before London Time (GMT): http://www.tembe.co.za/webcam.htm
Also, check out my Friday’s blog post for more images: https://christiansperka.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/fill-up-get-cool-and-move-on/
Christian Sperka Photography | Custom Luxury Tours 