Animals Of Africa In The Wild Animal Park
April 22, 2010 by Rob Hurlbut
Tigers
Since this was my first trip to The Wild Animal Park since the 1970′s, it was all new to me. We spent 8 hours there and saw less than half the park. Next time I go, it will be on a two day weekend pass, and I’ll rent a Segway as well, even though a two hour rental is $80, I think it’ll be worth it in time saved and energy conserved because I was dragging ass after walking around and mostly standing all day.
Giraffes
Giraffes have a prehensile tongue, so they can control it like we control a finger. For this photo they just used their tongue like a tongue.
You My Friend Are A Cheetah
Cheetahs are the fastest land animal on the planet, and probably the solar system. Regardless of speed, I think all cats, wild and domestic, share the trait of the upside-down V mouth. Noticing the angle of the upside down V is something I’ve enjoyed doing since childhood.
The Thinker And The Stinker
The horn of a rhinoceros is made out of keratin, which is this same thing our hair and fingernails are made of. This rhino seems to lead a splendid life of leisure.
Lions Are The King Of The Jungle
If you find yourself needing to flee from a lion, I would suggest climbing a tree. It seems that lions CAN climb trees, but they don’t ALWAYS climb trees. These are better odds then staying on the ground where ALL the lions will eat you every time.
A Few More Giraffes
I try to keep repetition to a minimum on my posts, but this post does have a couple of the same animals. Besides, giraffes are cool, as are the other animal repeats you are about to see.
2010 Is The Year Of The Tiger
Tigers are my favorite cat, and favorite year on the Chinese lunar calendar. The tigers were WAY far a away from the viewing area, so I was at 450mm, and I was shooting through a chain-link fence that I wanted to make disappear, so I used my smallest available f/stop, which was f/5.6.
Elephant
This elephant was the only one I had a clear shot of of the four or so that were walking around. The background is distracting, but the curve of his trunk in this photo is what spoke to me so it found a place in this post.
The Lion Says Goodnight
And so ends the trilogy of posts from my day at The San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. I’m going to put out a fourth, “special feature” post with photos that did not quite make the grade for one reason or another, but would have been rad if I had gotten it right. To view the first post, featuring butterflies, click here, and for the second post full of birds, click here. Cheers!
I have more photos and related posts below:
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Brilliant post. Enjoyed it so much. The pics used are amazing! Thanks for sharing!
I just love these pics of San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. They're spot on
Animals can be so hard to photograph, but they're so rewarding when you get it right!