Diary of a sxKitten

Also from the zoo:

Zebu cow and bull. According to the sign, these guys max out at around 1800lbs. Plenty big enough to stomp the crap out of anyone who bugs them.

A reindeer. In addition to having a great rack, I hear this fellow has an in with the big guy - piss him off, and your stocking will be empty.

Oryx, scimitar-horned. The name pretty much says it all.

Max weight 10,000 lbs. Need I say more?

Speak softly and carry a big stick. Or a pair of whacking great horns.

Speaking of whacking great horns, Ankole horns can be 5′ long. Each.

A not so yakkity yak.

Bactrian camel - bigger than the zebu bull, and he can spit. Gorgeous eyes, though:

While he may look small and harmless, check out the claws:

OK, this guy’s just cute. I suppose he could give you a nasty nip, though.

As the kids used to call them. We went to the Vancouver Zoo yesterday with HouseApes 1.0 and 3.0, figuring if we were there for a couple of hours they’d be happy. 5 hours later, we were still strolling past the exhibits. More fun than the PNE, I think, if only because there weren’t 80,000 other people there.

A random assortment of creatures (click on any photo to head over to Flickr, where there are more, and bigger, pics):

A Burmese python. Shot in very low light, no flash.

A demoiselle crane. This guy did a very flashy dance for us, which photographed remarkably badly.

Quiver, a photogenic and cooperative Peregrine-gyrfalcon cross, part of the raptors demonstration. More pics of Quiver on Flickr.

Guinevere, a Lannis falcon. We didn’t see her fly, but she posed for pictures with HA1.0.

Skye, a golden eagle.

A Harris Hawk, one of two.

Hagrid, who was supposed to be part of the raptor show but flew off into a tree and refused to come down. He was still AWOL 3 hours later, although he had switched trees.

Flamingos.

A vulturine guinea fowl. This is my favourite bird, just because they look so mercilessly evil. The Sith Lords of the bird world.

Seriously, does he not look like he could rip your heart out and eat it, still beating, without a qualm?

They’re actually very friendly, and they eat wasps, so all in all they’re quite awesome. And their feathers really are that blue.

Charlie, the white rhino.

The carnivorous guanaco. They eat cougars¹

An iguana. Apparently ‘iguana’ was my favourite word when I was 2. No, I have no idea why.

Marmosets. Very cute, in a wizened old man kind of way. The Yodas of the zoo.

There were lots more animals, but it took me 2 hours just to crop and upload these, so you’ll have to wait for the second installment to see the camels and yaks ‘n stuff.

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1. OK, not really. I was reading the info on the sign, which said “Guanaco are the favourite prey of cougars” which Dean heard as “Guanaco’s favourite prey is cougars.” I think a guanaco that ate cougars would be almost as awesome as the vulturine Sith Lords.