Neil Danton

Not the Pelican Brief which was a movie, and it’s not called the Pelican Run, it’s called the Cheetah Run. (This post follows on from a recent one about last year’s run entitled Runners in the Park).

It’s a road-race through Fota Wildlife Park, but I wasn’t going into the Cheetah area to create an image, so I chose Pelicans instead, as they don’t have claws. Like the title of the movie though, I’ll be brief, so here it is:

TTFN

…even the ash cloud.

Pedro and Mo are finally united in love after the ash cloud banjaxed their plans to be together.

Pedro moved to Cork from France and Mo was supposed to join him seven weeks later from England, but flight cancellations caused by THAT volcano’s ash cloud over Europe meant she couldn’t get out via Heathrow.

Two weeks after she was supposed to join him, they are finally together.

Pedro and Mo are…….. Black Howler Monkeys:

The Black Howler Monkeys are the first new species to arrive at Fota Wildlife Park in 2010 and live on a island opposite the penguins in the park.

The Black Howler Monkey is one of six species of Howler Monkey, who can be found in central South American bush savannah, deciduous and semi-deciduous forests. The male is black, while the female is brown or gold.

TTFN

A bit of Friday fun – this image is several years old now, but I was driving down the same stretch of road yesterday and was reminded of this road-sign.

It’s genuine, no image manipulation whatsoever. I was assigned to shoot it by a newspaper that had received a report about it. It took me a few moments to figure out what the interest in it was.

It had me laughing all the way back home to think of someone going to all the secretive effort it must have taken, just to amuse themselves and others.

If you still can’t see-for-looking, check the available recreational facilities carefully…

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10 day old baby giraffe Aoife with mother Roisin at Fota Wildlife Park.

As Fota is a client, I was given exclusive access to the giraffe house to get images of the new arrival. It took a little time as mother is obviously very protective and they must be approached very slowly. There was a little snorting & tail swishing to begin with, but as soon as I stopped doing that the giraffes settled down.

There’s a different image on my Facebook page

TTFN

…again.

See the previous Monkeying around here at On Safari

This time it was a newly born lion-tailed Macaque that I needed to capture for a press-release.

It took ages to find it though. Firstly it was pretty small, and a long way away as the Macaque community live on an island in the wildlife park. Plus, the mother was being pretty protective.

Finally though I got a glimpse of it (I say it, as the sex is as yet undetermined).

Fairly sure it was the mother at left, and the father at right, although it was a little hard to tell, as in a way that’s typical of a lot of primates, the whole clan seemed to get involved in baby-sitting.

The peek-a-boo moment below though was definitely with the mother.

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…well it’s like being on safari, except it’s only a few miles away from home.

Was recently at the Wildlife Park to get some images for a client’s press release of a new arrival – a baby Siamang Gibbon. Not the easiest thing to photograph, a near-black object in high-contrast sunshine/shade.

Baby on it’s own:

and baby with mum:

I guess some people just don’t like having their picture taken!

TTFN