Nailing a Few

FAVOURITE SUBJECTS AT CHESTER

24th & 28th August 2013

I suddenly realised that it was a long time since I had used my camera or stretched my legs properly, so I took time off from my chores on Saturday 24th to visit Chester Zoo again.
Unfortunately the light was rather grey and it was breezy, which could be my excuse for some disappointing photography. I could add that the zoo was very busy too, but I didn't spend much time in the busy areas. Actually I think that like a sportsman, I can be 'in good form' as a photographer but I also have bad days, when things don't quite work: after all taking a photograph involves hand-eye co-ordination, good body posture and pre-visualisation of an unpredictable situation, just like a batsman at the crease.
I spent a lot of time watching the black lion tamarins in their outdoor enclosure, I was pleased to see them looking well and they were very active, indeed rather too active for my convenience. I could see that they are more highly strung than the other species of lion tamarins, which is why they do not do as well in captivity. This was the best image that I managed with my 500 mm lens.

I did the spot a pygmy marmoset in the same enclosure, which was carrying a small infant. As I have written before, this species can be amazingly cryptic and the baby seemed to be asleep most of the time, so I could not get a photo where I could see the faces of both animals. Two friends posted a lovely photo on the ZooChat website, their secret weapon was their young baby, which happened to cry as they were watching the marmoset - which attracted the attention of the adult and the baby marmoset for a moment. I joked that I would have to think about putting a three-month old baby in my camera bag.
I did have one piece of luck, as I arrived in the Tsavo Aviary just as the keepers were feeding the birds with mealworms and locust hoppers. This attracted a brown-breasted barbet, which is one of the more secretive birds. I got a few nice shots.

This shot is the one that where I managed to nail it. Just about everything is right: I like the pose and the composition, the background is nice, the focus, exposure and colour are good and even the little things work - the branch hides the rings on the bird's legs and the profile of the beak shows the 'tooth' on the upper mandible which is characteristic of the larger barbets.
At least I had something to show from my day.

On Tuesday 23rd the Zoo announced that the baby Indian rhino had gone on show at just over 7 weeks old, although she would not be on view all day. As I was frustrated by my poor photos from Saturday and I had never seen a really young Indian rhino calf, I checked the weather forecast and decided to visit again on Wednesday. I prefer weekend visits as the M62 is usually very congested on weekday mornings, but I set off early and the delay was not as bad as I had feared.
I was delighted to see the little rhino 'Komala' with her mother 'Asha'. She is a sturdy little thing and already trying to eat grass: it was funny to watch her concentrating on chewing a couple of stalks while 'Asha' was tucking into great mouthfuls. The light was nice, but the positioning of the Asian Plains paddock and the viewing meant that I had to work contre-jour which is always more challenging than plain down sun snapshots. I have to remind myself to check my histogram display occasionally to make sure that the exposure is OK for some sample shots. Then I can reduce the contrast when I process my raw files with Capture NX2 to give more shadow detail, without losing the highlights.

The black lion tamarin enclosure gets some sunlight in the morning, but it filters through the trees which can give problems with patches of light and shade. I was pleased with this sequence.

The tamarins were quite vocal because they could hear (but not see) the golden-headed lion tamarins in the other Miniature Monkeys exhibit. The image below has the best Rembrandt lighting.

I also had the chance to work on the pygmy marmosets. I took quite a lot of images, but I think that I nailed two in decent light with both animals' faces visible and in focus. Although I was only shooting in landscape format (horizontal frame) when I looked at the first one I realised that when it was cropped it would also work in portrait format. I have posted both versions below, I think I prefer the vertical crop (but I might change my mind).

All images taken with my 500mm lens.

Mainly Miniature Monkeys

MORE FROM CHESTER ZOO

16th July 2013

I went back to Chester Zoo hoping to see the baby Indian rhino, but I had no luck with that.
I was also hoping to photograph the black lion tamarins - I had good views of them indoors on my first visit to the Miniature Monkeys exhibits, but the Eastern pygmy marmosets in the outdoor part of the same enclosure gave me marvellous photo opportunities.

The outdoor enclosures in Miniature Monkeys are completely open and thickly planted with shrubs and mature trees. These are carefully pruned so that the marmosets and tamarins cannot jump over the barriers which have smooth inner surfaces so that they cannot be climbed either. The pygmy marmosets are the smallest monkeys, they are cryptically coloured and they creep around the enclosure - quite different from the agility and dash of the other species of marmosets and tamarins. This makes them hard to see and they also spend a lot of time looking around as if they are checking for predators. Several years ago I watched a kestrel eating a mouse in an oak tree in Miniature Monkeys, it then flew across the path and inspected the floor of the other enclosure obviously looking for another rodent. This happened before the pygmy marmosets arrived, but I have no doubt that a kestrel would be capable of catching an unwary pygmy marmoset - so it is as well that this species is so cautious.
The individual above was sitting quietly in a patch of sunlight at the top of a shrub: a perfect pose for my 500 mm. A different one gave me a sequence as it crept along a dead branch, it then moved across to live branch and started to bite the bark to feed on the sap, which is part of the natural diet of marmosets. You can see more bite marks on this branch.

There was also plenty of action at the giant otter's pool. You can see that the two cubs are still significantly smaller than the adults when they are all out of the water; but in the water it's much harder to tell. I think this shot shows the two cubs in front of their mother 'Icana'. I love the water lilies in their pool, they look very attractive and the otters seem to like them too.

In Realm of the Red Ape, the light was very good in the aviary of the Timor sparrows and scissor-billed starlings, but this male splendid fruit dove hogged the spotlight. I used my 105mm macro lens for this image (and for the photos below too).












Back at Miniature Monkeys, I finally managed a nice shot of a black lion tamarin (or golden-rumped lion tamarin if you prefer). This pair are the only specimens in mainland UK and although I am glad to see them on show, I am also disappointed because they been kept off-show at Chester for a couple of years in the hope that privacy would let them breed. Their move to Miniature Monkeys is a sign that the zoo has virtually given up hope of success. I have written before about this species; it is the most sensitive and delicate of the three species of lion tamarins in zoos, although this pair seemed to have taken their move well. I am afraid that in few years time they may have disappeared from zoos in Britain and perhaps in Europe too.
I am told that these animals are now using the outdoor enclosure too, so I will try to take more photos of them soon.
Finally a photo of black rhino calf 'Embu' at two and a half weeks old, with his mother 'Zuri'. They were out in the paddock, but the grass was too long for decent photos of the little guy. I took this one as the keepers enticed 'Zuri' back into the yard with some pellets before taking them in for the night. The background is pretty horrible, but it shows how much the calf had grown since my previous visit.

Touring Chester Zoo with a Curator

MANAGING A MODERN ZOO

6th July 2013

On Saturday 6th I toured Chester Zoo with a party of people from the ZooChat website in the company of the Curator of Mammals, Mr Tim Rowlands. We have had several of these tours over the past few years, Tim or one of the other curators gives us some insight into the working of the zoo and we make donations to one of the zoo's projects. We have a few ground rules: the zoo never announces animal pregnancies* and we understand that negotiations about the transfer of animals between zoos are sometimes too delicate to be discussed. On the other hand we sometimes see off-show areas of the zoo and occasionally we learn an interesting piece of news off-the-record. I won't break any confidences here of course, but I can describe what I have learned about the way this large and successful zoo is managed.

I think I can best explain this by writing about the zoo’s Eastern black rhinos. We started our tour with these animals and Tim introduced us to one of the team of rhino keepers. I remember the first pair of black rhinos at Chester more than 50 years ago: they bred successfully in the old house which is hardly changed, except that it is now off-show. But for many years the rhinos at the zoo did not breed at all. In spite of their size and proverbially thick skins, black rhinos are sensitive creatures. They have individual personalities and preferences. In the past few years, better management, including testing of the hormone levels in the dung of the females, has helped the keepers to arrange the mixing of males and females producing better breeding results. Tim was formerly a keeper on the giraffe section, so he knows how important skilled keepers are for getting the details right.

Chester now holds 2 bulls and 5 cows of this highly endangered species and 3 calves have been born since last October. Port Lympne Animal Park in Kent has a similarly sized herd and recently Chester sent the young bull ‘Asani’ there. ‘Asani’ is the number one son of Chester’s bull ‘Sammy’ who was bred in Japan and is unrelated to the other rhinos in the European studbook, so this move will help to widen the gene pool.

There are four interconnected rhino paddocks and one house on-show in the zoo, with three more paddocks and three houses off-show (although the paddocks can be seen from the entrance road and the car park). Recently simple shelters have been built in several of the paddocks to provide shade allowing the rhinos to spend more time out of doors, further improvements are planned. 

In the Tsavo house we saw female ‘Zuri’, who was born at Paignton Zoo, with her week old bull calf sired by ‘Magadi’. All baby animals are cute, but I think a baby rhino’s combination of sturdiness and vulnerability is particularly charming – although they grow into tough muscular beasts remarkably quickly. I love the ring on his face where his second horn will grow. The calf has been named ‘Embu’ since our visit. The lighting inside the house is always poor and I knew that most of my photos would be blurred even with a high ISO setting. I chose the low value of 200 ISO and took lots of images, resting the camera on the barrier and trusting the VR feature (vibration reduction) on my 105mm lens, to produce a decent shot when the calf was still for a moment. I have done some colour correction to compensate for the mixed lighting, but I haven’t quite got rid of the pink cast in the calf’s shadow.

Each species in the zoo has its own special requirements, although only a few are as demanding as the black rhinos. Some species do so well that it becomes hard to find suitable homes for surplus stock, other species run into problems and in the end the curator has to decide the best way to solve them. As we walked around the zoo we talked about the animals and the exhibits as we passed them. When we stopped between the oryx and the zebra we asked Tim about progress with the Islands development. From this point you can see the newt-proof fence surrounding the Islands site, which is over 110 000 square metres, almost all outside the current area of the zoo. The first step has been the capture of a large number of great crested newts which have been released into other areas of the zoo's land, one part is being developed as a nature reserve. This is a legal requirement, but the zoo must also be seen to set a good example by protecting this locally endangered species. It also shows the foresight of the zoo’s founder, George Mottershead, who bought up a lot of land along the zoo’s original boundaries, providing space for future projects.

Work will soon start on site to provide services (electricity, water and drainage) before building begins. There will be a large Indonesian house, holding the zoo’s Sumatran orang utans plus birds and macaques, a smaller house for Komodo dragons, with further mammal exhibits and aviaries. There will also be a restaurant, a shop and other visitor facilities. Landscaping, planting and the introduction of the animals is due to be completed around Easter 2015. The total cost will be around £30 million, so the zoo’s managers have been checking and rechecking the plans. As I have mentioned before, Tim has already started to bring in new stock for some of the Islands exhibits, so far the banteng and a Malayan tapir have arrived. I am sure that the other curators will be planning their exhibits too.

* As I was drafting this, Chester Zoo announced that shortly before midnight on 7th July (the day after our tour), 'Asha' the female Indian rhino gave birth to her first calf. Tim did not give us the slightest hint of this.

Another Chester Visit

A HAPPY WANDERER

16th June 2013

When I visit a zoo, I may have a specific target in mind, but often I just wander round without much planning: on the other hand, as I visit my favourite zoos quite frequently I do know a little about the most likely times and places for photo opportunities. However you should always be prepared to learn by watching for new opportunities.
Sunday June 16th did not have a brilliant weather forecast, but cloudy skies can work well for photography and I hoped to get a chance to see the new tiger cubs born on the 3rd of June.
I always start at the Islands in Danger building, as my favourite Boelen's pythons are most active early in the day. After working out with a few fairly unsuccessful shots, I made my way to the tigers before things got too busy.
Kirana, the female Sumatran tiger, had taken given birth in her indoor quarters; but she had followed the pattern of her previous two litters and moved the cubs to her favourite den, under a wooden platform quite near to both the ground level viewing window and the high level viewing platform for visitors. She seems content to let Fabi, their father, stay in the same enclosure provided that he soesn't get too close to the den.  Unfortunately being quite near to visitors does not mean that the cubs are easy to see. The angle of the platform and the thick planting of the enclosure means that viewers and photographers are very restricted in what they can see. I was lucky to get a few shots with my 500mm as one of the cubs was crawling at the edge of the den while Kirana was feeding the other. This is the best one.
  

I returned to the tiger enclosure several times during the day, without seeing the cubs again.
On my last visit I saw the two banteng cows in their new enclosure near the old entrance (the former wapiti/bongo paddock). This time they had managed to move the bull in with them and both cows had given birth to calves as well. The bull is an impressive animal.

Both the Javan banteng and the Sumatran tigers are due to be moved into the new Islands exhibit which is now being developed south-east of the current zoo boundary.
The zoo has had a pair of Linne's two-toed sloths in the Jaguar house for about a year now. I haven't been really happy with any of my sloth photos so far, but I keep trying. The light indoors is not really good enough to use my 500mm lens, but I tried as an experiment: although this shot needed some work with Capture NX2 and Photoshop and there are some out of focus twigs which degrade the image, I like the pose and the countershading - so I rate it a qualified success.

At Realm of the Red Ape (generally known as RotRA) the Sumatran orang utans were not very visible, but the Bornean group was showing well. They had just been given access to their second outdoor cage, which had been temporarily occupied by the small-clawed otters. This had allowed the shrubs to put on some growth, so the orangs had plenty of pruning to do - they are remarkably destructive. Old Martha was happily consuming a small bamboo - she is about 48 and one of the oldest orangs in the UK. She sometimes appears rather stiff, but she is still active and climbs well.

Martha lives with her daughters Sarikei and Leia, and her 4 year old grandchildren Iznee and Latifah who are delightfully active. Tuan, the adult male cannot be mixed with the group and he is normally kept off-show. At the moment Chester are also boarding Blackpool Zoo's group of Bornean orangs while their house is being rebuilt, but they have also been off-show when I have visited. I was pleased to take the portrait of Martha, although I wish it were a little sharper; the one of Latifah below is better, because I was able to get the lens perpendicular to the window that I was shooting through.


There is no problem with glass at the Chimp Island, a group were close to the moat near RotRA. This is Carlos, a subadult male who is one of the youngest in the group.



When I was a boy, there were three ape islands just covered with grass. Now there is one large island  furnished with telegraph poles and nets for climbing and thickly planted with shrubs. This doesn't just look attractive, it gives the chimps opportunities to join up in small groups or to stay away from each other and to find interesting plants to investigate. This older lady, who might be Heidi (but I'm not sure), was enjoying the flowers and young leaves of a wild rose.


My path went from the chimps, past the macaws and through the Tropical House. I always check the tuataras near the door by the main entrance. They are great rarities in zoos, and although they not particularly spectacular or active, they are fascinating. One of the females was posing at the mouth of her burrow.

In the afternoon the light is favourable in the Tsavo aviary. The black-headed village weavers are the most obvious birds. The males are building their nests, displaying or destroying other nests. Females are less flamboyant but they watch what is going on and flutter their wings to encourage males which catch their eyes.

The Indian rhinos were active as I headed back to the tigers again. Asha was in the pool and the bull Beni was showing off close to the ditch. I switched to my 105mm lens for this shot as he sampled a few willow leaves. Impressive teeth!

Finally as the zoo went quiet at closing time, I did a quick tour of the aquarium. I have never seen one of the young Annam leaf turtles out of the water before, so I was very pleased to catch this pose which was perfect for my 105mm macro. The zoo has done well with this species and several other very rare terrapins, most of which are off-show. The zoo is planning a new turtle exhibit too.
 

Member's Day at Chester

MORE MONKEY PORTRAITS

20th April 2013

Chester Zoo has three Member’s Days each year. Members can bring guests at reduced prices and they get a few little freebies too, although I have never bothered to use any of my free monorail tickets. There is also a programme of meetings with keepers, which can be interesting. It was a very busy day as Member’s Day coincided with the first nice Saturday in weeks, so the zoo was expecting more than ten thousand visitors (and I would be surprised if they didn’t exceed that number).

It’s an interesting time at the Zoo because work has just started on the Islands exhibit which is a major extension on undeveloped land behind the oryx enclosure. It is due to open in two years time, which might seem slow going, but after all the great crested newts are moved, a big new tropical house will be built for birds, crocodiles and Sumatran orang utans, with a smaller house for Komodo dragons. There will also be a new waterway for boat rides, enclosure complexes for the orangs, Sumatran tigers (with a tunnel), aviaries for hornbills and various other livestock. Then it will take time to install drains, filters, heating systems and visitor facilities, more time for planting and theming and finally of course the animals will have to be settled in.

Zoos always aim to have new exhibits open around Easter, when visitor numbers start to rise during the school holidays, but before the peak visiting period in summer. This year’s developments at Chester are linked to the planning for Islands. There is a new off-show breeding aviary complex which may be used to raise birds for Islands. The old crane aviary has been turned into a bird rearing unit, particularly for cranes and waterfowl, which will be interesting. A couple of new species are already on show, but they will eventually move into Islands: a Malayan tapir is in the old Cattle House instead of the wart hogs and Javan banteng have replaced the bongos near the old entrance. The bongos have been moved next to the zebras in the West Zoo. Many of the other animals for Islands are already kept in the Zoo; once they are moved we expect that their current enclosures will be renovated for further new species.

Of course I had my camera with me, but as I spent so much time talking with friends and a couple of keepers, I didn’t take my usual number of photos. I did spend some time in Miniature Monkeys where the golden-headed lion tamarins and emperor tamarins had been moved back to their old enclosure and were calling loudly to each other as they explored the trees. It needed patience to get good views and even more to get some photos, particularly when the sunlight was filtered by the leaves, but I got a couple of decent shots with my trusty 500mm tele. The first is a sort of MGM shot, (although lion tamarins don't roar, they chirp), the second is a moment of caution while checking it is safe to descend to the ground.

Chester’s monkey house only holds four species, but they are all kept in big groups, so there is always something going on. Their outdoor enclosures are large and thickly planted so it can be difficult to see the monkeys if they don’t come near the moats. I was lucky to get good views of this lion-tailed macaque and young mandrill.

At the end of the day, I was walking with a couple of friends when we found the aardvarks were active. I confess that I had never seen them awake before, so I was pleased that the light was still good enough for me to get decent results with my 105mm lens.

Chester Zoo

Black jags and more

 March 5th 2013

I was very young when I first visited Chester Zoo with my Uncle Jack and my cousin Rachel. I guess it was around 1959. I can remember studying the zoo map when I got back home and carefully checking that I had seen everything: I was quite upset that I could remember seeing the buffaloes, but I hadn’t seen the buffet! My mother had to explain to explain to me what the Buffet was.

The zoo has expanded greatly since those days; a few of the buildings from that time remain, but they have all been modernised and many new ones have been built and indeed rebuilt. There is no doubt that Chester is now the best all-round zoo in the UK and I know that the zoo’s staff are determined that it will continue to be so.

As I had only made one short visit previously in 2013, I made sure that I had a full day on March 5th. I took the same kit as I used at Paignton, but I just used the 105mm macro and the 500mm without the coverter. The weather was good and the zoo was fairly quiet, although there were a few school parties as it was a Tuesday (I usually visit Chester at weekends, although the zoo is busier I often meet friends who are also regular visitors, plus the traffic is easier).

I was particularly keen to see some of the new arrivals, but my first decent photos were of 'Pele', the old male black jaguar. He has been allowed to use the outdoor waterfall enclosure of the jaguar house for a while now, and I think he looks very well on it. This is my favourite shot from a sequence taken with my 105mm lens as he walked around the enclosure. I like the angle of the light.

 

The other jaguar enclosure now holds a young pair of jags who have arrived this year. I saw them both for the first time, but they didn’t pose for me. I wandered around the zoo, but I didn’t really get any worthwhile photos until I reached the Tsavo aviary, where I paused for my packed lunch. It is supposed to be an ‘immersion exhibit’ making you feel that you are in Africa, but Chester in March isn’t warm enough to be convincing. Still the birds looked well and I used the 500mm to shoot this nice pose of a blacksmith plover.

I was delighted to get my first view of 'Tafari', the female okapi born last November. I was particularly pleased to see her as she is the zoo's first okapi calf and I had seen her parents attempting to mate in 2011. I particularly like the colour and texture of the coat of an okapi and I think that the contre jour lighting shows this well, I don’t particularly like the fussy background and I had to clone out a yellowish spot which was very distracting, but the bonus of that amazing tongue adds another element. I took several shots in the sequence, but this is the only one where the tongue is sharp.

This is the perhaps the point to say that I think that a good test of an animal photo is to ask if it shows you something new about the animal. Does this image pass the test?

Afternoon sunshine sometimes makes it possible to get good shots of the free-flying birds in the tropical house with a long lens. I was pleased to get this shot of a Madagascar red fody from the balcony, although the colour balance was tricky and I’m not absolutely sure I have the colours quite right here. This little guy does have garish red plumage, but perhaps this is a mite too garish.

Back at the Jag house, I managed to shoot the new young female 'Goshi', who is a black jaguar like 'Pele' (the zoo’s other two jags are normally coloured). This outdoor enclosure has a fence of very thick chain link and hot wires (the Curator of Mammals says you could keep a T. rex in there). So you have to work hard to get a clear image. I used my 500mm lens and increased the shutter speed to keep the aperture at f/4.5 to reduce depth of field and get the wire well out of focus. I also plunged my monopod into the thick border of spiny Berberis between the standoff barrier and the fence to get the front element closer to the wire (while still staying safe of course). I also picked a dark coloured area of wire to shoot through. Each of these precautions help technically, but you also need a proper pose to make the picture complete. I am satisfied with this one.

As it was getting towards closing time, I fitted the 105mm again for the walk back to the entrance, which was fortunate because the hyacinthine macaws were in their flight: this breeding pair can be quite secretive. One posed in front of the window and I took my chance.

 
 I hope it won't be too long before I have another day at Chester.