Northumberland Zoo ~ October 2021 ~ part 1

Posted in Adventures, animals, Fuji, FujiX-T2, nature, photography, Uncategorized, zooTagged , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been to this zoo a couple of times before, once with Sophie back in 2017 when it had only been been open 2 years, and then in 2019 with a couple of my grandkids.

Since then the zoo has expanded and now has two Arctic Foxes, and even more exciting, 2 snow leopards. They had to be visited of course, (cats R us šŸ˜Š) so off Sophie and I went.

Firstly we stopped to see the Black Tailed Prairie Dogs which are also new to us. They are herbivorous burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. They look quite cute and comical for big rats!

Black Tailed Praire Dogs

Next are the Meerkats, small Mongooses, (or should that be Mongeese? Not sure, anyway, Mongoose plural) found in southern Africa. 

Meerkat

The aviary is the next stop, and whilst caged birds hurt my soul, they have some beauties here.

Blue & Gold Macaw. Being shy.
African Grey Parrot

I’d photographed the owls etc previously so didn’t spend much time there. We went off to see the ring tailed lemurs but came across the Raccoon section first. Native to North America they are so cute!

Raccoon

The ringtailed lemurs are great to visit as you are allowed to walk through their space. They don’t attack people (which is good of them I think) and they gambol about swinging from trees and generally have a high old time.

ring tailed lemur having a rest
king of the swingers.

Another ratty beasty is a giant rodent from South America called Capybara, they’re semi-aquatic which means they spend a lot of time in water, they even mate under-water. That sounds fun! šŸ˜€

Atten_shun!

The giant tortoises were amazing to see, they look quite pre-historic. The one at the top is a Sulcata tortoise, also known as African Spurred Tortoises, they can grow to be one of the largest reptiles, weighing in at over 90 kilos. The one at the bottom is a Leopard tortoise and they can live to be over 100 years and weigh up to 55 kilos. They are named for their distinctive yellow colouration with black spots, similar to a leopard. Hmm, can’t really see it myself. I didn’t think of leopards when I saw them anyway.

Sulcata and Leopard troughing.

That will do for this time, stay tooned though for next week when we get to the big cats and doggies.

šŸ“· šŸ˜Š

51 thoughts on “Northumberland Zoo ~ October 2021 ~ part 1”

  1. Leapin’ lemurs!

    Do they have someplace to go when it gets cold out?

    The prairie dogs just look like our groundhogs. I was surprised when I met someone from Europe a couple of years ago who didn’t know what they were. Groundhog Day was a mystery to her.

    Raccoons are cute, and quite smart, but they are dirty, nasty little beasts.

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  8. Some fine creature portraits there!

    ā–Ŗā—¾ā—¼ā—¾ā–Ŗā–«ā—½ā—»ā—½ā–«ā–Ŗā—¾ā—¼ā—¾ā–Ŗā–«ā—½ā—»ā—½ā–«ā–Ŗā—¾ā—¼ā—¾ā–Ŗ
    ā–«ā—½ā—»ā—½ā–«ā–Ŗā—¾ā—¼ā—¾ā–Ŗā–«ā—½ā—»ā—½ā–«ā–Ŗā—¾ā—¼ā—¾ā–Ŗā–«ā—½ā—»ā—½ā–« ā“–ā“”ā“ā“—ā“ā“œ āˆž

    šŸ•ŠšŸ’™šŸ’›šŸ•Š

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  9. I love that most zoos today are all about creating a natural habitat for their animals, birds, etc. These are amazing photos! I adore a good zoo where the animals are well-treated and have freedoms to move about. The prairie dogs were so cute and I had to chuckle how the capybaras were lined up. But my favorite….I have been in love with ring-tailed lemurs since I first read about them in geography class as a kid. And who doesn’t get a good laugh out of King Julian? Great post and vid clip, Fraggle. I can’t wait to see what you have next week!

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  11. I love a good zoo – one that gives their animals lots of room and tries to achieve a similar natural habitat. It let’s us (especially children) see nature’s creatures up close & personal. Prairie Dogs, Meerkats are all so funny. The Lemurs are so cool – I’ve never seen an enclosure where you could roam around with them.

    NOTE: Racoons are cute, but NOT CUDDLY! They are pests and difficult to evict once they take up residence! They are not friendly at all (they belong to the Bear family)! I speak from personal experience… šŸ˜«šŸ˜¤

    I can hardly wait for the next instalment! šŸ˜„

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  13. Zoos are always a point of conflict for me – freedom (ie flying and running) and the fact we are losing so many wonderful creatures. I have to admit, too, to being amused about the raccoons – they roam our neighborhood, getting into trouble and making noise. They are really mean! One morning I heard this screaming in the street, just at sunrise. 3 coons were chasing another. They ran up my tree, had a fight, the one they were chasing fell out of the tree, and the rest jumped out of the tree and continued the row. Baby coons are cute – I had a couple when I was a kid. I really enjoyed seeing these pictures and learning about zoos in another part of the world – we always think of what is in our neighborhood is the whole world (at least I do) – and like seeing it from another perspective.

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