In and Around Missouri
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Stories and pictures from around Missouri
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Downtown St. Louis
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One of the finest gardens in the world
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Around the St. Louis Zoo
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The St. Louis Arch
Zoo Stories
Shelley on Thursday, 2008-11-06The St. Louis Zoo is a favorite place of mine, but the web site for the Zoo doesn't provide all the back stories to the animals. Or at least, not as many as I would like.
Happily, I spotted a story on the Amur Tiger cubs' father, Khuntami by Dr. Jeffrey Bonner, in St. Louis Today—the latest in a year long series on the Zoo. I asked the St. Louis Today for links to the other articles, and the site was kind enough to link the others in.
This is a wonderful series, which I now see is also linked more prominently at the Zoo site. What I especially like about the series is that it focuses on the Zoo's conservation efforts, rather than the "entertainment" items, so many other zoos feature so prominently. For instance, the Amur tiger cubs are winners with the public, true. How could they not be? What's more important, though, is that the Amur tiger is one of the rarest cats in the world, and these five tiger cubs are especially critical for the program to save this endangered cat. The cubs' father, Khuntami, was born in the wild, and orphaned as a cub. His genetic contribution to the Amur Tiger breeding program has been invaluable in the desperate attempt to save this beautiful cat.
But yeah, OK, they are cute little buggers.
More St. Louis Zoo photos.
Soggy State
Shelley on Thursday, 2008-10-23The majority of my photos posted recently are from the Missouri Botanical Gardens, or the St. Louis Zoo. I've not explored outside of the St. Louis area this last year primarily because of all the rain and flooding we've had. Though I was not, personally, directly impacted by the flooding, I've been indirectly impacted because of the extremely high mold content. I wasn't aware until recently that I'm allergic to mold pollen, go figure. Add to this my allergic reaction to even the most innocuous Missouri bug bites, and I've spent most of the summer on paved paths and close to home.
A happy byproduct of my restricted explorations, though, is how much I've come to look beyond the obvious in my local walks at the St. Louis Zoo. So much so that I'm starting a new category of writings on the Zoo over at my personal web site, Just Shelley. There is much we can learn about ourselves, as well as the animals, at a zoo.
In the meantime, I have been posting photos from both the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo to the MissouriGreen image galleries. Posted below are some representative examples. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I may expand my explorations again, perhaps even include some fall color photos.
Not just Butterflies
Shelley on Friday, 2008-09-19My last trip to the Botanical didn't just result in some butterfly photos. I was also able to grab some photos of birds, including a rather proud looking goldfinch.
Our bright fellow wasn't by himself, though. This female goldfinch, with more subtle coloring, was busy either trying to hack loose a leaf, or sharpening her bill.
First Monarchs
Shelley on Friday, 2008-09-19I spotted my first monarchs this week, and managed to get a couple of photos of them and some of their friends at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
Monarch butterfly:
I was finally able to capture an image of a Cabbage White. Though they are common, they're difficult to photograph because they move about more than most of the other butterflies. They're also a very aggressive butterfly, chasing away other types of butterflies and, on a couple of occasions, small birds.
The following dainty beauty is most likely a male Clouded Sulphur :
There's always room for one more Painted Lady photo:
At first I thought this butterfly was a male Taxiles Skipper, but the Butterflies and Moths of North America guide say that this species has never been spotted in Missouri. Running through all of the Skipper photos, I then found the Fiery Skipper, which is known to be in Missouri. The two are very similar, at least to someone new to butterfly identification.
A quick note to readers: if these photos seem a little washed out, it's because I use color management with my photos. What this means is that the photos are edited using a specialized "sRGB color profile" common to Windows, and then the color profile is inserted into the photo in order for the color to be properly managed in other environments. However, only Safari and Firefox 3 with a special color management add-on correctly interpret the profile on the Mac.
