Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Find the animal

Commenters downstairs have noted that there were some photos that looked like they might have been taken at a zoo. The fence may have been a dead giveaway, of course, but they're absolutely right.

The cat-like creatures ....
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...are lynxes, while the mountain-goat-looking creatures ...
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... are capra ibexes, (read more here), hunted to extinction by the early 20th century but preserved through a breeding program at Wildpark Peter und Paul, the formal name of the animal preserve where all these shots were taken.

The second photo is kind of a precious moment: The juvenile making its way down the crags to the ground is having a moment of fear about jumping to a rock in the foreground, and is being nudged along by the ibex following.

And for the record, the ibexes were behind a fence, too, but I'll never tell how I got the clear shot.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

A lynx is closely related to a bobcat, and sometimes is referred to as a bobcat. Good to know the Swiss hold my alma mater, Ohio University, in such high esteem that they keep our official mascots in a wildlife preserve!

11:53 AM  

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