Dublin

Dublin Zoo II

Shortly after my trip to the Zoo I read this blog post on Weave A Web. It is supposed to be humorous – which it sure is – but in connection with my zoo visit, it gave me some food for thoughts. Do we really need to interfere and ‘improve’ the Nature? Is the ‘conservation’ real? What is the percentage of successful reintroduction of a species to the wild? Especially if ‘the wild’ is made unlivable for animals by humans.

I don’t want to upset you at the beginning of my post. Let’s go back to the hippos and watch Atiya and her antics.

In 2002 a tragedy struck. Linda, a 28 years old female hippo, became ill and died. A post mortem revealed the tennis ball blocked her intestine. As they don’t sell tennis balls in the zoo, it had to have been brought in by a visitor. Linda’s 13 month old son Hoovie who had never left her side, kept wandering around the enclosure, lonely and confused, looking for his mother. Henry, her mate of 16 years, was left bereft. Later he got a new mate, Heidi.

The last group of animals we will visit today are our ‘cousins’, the primates. Saki monkey in this picture looks gorgeous, but I would love to see him more contented.

Western lowland gorillas look even less contented. It was the saddest place I visited in the zoo.

Are they still grieving? Sunday May 29 2016 was one of the saddest days in the zoo. Harry, the ‘gentle giant’, beloved silverback passed away. Ireland was heartbroken.

Harry presumably suffered a stroke after being unwell for a few days.

Harry arrived at Dublin Zoo in September 1995 when he was just nine years old. He was 29 when he died. His mate of 21 years, Lena, and the other gorillas searched the island for Harry and cried. Lena and Harry had six babies over the years. When Harry died, she was pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby boy Kitoko two months later.

It is what their enclosure looked like in 2007. The main entertainment was to sit and stare through the glass into the greenery.

Henry died shortly after the troupe were relocated to the spacious Gorilla Rainforest. Was it too much for the 29 years old leader to monitor such a big territory? I don’t know. He was a great leader anyway, calm and gentle. If a fight broke out, he would step in and stop the conflict.

Life is going on. New babies are born in Gorilla Rainforest.

And here are some pictures from the Chimpanzee Island.

This chimp looks sad and lonely.

Another chimp sees that and hurries to his pal to offer comfort.

Too late! Someone else is already there with a hug.

Oh well.

It is so good to have a friend by your side.

As some of you might have guessed, I went to the Dublin Zoo to see Philip. However on that day the old Reptile House was closed as the animals were in the process of moving to the Zoorassic World. I left without answers. Later that day I emailed to the customer service and asked if they had a Water dragon in their Zoorassic World collection. A lady named Jennifer replied that they hadn’t. Then I asked if a water dragon they got from the Reptile Village has died, and she said no, he just moved to Dudley Zoo in April this year. I opened their page. The dragon didn’t look like Philip to me. I have to see the dragon to be sure as he has some distinctive features I could recognize. I don’t give up on finding Philip yet.

Thank you for your wonderful company!

inesemjphotography Have a great weekend!

Dublin Zoo I

Dublin Zoo was opened to the public on the 1st September 1831 with 46 mammals and 72 birds on display, all donated by London Zoo. The entry charge was sixpence that later was reduced to one penny on Sundays. It was basically a shed with the animal cages housed in a random order. The animals were routinely taunted and abused by the visitors. During the Famine of the 1840 many animals died and the institution almost collapsed. Another tough time was in the end of the 1980’s. The zoo was struggling and the council considered closing it, but with the aid of the Government it eventually started to recover. At present, Dublin Zoo is a home to some 400 animals.

I am going to the Dublin Zoo once in a decade. I have mixed feelings about the Zoos, especially about breeding in captivity. This time there were three baby elephants born within a year.

This little baby bull elephant Kabir was born to mama Yasmin in May. He is Yasmin’s fourth calf.

The other two baby elephants are Zinda born in September 2016 and Avani born in March this year, both girls.

Zinda’s mum Asha was the first Asian elephant born in Dublin Zoo back in 2007, the year of my previous visit (picture below). She was hiding behind her mother and I had a hard time taking a good picture of her.

Asha’s mum and Zinda’s grandmother Bernhardine is still alive. She is the matriarch of the herd.

Dublin Zoo’s first elephant was a female called Sita, and her keeper was James McNally. In 1903 Sita cut her foot and as James was applying ointment to her wound, she knocked him down with her trunk and stamped on his head. The coroner decided she had acted out of malice and sentenced her to death. Nearly 30 years of good behavior prior the accident didn’t help, and after two days an experienced elephant hunter and a firing squad did the killing. Even McNally’s son said that his father would not have wanted the animal killed.

Sita’s stamping foot was preserved as an umbrella bucket in the Zoo cafeteria for decades.

I didn’t have a good view of the other babies – you see Zinda in the middle and Avani on the left. They look happy, but their future is unclear.

Another set of cute babies – Tamworth piglets.

Not a baby anymore but still good looking 😉

African Red river hog, shy nocturnal animal with long tufted ears.

Just a billy goat from the Family Farm.

Bored chicken from the Family Farm.

Southern white rhino, endangered species. They have a big herd here in Dublin Zoo, and a male calf was born last August.

More than 100 animals died at Dublin Zoo during the 24 month period from 2014 to 2016, among them Southern white rhinoceros, two Rothschild giraffes, three grey wolves and a red panda.

Rothschild giraffes in 2007. They are no more.

Red panda in 2007. Gone.

Humboldt penguins are very quiet. Ten years ago there were more of them, and I remember the sounds they made – trumpet-like, even elephant-like.

This picture is 10 years old. Three Humboldt penguins died in 2015. There are fewer than 12000 of the penguins left in the wild..

Penguins and zebras look good in monochrome pictures.

I love these neat animals.

Another black & white favorite – European magpies. They are living in the zoo along with many other wild birds including a Grey heron. I saw him in 2007 and he is still alive, still hanging with penguins and probably stealing their fish 🙂

Here are some links you might be interested in:

National Animal Rights Association, Ireland

Captive Animals’ Protection Society (CAPS)

Thank you for visiting Dublin Zoo with me. One more post next Saturday.

inesemjphotography Have a wonderful weekend!

People in the streets

What is street photography? Almost everything! Photographing street scenes, public events and human characters; landmarks and architecture, urban environment, transportation… Plus colors, patterns, shadows… Simply everything.

People walk in the streets, but they also do many other things. They sell and buy stuff, sometimes quite amazing, like this green cat…

… or this hand-made jewelry. Well, the sellers can be remarkable too.

This young man is not texting. He is reading. Not good for the sales, but good for him. I took this picture because of the color arrangement: red parasol and hoodie – blond hair and wooden kitchenware.

More amazing stuff, and the artist himself is a character.

Street vendors in NYC are not different from their colleagues in the rest of the world. It is an old photograph – I wonder if anything has changed.

People also perform in the streets. I already posted about the street performers in Dublin. This guy was spotted in Belfast.

That’s NYC again.

Tall Ships festival in Waterford.

Dublin Pride – this girl came all the way from Brasil. A spectator in his underpants could be from anywhere – could be a time travelling gone wrong…

This band was actually brilliant, but the streets were empty: beach party in progress.

This guy is a reggae musician Cian Finn. I had no idea when I spotted him in Cork and asked for a photograph. Things happen 🙂

People use electronic devices in the streets.

People sometimes cook in the streets.

People are generally friendly and happy. They pose if asked nicely.

People chat with strangers.

Unhappy people protest, usually peacefully…

… or use electronic devices…

Some people stay in the streets most of their time.

Some people own terrific cars and look darn cool, like this Italian policeman. In 2004, Lamborghini donated two Lamborghini Gallardo police cars to the Polizia di Stato on their 152nd anniversary. On the 31st November 2009 one of these 165,000-euro cars was badly damaged in a collision near the northern Italian town of Cremona where it was on display at a student jobs fair. It was repaired in January 2010. I took this photograph of the famous Lamborghinis in Tivoli in March 2010, and consider myself very lucky for being in the right place at the right time 🙂

Some people own bikes, like this shiny one. I was circling around it long enough to get arrested 🙂

Some people just wait for their bus.

Most of people walk…

… and cast shadows if the day is sunny.

Most of the days are not sunny here, it is why I am posting a sad song for you: Johnny Cash – Streets of Laredo.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Simple things

In Grafton Street, Dublin, you never get bored: an army of street performers takes care of your entertainment. Stationed along the path, they do their best to impress the by-passers and earn some cash. Grafton street is only 180 m long and 6 m wide, but that afternoon at least nine talented performers gathered crowds and made the street lively providing all sort of amusements.

The biggest and the most happily looking crowd surrounded a young couple creating giant soap bubbles.

Simplicity and magic of their performance was truly fascinating.

The little ones ran around catching the bubbles; the grown-ups just stood there, staring in awe.

Simple things. What our life would look like without them?

Cuteness of a baby animal; a delicate flower…

… a green leaf…

… a barley spikes moving in the wind…

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.” – Italian actress Eleonora Duse

Even successful relationships are based on accumulation of the simple things that people do together. Simple like that.

One of my favorites – Zero 7 and their album Simple Things.

Zero 7 – Simple Things

Have a great weekend!

Street Pride

If you want to live a happy and fulfilling life focus on the best in people and in yourself. Sometimes the same rule goes for street photography:)

There are a few images from Dublin Pride 2013 (unfortunately I didn’t make it to Dublin this year). The images were taken after the parade was over.

Gardai look tired. It was a busy day.

I liked that hat, it is why I asked them for a picture:)

This lovely dog came to Dublin from Brazil.

Coachman and his son are amused by the fluffy Brazilian:)

I have got many images of this lovely old lady. I like this one for a reason: follow her eyes, they are staring right at the bare chest of that hot Brazilian fella in the right corner:)

This sweet couple enjoyed themselves, especially the gentleman: He was chatting with everyone in his reach ( I put a picture of them in my previous blog post)

Some people were rushing through the crowd as fast as they could. Locals want to get home, they are tired of the crowded streets.

Late evening. This texting street performer is too tired of real people. With no one around it is nice to share a quiet company, at last.

Hope you like this evening in Dublin. Click on the images to enlarge them a little: they are all reasonable size images. I didn’t post pictures from the parade: people’s faces tell more stories than their fancy dresses ( except that cute yellow hat :)…). But my next post… It is about something very special, and plenty of elaborated garments too 😉 Talk to you Friday!

Photography tip of the day: Black&white images focus on the story with no distractions. Great for portraiture, architectural details, lines, shapes, textures, light/shadows, mismatched colors in your composition, and for improving bland uninteresting images you still want to keep.

Have a great week!