Yesterday, for his birthday, I took David to Safari in Ramat Gan. Safari is a combination of a drive-through wild animal park and a more conventional zoo. When I got home and uploaded the pictures to my computer, I found that I had shot more than 270 of them! Here are just a few of the best, with some words about each:
It's a good thing that I had my window rolled up, because this ostrich was a determined pecker!
Here's that same ostrich before he started his pecking campaign. He was moving his head a lot, so I was lucky to get this great shot!
Even without the zoom, these two hippos were pretty close to the car, but the zoom on my camera really brings them in for us to see. Quite interesting animals, I think.
This zebra was right in front of our car. As you may notice, this picture was actually taken through the windshield!
I took this zebra's picture through my left window, which was rolled down. The wild animal park has LOTS and LOTS of zebras. Aren't they beautiful creatures!
Beautiful or not, some of them are definitely striped beggars!
Just a little reminder that this wild animal park is right in the city! Ramat Gan is the city immediately inland from Tel Aviv. In fact, the Ayalon freeway is really all that separates them. In this view, you can see some of the buildings of Ramat Gan, a big power line tower, and a pretty little deer, all in the same picture.
The King of the Beasts! David counted about 9 or 10 lions in the lion area, but this one seemed to be the king. Once again, a power line tower reminds us where we really are.
Here are some of the other lions in a nice group photo.
I thought these antelope with their wavy horns and their interesting coloration were very beautiful.
Hard to believe, but this is a real animal. It looks like some kind of strange morph between a primate and a poodle. There were quite a number of these in the same enclosure, and several of them seemed to enjoy sitting and posing like this for the visitors. I call them the Posing Poodle Primates -- it has a sort of a ring to us, doesn't it?
This was the biggest bird we saw at the zoo! Yes, I really did shoot this from right in the zoo, using the maximum optical zoom on my camera! As some of you may know, the final approach path to the Ben Gurion International Airport passes right over Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. I don't know if you can see it in this somewhat reduced-sized photo, but the words on the plane spell out "Russia" in Cyrillic (Russian) letters!
This zoo has quite a large collection of various primates, and this gorilla family was one of the most interesting. The big one on the left had a gray back and seemed like the patriarch of the clan.
When I first saw these bears (there were several of them), I thought they were polar bears, but then I read the sign, which said that they were "Syrian brown bears", which used to be quite common in this area but which are now endangered. It also said that these were the kind of bears we read about in II Kings 2:23-24 regarding the prophet Elisha, shortly after his predecessor, Elijah, had been taken up into heaven in the fiery chariot: "He went up from there to Beth-el. As he was going up on the road. some young lads came out from the city and mocked him, saying to him, 'Go on up, Baldhead! Go on up Baldhead!' He turned around and saw them and cursed them in the name of HaShem. Two bears then came out of the forest and tore apart forty-two of the lads." So, I think I won't be messing with these bears, even though this one actually looks pretty nice!
We saw quite a number of giraffes at Safari, both in the zoo and out in the wild animal park. I took several pictures, of course, and I think this one is the nicest, at least partly because the dark background contrasts so nicely with his beautiful long neck.
Here's a nice ostrich picture where you can actually see the whole bird. Notice his daintily raised foot, and also notice the contrast between the ostrich and the crow. Normally, we think of the crows as one of the larger birds (and they are indeed bigger than most of the common birds we see -- although they are 2-toned here rather than solid black as in the U.S., they are the same size and they sound identical!), but this one looks incredibly small next to an ostrich!
It's a good thing that I had my window rolled up, because this ostrich was a determined pecker!
Here's that same ostrich before he started his pecking campaign. He was moving his head a lot, so I was lucky to get this great shot!
Even without the zoom, these two hippos were pretty close to the car, but the zoom on my camera really brings them in for us to see. Quite interesting animals, I think.
This zebra was right in front of our car. As you may notice, this picture was actually taken through the windshield!
I took this zebra's picture through my left window, which was rolled down. The wild animal park has LOTS and LOTS of zebras. Aren't they beautiful creatures!
Beautiful or not, some of them are definitely striped beggars!
Just a little reminder that this wild animal park is right in the city! Ramat Gan is the city immediately inland from Tel Aviv. In fact, the Ayalon freeway is really all that separates them. In this view, you can see some of the buildings of Ramat Gan, a big power line tower, and a pretty little deer, all in the same picture.
The King of the Beasts! David counted about 9 or 10 lions in the lion area, but this one seemed to be the king. Once again, a power line tower reminds us where we really are.
Here are some of the other lions in a nice group photo.
I thought these antelope with their wavy horns and their interesting coloration were very beautiful.
Hard to believe, but this is a real animal. It looks like some kind of strange morph between a primate and a poodle. There were quite a number of these in the same enclosure, and several of them seemed to enjoy sitting and posing like this for the visitors. I call them the Posing Poodle Primates -- it has a sort of a ring to us, doesn't it?
This was the biggest bird we saw at the zoo! Yes, I really did shoot this from right in the zoo, using the maximum optical zoom on my camera! As some of you may know, the final approach path to the Ben Gurion International Airport passes right over Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. I don't know if you can see it in this somewhat reduced-sized photo, but the words on the plane spell out "Russia" in Cyrillic (Russian) letters!
This zoo has quite a large collection of various primates, and this gorilla family was one of the most interesting. The big one on the left had a gray back and seemed like the patriarch of the clan.
When I first saw these bears (there were several of them), I thought they were polar bears, but then I read the sign, which said that they were "Syrian brown bears", which used to be quite common in this area but which are now endangered. It also said that these were the kind of bears we read about in II Kings 2:23-24 regarding the prophet Elisha, shortly after his predecessor, Elijah, had been taken up into heaven in the fiery chariot: "He went up from there to Beth-el. As he was going up on the road. some young lads came out from the city and mocked him, saying to him, 'Go on up, Baldhead! Go on up Baldhead!' He turned around and saw them and cursed them in the name of HaShem. Two bears then came out of the forest and tore apart forty-two of the lads." So, I think I won't be messing with these bears, even though this one actually looks pretty nice!
We saw quite a number of giraffes at Safari, both in the zoo and out in the wild animal park. I took several pictures, of course, and I think this one is the nicest, at least partly because the dark background contrasts so nicely with his beautiful long neck.
Here's a nice ostrich picture where you can actually see the whole bird. Notice his daintily raised foot, and also notice the contrast between the ostrich and the crow. Normally, we think of the crows as one of the larger birds (and they are indeed bigger than most of the common birds we see -- although they are 2-toned here rather than solid black as in the U.S., they are the same size and they sound identical!), but this one looks incredibly small next to an ostrich!
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