Alright, this is my second visit to Ähtäri Zoo this year, and ideally we’d like to make one more towards the end of the year, before actual snows. But we’ll see. We were in a group of four and like city people (which we’re not, me maybe most), we all forgot to take mosquito repellent with us. I don’t know what’s wrong with us, we should all know how horrible the mosquitoes get in this country. And let me tell you, those little demons were infernal. We were all full of bites by the end and our trip included a lot of curse words. Such a perfect meal we were.
Another unfortunate coincidence was that 5 bus loads of school kids happened to arrive at the same time. Sigh. Luckily they moved quite swiftly, although they were many in number. So, they weren’t horribly distracting, not including the swarm of little people scaring the otters into hiding and a group of very obnoxious boys making intentional racket (stomping their feet and chanting something loudly) and then being snotty about it when they were told to stop. I’m fine with kids that don’t realize that they’re doing something wrong as long as they stop when someone points that out, but do NOT be snotty about it when you’re being scolded. The people were bothered and so were the animals, poor things.
I took a gazillion photos again, and ran out of space on my memory card -again. Unfortunately I had my camera on the wrong setting through the whole trip, so it didn’t focus as well as it could have. Oh well, next time I’ll be vigilant. This time it was also super hot, so we missed some animals, but I also saw two of the animals I’ve never seen at Ähtäri before (being active anyway) because we entered right when the gates opened.
And here we go, starting with the wolverines. I’ve never seen them here before, although I’ve always wanted. They got food and were very active and playful. I got a ton of photos with them licking their lips, too (unfortunately none of them properly in focus). So cute, and damn, their fur looked so shiny and nice. ♥
There were treats on the swing, but it was challenging to get to it. :’D
Playing in the water was fun.
The snow leopard was sleeping again. Her face was visible but she didn’t seem to have any intention of moving, so we passed her.
The second animal I’ve never seen active was the otter:
This time they were out and about and came to pose on the rocks (well to look at us, more like).
And then there was floating in the water. This so killed me. They were both being equally adorable, but some chick had her fingers on the glass so my photos with the two of them were ruined.
Oh, she was so pretty~
Then a swarm of kids came screaming and stomping and they both immediately moved to the stream, mostly our of sight. But we stayed because they still seemed kind of curious.
And true enough, they came back out in the open once most of the kids moved along. The male (on top) amused me because he seemed really clingy. All “I’ll suavely move to protect you, but in reality I just want to hug~”. Lol, I mentioned to mizya that he was like the otter version of her character Shin Wa, who is always looking for excuses to cling onto his girlfriend.
There were also piglets, but the light was horrible and it was too hot to stay for long.
And owlets. Omg, one of them was constantly begging for food but the parents didn’t seem to care. :’D
Fluffy!
Mommy/daddy was like “not now”. They were hawk owls.
The great grey owl was giving me all kinds of nice portrait poses.
And then…
There was this “I will murder you in your sleep” -look ^^;;
This poor snowy owl is always in the same corner of the cage. ^^;
Ural owl portrait.
Tawny owl portrait.
And like… the perfect light on this snowy owl portrait. Zero editing needed.
This too ♥
The lynxes were mostly active but for some reason I just can’t get nice photos of them during summer.
Well, they weren’t that active, so that might explain it :’D There were pieces of food around but they were mostly uninterested.
The last one was lying down at the back of the exhibit.
The crows were playing and being somewhat active, but the cage is still horrible for taking photos.
They were being all photogenic, and then….
They decided it was time for a derpy couple pose. ^^;;
The terns were nesting at the little pond/lake next to the rest stop/cafe. One of their eggs had fallen out of the nest. :<
Don’t remember what kind of a goose this was…
We debated whether this was an adder or a ringed snake, but none of us were sure and there was no sign. Based on this photo and the clear pattern on the back, I’d say adder, but I didn’t get any photos of the head from above to confirm (nor did I see the full snake). Last time we were here, they had a ringed snake, though, so I’m still uncertain. Yes, Finland has two snakes and we can’t even distinguish the two. :D;; Adder is poisonous but the ringed snake isn’t.
What I’d actually like to see is a slow worm, since I’ve never seen one in nature either. I suspect they’re extremely cute. :’D
The elk had her babbus with her, but they were really far away. Probably due to the swarms of children that had passed them earlier.
The polecats were sleeping outside.
The only member of the weasel family that was up was the stoat (again).
He was just as elusive as last time. I failed the focus on all the outdoor photos but at least some of these indoor ones were okay. He’s faster than my gerbils were and tiny and the enclosure is pretty big.
His friend was sleeping in the mitten, lol the tip of the tail ♥ *__*
Wolves were very active.
…not.
This was pretty much the most action there was.
And this.
“Come on, what are you doing? It’s hot so lie back down.”
They’d been scraping themselves against the fences to get rid of their winter fur and all the edges were full of fur balls. Poor things. xD
Aand the last item on the menu this time: brown bears.
This is Mimmi. The proud mom of surprise triplets. She’s way past her prime and her partner, Mörri, is near senile, so nobody expected these cubs.
Yes, hello, I have a piece of leaf stuck to my nose.
And I like to bully my siblings.
One of them was big on solo climbing too.
Then Mimmi realized that new people came to look and…
…Basked in the attention. :D
This is Mimmi and Mörri’s older son.
And this is the big man himself.
The bachelor wouldn’t leave his dad alone and constantly began this sort of a sumo match.
But whenever I started to take photos, they stopped and…
Yeah, thanks for the teddy bear shots, guys.
Once we moved on, only three animals remained. The foxes were hiding (I’d be more surprised to see them). I caught a glimpse of a pair of ears and that was it.
But the red pandas were active again (well one of them):
Lots of tongue shots today, but this is the only one that was properly in focus.
And that’s it. The last animal was the takin and they were lounging about again, like many other animals. It was so hot.
Beautiful shots! I wish I had a better camera for our zoo. We have one of the best in the USA. My phone is older, though, and doesn’t take good long distance shots… which is way necessary at our zoo, hehe~
Favorite has to be the murderous look owl~! ^_^
Thanks. I needed a proper objective for these as well, because the enclosures are quite big for certain animals. Especially the elks were far away.
This Zoo is probably my favorite one in Finland. Then again, I think we only have 3 proper zoos, unless I’m remembering wrong. The one in Helsinki has a lot of animals in smaller cages and I just tend to feel sorry for them. This one is pretty big, doesn’t have that many animals and the enclosures are mostly big and very well designed for viewing pleasure. They tend to go uphill and the guests can view from below or from a higher deck, so that you don’t have to look at the animals through netting of plexi glass in most cases. Not to mention that the most of the animals are usually also very active, instead of depressed and just always lying in one spot. And what I remember from the Ranua zoo is that it’s also really big and the enclosures are similarly very close to nature. I was quite young when I went there last, though. In this Zoo and the Ranua one the trail is in the middle of the forest and there are patches on the trail where you can just look at the nature, instead of a wall/fence of another enclosure. I really prefer that to the traditional zoo where you walk on concrete paths and arrive from one enclosure to another.
Such beautiful pictures of all the animals! My favorites are the otters and the bears ~~ owls are generally the best though! :D
Thanks. I was in love with the otters too, especially because I haven’t seen them active before. :3 I’m glad we were there so early. We took a trip back from near the end because we wanted to go see if the snow leopard had woken up. But nope, she was still sleeping in the same spot and the otters had gone to sleep as well.
These are all so beautiful. All the owl photos turned out perfect! It’s so cool that there are so many family groups at this zoo. It looks like a lovely place to be. :)
I think the goose is a barnacle goose by the way. ^^
Thanks. Yes, it’s very important for the animals to breed in this zoo (especially the endangered species), and they keep book of the family tree of the animals to keep the genetic pool as diverse as possible.
You’re probably right. There was the sign on the outside of the bird place but I was too lazy to go back and check it. I was looking for the mandarin duck to photograph anyway but it was hiding, so I snapped a photo of that one instead. xD
Beautiful Pictures. I came across your blogs searching to see if anyone had written anything about the Snow Owls at the Helsinki Zoo and their tiny cage. We were having a generally lovely visit a few days ago with our 3 month old son who hopefully will recall nothing of this incident. While taking pictures of the snow owls we were very excited when one of the fluffy chicks took off for flight and then froze in our place when it crashed at full speed into the cage wall and fell stunned to the floor. It appeared unharmed and was flying more conservatively shortly after, but it made me wonder about the ethics of keeping birds with such wide ranges in the wild in cages so small. It also made me feel dishonest with the pictures I had been taking all day that conveniently left out the cage bars. Most of the other animals seemed quite comfortable but the large birds really bothered me.
Thanks. I feel a little sorry for the owls at Ähtäri zoo as well, but I do think most of the parents are injured or unable to live in the wild, while the chicks get released when they’re old enough. (Not sure though, but I like to believe it.) It’s been a long time since I visited Helsinki zoo and I don’t remember the birds at all, but at least Ähtäri doesn’t have hard walls for the birds: their cage is all netting, so they don’t fly into it like that and if they do it gives a bit. But what I do remember is that I don’t like Helsinki zoo very much. Their mammals are in small cages too and it’s hard to see or photograph them through the glass. Ähtäri has large natural enclosures and the animals are easy to see because either the enclosure is up hill and we look from below, or we’re higher up and look down on the animals. They’re also mostly lively and happy-looking. What I remember from Ranua zoo is the same but bigger (went there when I was a kid), but Helsinki zoo… I really don’t like it much. I remember visiting several times when I was younger and the animals were always lethargic and sleeping (could’ve been the weather too). I recommend both Ähtäri and Ranua zoos, though. Well, the bird habitats do make me feel sorry for them, but I don’t think there is a big enough enclosure for big birds anywhere.