Hippo in North Carolina Zoo

Look at this Hippopotamus (often shortened to "hippo") carefully. It is not real and it is just a sculpture. We found it by the picnic area in the North Carolina Zoo by the African entrance. There is no living hippo in display inside the zoo. However, having a live size hippo sculpture would provide another way for people to learn about hippo.

The hippopotamus is semi-aquatic, inhabiting rivers and lakes. The zoo places this sculpture right by the water to emulate the real life situation intentionally. We think that it is a very smart move.

Of course, around this hippo, there is no fence. We can even touch it. We can even sit on its neck. If it is real, would you do that?

Golden Frog in North Carolina Zoo

Do not be fooled by this picture. At first sight, you may think we are showing a picture we took for a Golden Frog in zoo. We took this photo in the North Carolina Zoo on 20th July 2008 for sure. In reality, we took this picture of an illuminated picture. That zoo display we saw is about Golden Frog from Central America which is about one inch long. It is so small that we did not get any good shot for any of those living frogs with the telephoto lens we had. However, there was a nice picture on the wall right by the living Golden Frog display.

From the description by the display, it is so sad to learn that we can not find any wild Golden Frog in Central America anymore. A deadly fungus infected the skin amphibians, destroying entire populations in 2001. In areas before the fungus reached there, scientists collected a group of Golden Frogs and they are now being bred in zoos in order to save the species. Now, we can only see them in zoos.

African Hibiscus in North Carolina Zoo

On this picture, it is a flower of Hibiscus Schizopetalus, better known as African Hibiscus. When we saw this flower on 20th July 2008 in the North Carolina Zoo, we were so amazed of its very distinctive divided petals. It was simply eye catching. Hibiscus Schizopetalus is a species of Hibiscus native to eastern Africa in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. It is a shrub which can grow to 3 meters tall. However, the flower was so attractive and we did not even pay attention to the other part of the plant. It is really shame on us.

Meerkat in North Carolina Zoo

On 20th July 2008, we visited the North Carolina Zoo with good friends, Didi and Gigi. It was a hot day and most of the animals were either hiding or sleeping. However, the meerkat display was indoor and a lot of meerkats came out while we were there. They were from 11 to 15 inches in height about 20 feet away from where we stood. Luckily, we had our 70-300mm lens with us and we were able to take some close-up shots for the meerkats.

Meerkats are mongooses. They live in open country of Africa's temperate grasslands and savannas. In this picture, you can see that the meerkat sits upright. In fact, they like doing that. When they sit upright on top of rocks or termite mounds, they will be able to see things further away. If they detect distant threats, they will make some sharp bark sounds to alarm everyone. Then, they all head to underground for safety.

Bateleur Eagle in North Carolina Zoo

In our past visits to the North Carolina Zoo, we noticed that there was a very special eagle called bateleur eagle. However, we were not able to take some pictures for it. In April 2008 when we visited the zoo again, that display was closed for maintenance unfortunately. On 20th July 2008, we went to the North Carolina Zoo again. The bateleur eagle was there finally. We had determined to take some good shots for it and we did. Here is one of the pictures.

The bateleur eagle is really a beautiful bird. From the sign in the zoo, its life span is around 20 to 40 years, weight 4 to 6 pounds, height from 21 to 27 inches. The sign also says "The bateleur eagle takes its name from the French word meaning acrobat, due to the side-to-side balancing motion it displays when flying." Unfortunately, the eagle we saw was in a not-s0-big cage. We did not think we would be able to see its acrobatic flying ability in it.

When we were in front of the cage, the eagle stayed still most of the time. So, it was not very difficult to find a good angle for the photos. The hard part was actually trying to avoid the wire on the cage net. So, we poked the lens onto the net. The lens was too big that it was not able to get through the hole on the net but it was good enough to avoid any wire on the pictures. Luckily, the eagle was calm enough not coming over to attach the funny looking lens of our camera.

Schuylkill River in Philadelphia

On 22nd March 2008, we spent a day in the famous Philadelphia Zoo. It is the first zoo in America chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 21st March 1859, opened on 1st July 1874 due to the Civil War. The zoo is located at the west bank of the Schuylkill river in Philadelphia. The east side of the river is New Jersey.

When we got on to the helium balloon which rose up 400 feet high in the air, we were given a wonderful view of the Philadelphia downtown. When we looked closer across the river in New Jersey side, we saw a few houses by the cape. At the tip of the cape, there is a house right by the river. It would be really nice to sit in that house by the window to have a 270 degree view of the river and have a cup of tea or coffee.

Hamadryas Baboon in North Carolina Zoo

On 19th April 2008, we spent a few hours in the North Carolina Zoo with good friends, Kevin, Lori, and Alexis. By the time we were in the Hamadryas Baboon area, we were so tired and hungry. So, we sat down to watch some baboons playing and ate something ourselves. Amazingly, the baboons were so active and they ran around like crazy. It had attracted a lot of people to watch them.

This picture was taken while we were there eating. They are really interesting animals. From the sign in the zoo, male baboon is 2 to 3 feet long and weight 30 to 55 pounds, while female baboon is 1.5 to 2 feet long and weight 20-30 pounds. There are some bigger baboons and we are sure that they were males. However, we could not tell these two in this picture. They might be females or young males. There must be other ways to distinguish between male and female baboons besides the size. If you know the trick, we would very much like to know.

Old Young Man in Chapel Hill

On 31st October 2006, this young man dressed up like an old man came to our house. He even gave us a nice old man style smile. Of course, we gave him a lot of candies he deserved.

Halloween is really a nice festival for all young and old people to enjoy. Unfortunately, we do not get a day off. Otherwise, people would have time to be even more creative in dressing up. These days, people can buy expensive masks and dresses for Halloween costume. On the other hands, we appreciate to see kids dressing up nicely with very little cost such as this one. Well, how did he get the gray hair? Let's hope that it was not from his daddy's latex white paint for the house.

Football Player in Chapel Hill

On 31st October 2006, the Halloween Day, we had many interesting people coming over to our house after dark for candy as usual. They really spent the time and effort to dress up. In return, they got candies. We thought that the effort and reward were not balanced at all. For this kid dressed up as a football player, he did spend a lot of time to paint his face like that. Also, when he met us, he gave us a ugly face for the picture. All those efforts resulted from some candies they would not even eat afterward.

Human beings are quite amazing if you think about it. They would do something just for fun and happiness regardless of the time and effort to achieve that. So, the rules of economics do not apply in people's certain behavior.

Parachute in Andrews Air Force Base

On 19th May 2007, we went to the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to see the Air Show. There were so many people getting into the base bus after bus that morning. It was one of the biggest Air Show we have even seen. It was still a little chilly but it did not avoid us from running around to see things we would not be able to see normally.

One of the first shows in the Air Show was the parachuting by the Army. Amazingly, a bunch of those parachuters were able to drop out of a plane and landed on a designated 25 feet diameter circle on the ground. It would take so much courage and skill to do something like that. We were able to use our telephoto lens 70-300mm to catch the moment while a parachuter was about to land. After they landed, we also witnessed how they folded the parachute back into the special backpack for next jump. Also, they were supposed to do the folding within a certain time limit.