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Friday, May 17th is Endangered Species Day! Happy Day to you! This is an incredible day of awareness, and let’s not forget why we are celebrating this day. As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states on their website, “On May 17, 2013 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will observe Endangered Species Day in order to recognize the national conservation effort to protect our nation’s endangered species and their habitats.” What a great responsibility to recognize! What are some of your favorite endangered species?

I’ve got more photos from our experience seeing Jungle Jack Hanna that I wanted to share! It really was amazing to see all of these animals and hear some really incredible facts about them.

I was incredibly excited when this animal came out on stage.

This is a two-toed sloth.

I love these creatures.

They spend most of their time in trees and only come down to the ground about once a week to use the bathroom.

Their fur often times become covered in green algae. This actually benefits the sloth by camouflaging him while he is in the trees. To predators like eagles, the sloth just looks like foliage.

This is a barred owl. He is from the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro.

Barred owls are the only typical owl in Virginia with a completely dark eye. They are named for the barring on their chest. These owls have really inspired my artwork.

This is a really unusual animal – an echidna. It’s a monotreme like a platypus, which means it’s an egg-laying mammal.

Those are sharp spines. They are powerful diggers and this little guy was covered in dirt!

This is a serval and she was insanely cute. (I may be partial because my fiancé and I symbolically adopt a serval at the Conservators’ Center. For her, being on stage was play time, and she just kept biting and swatting at her leash.

She was getting ready to pounce in this photo. She cracked me up. I could barely get any photos because she moved so fast. Servals can jump over 9 feet straight up in the air to grab birds out of the sky. That gives you an idea of how athletic they are.

This is a Harris Hawk. I didn’t get photos, but one of the hawk’s handlers stood up in the balcony with the hawk. A man from the audience was brought onto the stage and he held out his arms in a big “O” shape. Behind him was another handler. The hawk flew from the balcony, directly over my head (I felt the wind from its wing flaps) and through the man’s arms and landed on the handler’s glove behind him. It was absolutely incredible.

Birds of prey often do this posturing when they are eating prey. They envelop the prey with their wings to try and keep it to themselves and so as not to attract other predators.

I don’t remember the name of this frog, but Jack said it had toxins in its skin. It was huge!

This is a boa constrictor. I used to work with a boa at my zoo, but she passed away a few years ago. She was a great snake to work with. Very docile.

I love the patterns on these snakes.

This is a penguin, but I don’t recall what kind. I believe this is a penguin from South America.

There are 17 species of penguins worldwide. Only 4 of those species live and nest on and around the Antarctic continent and 3 other species live and nest on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands. The rest live in more tropic regions and couldn’t survive in the cold.

Ohhhhhhhh the clouded leopard! This is my little cousin’s favorite animal and I can see why!

She was gorgeous!

The handlers held the animals attention by offering them treats.

Animals are incredibly intelligent, so it’s very enriching to keep their minds active and teach them new “tricks.” The treats help to reward good behavior and keep the animal’s interest as well.

Look at that tail!

Sadly, the results of a 13 year study have concluded that one subspecies of clouded leopard is now thought to be extinct in Taiwan. More information on that story can be found here and here.

My hope is that the other subspecies of clouded leopards will be survive and thrive with the current conservation efforts underway. We need to keep these beauties around forever!

Last, but not least, Jack concluded his lecture by showing us a full grown cheetah. He told everyone not to move, and he said don’t go to the bathroom unless you can run faster than 70 miles per hour.

I’m absolutely in awe of this beauty.

This majestic creature is already inspiring my artwork.

After the lecture, we were able to attend a reception event with Jack Hanna, his handlers, some of his zoo’s animals, and birds of prey from the Wildlife Center of Virginia. The reception was absolutely PACKED. I don’t do well in large crowds and small rooms, but we made our way around to each animal and to Mr. Hanna himself. Jack signed an autographed photo for myself, my fiancé, and my zoo. A couple of the animals at my zoo came from Jack, so I told him that and he said he knew my zoo very well and that he loved my zoo. He was incredibly nice. Meeting him is something I will never forget.

Onto the photos! We got to meet the sloth up close and personal! I was smitten – what a beauty!

This is Ruby, the Red-Tailed Hawk from the Wildlife Center. She lost her eye after she was hit by a car. You can find her story here.

This is Buddy the Bald Eagle. He is also from the Wildlife Center. He’s pretty famous in these parts. His beak became deformed after a bout with Avian Pox. More about his story can be found here.

This is a barred owl from the Wildlife Center. I’m not sure which education animal this is, but he or she is beautiful!

Awww the three banded armadillo! He was still all rolled up, but we got to touch him!

Last, but certainly not least, this little cutie is a Bennett’s Wallaby! She was still very young, but she was fine with the crowd. She seemed totally comfortable in her keeper’s arms.

We had a fabulous time, and I would highly recommend seeing Jungle Jack if you ever get the chance!

I didn’t really know what to expect when my fiance and I went to see a presentation by “Jungle” Jack Hanna. We were going to the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, VA. We had never been there before and we had never seen Jack Hanna live before. I thought (and was really hoping) he might bring animals with him, but I wasn’t sure. I thought the theater would be small and intimate, and I thought I would be excited but composed. When we entered the theater and saw wall to wall people shuffling through the lobby of the theater, I was immediately overwhelmed. We were like cattle being herded to an unknown destination. All of us chattering and trying to push through just to get somewhere, anywhere that wasn’t so crowded. My fiance and I had gotten our tickets through the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro. The tickets entitled us to a tour at the Wildlife Center earlier that morning, as well as a meet and greet reception with Jack Hanna after the presentation. As we were funneling through the theater lobby, we could see some Wildlife Center employees handling raptors to the right of us. It was impossible to get over to them, and we figured we would see them at the reception, so we pushed on. I began to notice the theater was much larger than I had expected. I actually started feeling a little emotional. All these people were here to see not a rock star, not a movie star, but an animal guy…a zoo Director and former zookeeper. It made me feel really good. I was trying to take in all the sights and peek through all the shoulders and heads at the raptors to see them as much as I could when I noticed a table of Jack Hanna merchandise. Then I noticed the head-to-toe khaki clothed figure sitting on the table. I don’t know why, but I immediately got so emotional and so excited that tears started to well in my eyes. I had no idea that would be my reaction when I saw Mr. Hanna. I not-so-quietly whispered to my fiance “THERE HE IS!!!! THAT’S JACK HANNA!!!” (Yes, I went all fangirl.) My fiance had already spotted him, but I could tell he was excited too. The line to see him was huge, so we pressed on and into the theater to find our seats. We were right in the center and very close to the stage. I got even more excited. Our seats were perfect. There was a table on the stage, and behind it was a giant screen with a photo of Jack holding a juvenile cheetah. My fiance and I were stoked. I didn’t know exactly what was in store, but I knew it would be amazing. We noticed how many older adults were in attendance. I had expected the theater to be packed with children, but I didn’t know so many middle-aged and senior adults would be there. I was happy about it. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my affinity for animals. Lots of kids like animals, but sometimes they seem to lose that sense of wonder about animals and the natural world as they get older and get busy with their own lives. It was nice to see a HUGE room full of adults who still had their sense of wonder.

It wasn’t long before we saw Jack coming in and going up on stage. We had been told that we wouldn’t be allowed to take photos of the presentation because it might startle the animals, but that we could take photos at the reception afterwards, so I brought my camera along with me. Thank goodness I did because an announcer came up on the stage and said that we could take photos of the presentation. I immediately whipped out my camera and tried to get some shots of the stage. I had my zoom lens on and didn’t want to change it because I knew I would need it for any animal photos, so I could only get photos of portions of the screen. Here’s an image of the screen.

After a couple different spokespeople gave their spiels on the stage, Ed Clark, Jr., President and Founder of the Wildlife Center of Virginia brought out Buddy, a non-releasable bald eagle, who resides at the Center.

Mr. Clark has been involved in many wonderful projects and I greatly respect him, although I do not know him personally. Mr. Clark introduced Jack to a thunderous applause.

Mr. Hanna took the stage and I was immediately in awe. Jack told us he had several videos to show us and between each video, he would bring out various animals to talk about them. I just want to say that Jack and his animal keepers are a wealth of knowledge. Listening to Mr. Hanna speak increased my respect for him exponentially. He spoke of many personal experiences in a friendly and very relatable manner. He speaks quickly and he is sharp witted, yet a little goofy. He can think on the spot and is incredibly endearing. Ok, I’m super anxious to get to some photos, so I’ll talk about the reception with Jack in another post. Photos goooooooooooo!

The first animals that the keeprs brought out were armadillos. There was a 3 banded armadillo, and I can’t remember what the other one was (sorry!). During the first couple animals, I wasn’t concentrating much on my photos, so I didn’t realize I needed to adjust my settings. Sorry for the quality on some of these!

This armadillo was all balled up.

Next up were two juvenile fennec foxes. I VERY much regret not having my camera settings adjusted for these guys! They were SO cute! But I didn’t want to fool with camera adjustments when I could watch the animals!

As soon as they took the foxes off stage, I quickly adjusted my camera settings to try and get better shots of the animals. I really needed to use a faster shutter speed in that dark theater.

Then the keepers brought out a macaw which flew back and forth from one keeper to another. It was amazing to see it’s long tail feathers. I can’t imagine seeing scores of these birds flying through the jungles in the wild. It must be a beautiful sight. Jack talked about the peril that these birds face as they are illegally smuggled out of their home countries to be placed into the pet trade. Few survive the transportation process.

Then the keepers brought out a Siberian Lynx. My heart was rapidly pounding.

What an amazing animal.

The keeper held up the lynx’s foot to show us how big their feet are. They act as snow shows to help the cat travel through deep snows.

Ok, I’m going to end this for now. More Jack Hanna photos to come soon! I’ve also got some nice shots from my zoo on the way, as well as photos from the Roanoke Pet Expo 2013. Stay tuned…

I may have gone a little fangirl on Jack Hanna today! I can’t help it…the man was even cooler in person than he is on TV. Many photos to come later this week right here. Must catch up on sleep now.

I’m trying to get back into the swing of things after moving. I don’t know if anyone else feels this way right now, but I feel like almost every aspect of my life has changed or is changing. It feels a little like I’m in the middle of the ocean and I’m swimming and swimming as much as I can, but I just can’t get anywhere. Thank the good Lord for the animals in my life, because they bring me pure joy and when I’m around them, I forget everything that I am worrying about and I enjoy the moment. That being said, I wanted to share some photos of my cats on my screened in porch at my new place. The cats have always loved to look out windows, but now they get to be outside but still be safe. The porch is one of my favorite places to hang out now. This is San.

She LOVES being outside. She loves watching the birds and just smelling the smells of the world. She also likes watching the bees and leaves blowing by.

This is Cash (with San in the background.)

He’s all tensed up because he’s watching the squirrels and rabbits. We have several rabbits in the area. They come out in the evening to eat and play with each other. They are really funny to watch. Cash thinks he is going to catch one. I don’t know what he’d do with it if we ever did let him out to get one. He’d probably want to play with it.

This is Lugosi. He’s such a sweetheart and good natured boy.

When he’s outside, he either looks fascinated or totally relaxed. He loves rolling on his back on the porch. He rolls back and forth over and over and over with his fluffy belly pointing upward. I need to get a picture of it.

Speaking of cats in my world, here are some ferals I’ve recently trapped.

This is Orangepop. I trapped him last weekend and got him neutered, vaccinated, and ear tipped as part of my effort to help control the feral cat population through TNR (trap-neuter-return.) Ear tipping is cutting 3/8 of an inch off the tip of the left ear of the cat. It lets you know that cat has already been spayed or neutered. Once the cat is fixed and vaccinated it is released back to the location it was trapped, and it is provided with daily food and water.

This is the second guy I caught last weekend, and he too was neutered, vaccinated and ear tipped. I call him Bobcat because his coloring and facial features remind me of a little bobcat.

I’m happy to help out where I can, but this is not an ideal life for these cats. If you or someone you know has animals that are not spayed or neutered and are allowed to roam free, please get them fixed or encourage the owner to get them fixed. There are many local low cost spay and neuter clinics across the US. Also PLEASE DO NOT DUMP PETS! Every domesticated animal deserves a real home!

My heart and prayers are with you Boston.