I had only seen the Malaysian Sun Bear very briefly and from a distance on one previous occasion so I was very pleased when I spotted this chap last week at Chester Zoo although my first sight of hi was as his rump disappeared through the flap into the interior of his "den". I couldn't really blame him for beating a retreat because there were two large parties of screaming primary school children visiting and as much as I like kids I would have happily found a quiet corner to escape the rabble.
The female bear was on view but she was sleeping in a corner with her head under her paws, either that or she was doing a good impression of sleeping until the kids moved on to torment their next helpless victims.
I patiently waited and then out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a carrot, followed quickly by a slice of melon come flying over the fence into the enclosure. Several more tasty looking snacks came soon after and then my patience was rewarded as the male bear tempted out by the food came out of his hiding place allowing me a moment to get a few decent shots.
I love bears, I prefer to see them in the wild of course and I am hoping that when I go to Canada later this year I will get to see some more. These Sun Bears are smaller than the Black Bears I have seen in Canada but they are just as cute. Look at those claws though, even though he looks cuddly I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this little fella.
I'm mixing things up a little today having posted street shots most of this week I decided to share a couple of wildlife pictures.
Still in France for these pictures of a beautiful heron. I had gone hoping to walk around the gardens of the palace of Versailles. I knew that the gardens are normally open without having to pay to go through the chateau and to avoid the queues I had walked around to the side entrances where there are grand stone staircases leading up past the orangery. Sadly because of the terrorist threat the entrances were closed and padlocked and so I didn't get to walk the gardens on this trip.
Instead of queuing up I went across the road to walk around some parkland with an ornamental lake and a nice view of the chateau. Part way round I spotted this heron and tried to get a coupe of shots but it was a bit too far away. But patience paid off because a bit further round I saw it again and this time I was able to get much closer and I watched it carefully stalking some prey. It was clear that it was eyeing up something tasty and so I had my camera ready and captured the moment that it struck. When it brought its head back up I was expecting to see a frog or toad clasped in its powerful beak. I was surprised to see it was a rodent, perhaps a vole or maybe a small rat I can't be sure. Whatever it was it quickly flipped it up into its gullet and swallowed it whole. In the second image you can maybe make out the slight bulge in its neck as its lunch is working its way towards its stomach.
The third shot is a simple close up of the magnificent head an its shiny eye.
I was disappointed to miss out on the palace gardens but these shots help make up for that to some extent.
