Ähtäri Zoo, part 2

As promised, here are the rest of the Ähtäri Zoo trip photos, taken by my brother. For more photos and some info about the zoo, check out my previous blog post. Thanks again for the photos, bro!

Cranes are rather stylish birds, aren't they?

The wolves were moving almost constantly, making it very tricky to get good photos of them.

And look, they had pups! Little furry things with paws that seemed just a little too big for them to use properly. Adorable!

My parents have several pheasants living in their garden, along with squirrels, (strawberry-stealing) hedgehogs, a (rose-eating meanie) rabbit and more species of little birds than I've been able to count. They've just showed up from who knows where and decided to stay. Who needs a zoo, really.

Say hello to Mr and Mrs Bear again.

The sun came out towards the evening, giving this kind of lovely light.

All four eagle owls we could see were sitting together in the middle of their area in pairs, with each pair surveying their own half with their backs to the other pair. I suspect very little goes unnoticed under their close scrutiny.

Wikipedia gives the English name ermine or stoat for these little guys. They'd been orphaned early and had to be raised by an employee of the park, feeding the large litter every 1-2 hours for the first few weeks (when did this employee sleep??). These were still young and playful and didn't stay still for more than a few seconds at a time.

Awww, it's Bambi! Or, uh, Bambi's mom? These white-tailed deer actually had a few little bambis, but the mothers kept them so far away from the public we could only see their ears and tails in the long grass. These aren't a native species, although they have nowadays been introduced to parts of Finland.

The zoo also has a section for domestic animals, like alpacas. I guess this guy is hinting that it's late and he's had enough of visitors for the day.

These little piggies were my brother's favourite. He thought they were very polite, as they replied to him every time he oinked, even while they were eating. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with a pet pig one of these days.