I wish you very nice day!
And I hope you were looking forward to this part of ZOO Brno Virtual tour
I think most of the people watch me because of my photos of arctic wolves - so I am happy, that today I can show you home of the Brno‘s pack of white wolves!
Yes, today we are visiting enclosure of arctic wolves
Enjoy!
P.S.: I took those shots in different days – that’s why amount of snow varies
Previous parts of ZOO Brno virtual tour:
1) Introduction (look at: woxys.deviantart.com/journal/2…)
2) Sumatran tiger (look at: woxys.deviantart.com/journal/2…)
3) Sri Lanca leopards (look at: woxys.deviantart.com/journal/2…)
4) Shame of ZOO Brno (look at: woxys.deviantart.com/journal/2…)
5) Plant-eaters (Look at: woxys.deviantart.com/journal/2…)
6) Kids, horses and camels (Look at: www.woxys.deviantart.com/journ…)
7) Safari exhibit (look at: www.woxys.deviantart.com/journ…)
8) Australia, exotic birds, yaks and buffalos (www.woxys.deviantart.com/journ…)
9) South America, Black-tailed prairie dog, meercats (www.woxys.deviantart.com/journ…)
10) Tropical pavilions (look at: woxys.deviantart.com/journal/2…)
ZOO BRNO VIRTUAL TOUR – Arctic wolves
Because many of you are wolves fans (
) I want to describe this exhibit in details.
That’s why I prepared this map of wolves exhibit:
Plan of enclosureLight green – exhibit
Dark green – paddock, which is behind the fence and there are man-made shelters for wolves
Blue – water
Yellow – official viewing points for visitors
Violet – places where I stay while taking shots of wolves I post here on dA
White – direction of our today’s walk
Grey – ZOO road
Red – Indian hut
There used to be exhibits of canines before. I remember that they were bare and ugly and that I was terribly afraid of those animals as a kid. I do not remember which species used to be kept there. But all those facilities were ruined and completely new and modern exhibit was built in 2004.
Arctic wolves (canis lupus arctos)
There are 3 adult wolves in the ZOO (male Atila, females Alex and Clair), two one year old wolves, cubs of Alex. And now there are also 6 one week old pups of Clair.
s
Enclosure for wolves is huge, it covers area of 3500 square metres. There are many trees, broken terrain with hills, two lakes and one wonderful waterfall.
Wolves have many chances to hide, if they do not want to be seen. Fortunately, favourite place of at least three adult wolves is top of the hill, which is very close to visitors, so it is very easy to watch them.
Favourite hill with all five wolves. The hill is ,,long“. Adults usually lye close to visitors, while cubs chose more further places for their rest. They are still quite shy.
Many people usually ask me, how can I make so detailed photos of wolves. Well, here is the answer. You can see the visitors road – and barrier made of fake rock. You can get very close to the barrier – it would be very easy to jump (or fall) to the exhibit of wolves, if you wanted to, because barrier is very low.
Red point on the left is a wolf, red points on the right show places, where I usualy stay while taking shots. It is very close!
Can you see it? Wolves stay or lye on the top of this hill, which is in the same level, as the visitor’s head. It provides fantastic face to face contact with wolves!
Result? Detailed photo of relaxing female.
Captivity is not very obvious in this exhibit – you must be very unlucky to take shot with visible fence. Only in winter you can see fence and more over, you have to stay on the only one point to get to see this. On the right, there is gate to the paddock section. There are three paddocks hidden behind the hill and there is a man-made shelter in each. This year, cubs of Clair were born there.
Paddock.
From the hill, favourite place of adult wolves, it is close to the upper pond.
Pond and hill
Ok, I changed the position to get to official viewing point (no. 1). It is located near the pond, so you can see wolves drinking.
Viewing point. Barrier is made of strings and of fallen tree, which is made of concrete.
From this point, you can nicely see right part of the exhibit. (note the ,,long“ hill, favourite place of wolves. Behind this hill, there are hidden paddocks.
Once more, this time showing also burrow (red point), where Alex gave birth last year
Burrow
Central part of the exhibit. Note the hut! We will speak about it
Pond
Left part of the exhibit
Left part of the exhibit
Wolves time to time rise and run throught the exhibit – all three adults one by one! It is so funny to see line of three wolves. And they often run near the pond.
I changed the position again.
I moved to the second viewing point (no. 2) – it is a pond again, this time with a waterfall. I have never taken single shot of wolf here, but still it is nice place, do not you think?
But I am leaving it now. I must get from the wolves exhibit, as the road now does not copy the enclosure. When coming to the exhibit again, I see the lowest part of the wolves home.
Barrier, fake rocks
Barrier – fake rocks and fence
This part of exhibit is neighbouring with enclosure for beaver. When I was taking shots of beaver’s home for ZOO Virtual tour, I noted some movement. I turned my head and I almost got heard attack, as there was Atila, staying on the hill above me, watching me XD I got a shock, as he seemed so huge! Later, one female joined him.
Atila and female.
I follow the road which copies ,,bottom line“ of the exhibit. And I get to see huge Indian hut!
Indian hut (Haida tribe)
Detail of totem
I am entering it...
To see, that there is some exposition of North American Indian art and some facts about their style of life. There are also interesting info board about animals from that area.
More over, there are two huge viewing windows (viewing point no.3), so you can look directly to the exhibit. This time I observe from the lowest part of the exhibit!
From the left window I can see little hill, favourite place of one year old youngsters. Note two red spots, which show you position of cubs. Do you see them?
Detailed photo of shy cub
And lower part of the exhibit.
There is also right viewing window of the same size
And it allows you to look to the exhibit...
Lower part of the enclosure
Ok, that’s all
I hope you like exhibit of our arctic wolves and I also hope you now know how I can take quite detailed photos
I am very interested about your opinion, if you like it, or not. Every comment is very appreciated
Wolves
ZOO Maps
RED colour shows where we went today!
BLUE colour shows where we will go next time
Next time we will visit sheep, elks, raindeers, geladas and eagles.
P.S.: thank you very much for all your wishes – my foot does not hurt so much now and I can walk!
it is getting better and better, so thank you for your care, friends!
P.P.S.: I am leaving you today, as I am having holiday with my family
I hope to get chance to take shots of wolves in the best exhibit I have ever seen
I will be back on Sunday.
P.P.P.S.: we have great timing with our Virtual tour, as just in these days, there are birthdays of our wolves! Both adult females, Alex and Clair, were born 5/2/2005 in ZOO Amneville (France), while Atila was born 5/9/2003 in ZOO Sosto (Hungary). Happy birthdays, wolves!
