Amur Leopard, Assiniboine Park Zoo. Photograph, 7 x 5 in. Copyright 2008, Tania Nault.
The first thing usually I do when I get to the zoo is head straight to my target animal’s enclosure and make myself comfortable. Animals, even those living in zoos, aren’t 100% predictable and the only way you’re going to get decent reference photos of them is to be there, be patient and wait for something to happen. On this trip, however, I’d signed up for a “behind the scenes” tour of the zoo for first thing in the morning. We arrived about an hour before the zoo opened to the public and were taken to several different enclosures to watch and learn while they fed the animals and talked about those species. Although I’m not sure which was my favourite part: watching the female Siberian Tiger avoid the eggs as she delicately ate her whole chicken breakfast (feathers and all) or when she would stop eating to make eyes at her keeper (she was coming off the tail end of a heat and the male Siberian wasn’t interested) I do know which experience I will never forget: the feeling of holding a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach the size of an egg. No one else in the group would even touch him. (And yes, it was a him.)
When I finally got to the Amur Leopard enclosure, my subject was taking a nap in the sun on top of his hide, some ten feet off the ground. Even when the zoo staff arrived to do something in the building behind the leopard enclosures (the Assiniboine Park Zoo keeps a Snow Leopard, Amur Leopard and a positively ancient, 23 year-old, Persian Leopard). So, I waited. And waited. I was starting to wonder about the Amur when the Persian in the adjoining enclosure came out of his hide and my boy finally woke up. He crept to the edge of the roof and watched the Persian intently as he moved about. I was able to reposition myself and get the shot you see above. Now, I’m not saying that it’s a super-fantastic photograph, but it’s in focus, decently exposed, the wire isn’t covering crucial bits like his eyes, and I like the hint of shadow on the left side of his face (on our right) it’s something I could definitely push in a scratchboard. And that’s why I go to the zoo: to get decent reference photographs I can use in my scratchboard art.
Now, if you’re lucky enough someone will go with you to the zoo. And maybe that someone will agree to carry a second camera and take additional photos for you. While I was camped out waiting for my leopard to wake up, my husband was wandering about snapping shots of whatever caught his eye, including this rather touching photograph of the Assiniboine Park Zoo’s most famous resident, Debbie, a Polar Bear:
Polar Bear, Assiniboine Park Zoo. Photograph, 7 x 5 in. Copyright 2008, Kevin Gates. Used with permission.
Even though I hadn’t planned to get a photograph of this bear, when I met up with Kevin later in the day and he showed me the photo I was almost in tears. Debbie arrived at the Assiniboine Park Zoo in 1967 and in the early 1970′s when I was a toddler, my parents took me to the zoo. I don’t remember the trip very well, but I’m sure I remember watching this bear swim in her pool.
When I spoke to one of the zoo staff about Debbie she commented that this spring is the first time they’ve ever really worried about her health: arthritis has set in and some time ago they added steps to the front of her hide to allow her to enter it more easily, but this is the first spring she hasn’t gone swimming. At age 41, she’s twice as old as an average Polar Bear would get in the wild and is the oldest captive Polar Bear in the world.
Because this was a two-day trip, and I got the Amur photos I wanted on the first day, I spent the second day wandering. Kevin and I took a variety of photos, from this Snow Leopard:
Snow Leopard, Assiniboine Park Zoo. Photograph, 5 x 7 in. Copyright 2008, Tania Nault.
To this Snowy Owl:
Snowy Owl, Assiniboine Park Zoo. Photograph, 5 x 7 in. Copyright 2008, Tania Nault.
All in all, a good trip, with references I’ll definitely put to good use in the near future… Saskatchewan Wildlife Art Association Reflections of Naure Show 2008, here I come!
