Ferrets: Captive Animals in Las Ramblas, Barcelona

Among the many captive animals you can buy in Las Ramblas stalls there are these ferrets. Apparently they are cute and make good pets but keeping them in a cage is not what nature had in mind. The noise, the lack of freedom to move in such a small space, the great amount of people coming and going or stopping by to watch like this girl provoke stress in many of these creatures. If you enlarge the picture you will notice how the ferret on the right is stubbornly biting on the bars of the cage.

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Exotic Animals? - A Gecko's Life

Exotic animals in Barcelona like this gecko I photographed on a marble slab are part of a big market in the city although some species of Geckos are common in the Mediterranean. As I am no expert I am going to recommend a good link about the world of geckos: Geckos Unlimited. I prefer to see them in the wild though!

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Curious Hen

And now for what was happening at the bottom of the cage. Another hen, trying to find out what my flash was and all the fuzz. Maybe checking if all the eggs were safe.

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A Hen's Life. Laying Eggs On the Double

A hen's life can be very boring laying eggs by the dozen and on the double but this one had a minute for me and accepted to pose for the camera. Check next post to see what was happening right at the bottom of the cage.

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The One Eyed Cat is King

In the country of the blind the one-eyed cat is king. I took the liberty of rephrasing this wise saying. I happened to read the story by H. G. Wells many, many years ago, about a man lost in the mountains, I think it was in Los Andes. There was some sort of cataclism and there was no way back. He wakes up in a town where everybody is blind and although for some time he thinks he was bound to be the king among the unfortunate inhabitants he soon discovers that he was totally wrong, in fact***spoiler ahead***they soon decided that he had to be deprived of his eyes so he could be one of them, a normal citizen. I digress a lot today, but this poor cat, so young and yet so impaired really caught my attention and reminded me of the famous words.

My recommended blogger of the day: South Shields Daily Photo by Curly.

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Sea Urchin Skeletons or Tests at CosmoCaixa, Barcelona

What looks at first sight like a submarine photograph, the kind you would see when those robots scan a deep oceanic bottom with their spotlights is nothing but a cross section inside a crystal box full of sea urchin skeletons or tests at CosmoCaixa, an interactive science museum in the upper side of Barcelona (address: Teodor Roviralta, 47-51). Cosmocaixa is modern in design, and good in quality but above all it is fun for kids who discover that science is not just a boring book with entertaining pictures here and there, but a fascinating world full of mysterious experiments, amazing optical illusions, curious instruments and what is best, things they can touch and play with to obtain magic results. If you come with your children to Barcelona this museum is a must. This is a Google Earth snapshot where you see CosmoCaixa's location and also a closer look. As to my picture and sea urchins, I thought this cross section offered nice textures and made you think in a way about evolution of species and science.

Here is a short video to get an idea about the experiments: Defying Gravity

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Seagull in Costa Brava

This snapshot of a juvenile seagull I took from about 2 meters distance using my 18-70 mm nikkor lens. I approached her little by little, squatting slowly till the nearest rock. Water was still coming out of her beak so I guess she was still digesting her food. There was a gentle breeze and we were both alone on top of the promontory, people down there in the cove basking under the sun. With scrutinizing eyes she followed my every movement but was too clumsy to fly with her full stomach. I had to stand on my feet with a sudden gesture to make the beautiful bird soar over summer air. Here is the same seagull against the darker background of brown algae accumulated along the rocky shore in Costa Brava.

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Coleoptera: Stag Beetle

This is a beetle, a stag beetle, if I am not in a mistake of course. I give you a link to a fabulous site specialized in entomology. The small insect belongs to the coleoptera order, and its scientific name is Lucanus Cervus. I don't want to cheat with the picture, the poor animal is as dead as the little piece of wood where it is clung to. A friend of mine showed me the "bug" he had found already stiff. We had the wood and a nice surface so I thought it would look great for my animal set on Flickr and for those interested in entomology or nature lovers in general.

Exotic Animals in Barcelona: Marsupials - petaurus

As exotic animals seem to have a big audience in Barcelona Photoblog, let's talk about Marsupials, in this case, a couple of petaurus breviceps or gliding possums aka Sugar Gliders. Small animals that resemble squirrels, originally from Australia and New Guinea (North of Australia). Australians visiting this blog might say "hey that ain't exotic at all". Any animal coming from the other side of the world (New Zealand is Spain's antipodes)looks pretty exotic to me.

Sugar Gliders are around 16 to 20 cm, they have a membrane that runs from the forelimb back to the hind foot which allows them to glide from one branch into another. In fact I have a picture of the petaurus made to fly on purpose but totally blurred and maybe offensive for animal protectors (my friend just wanted to show me how it glided). As far as I know it is illegal to have sugar gliders as pets in some states in the USA. In Spain it is the only legal Marsupial.

Why Sugar Gliders?, they eat tree sap, gum, nectar, pollen, manna and honeydew although they don't say no to a juicy cricket (this I witnessed!). They don't like to be alone and utter a unusually loud shriek for its size when at stake. And that's all folks. Yes, you didn't click on an online pet store link by mistake. This is, still, a photoblog about Barcelona. Have a nice weekend.

Cricket Farewell

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We will keep dealing with the food topic but from a different perspective: food that is alive!. What do you think happened next? Well this is no national geographic documentary and I was not on a trip in the wild commisioned with big money. This picture was taken in the quiet atmosphere of a reptile terrarium, the cricket was placed there on purpose for the shot and the salamander (as usual I am not sure if this is a salamander) did eat the poor animal. We paid a visit to a friend of us who's quite addicted to crawling creepy things and he gently showed me all of his "trophies". An offer I could not reject. I took some decent pictures and we sat at the table to eat paella trying to dismiss disgusting thoughts about slimy creatures in the next room.

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Exotic animals at La Rambla: Iguana

If I am not in a mistake (you know that classifying animals is not my specialty) this is a green iguana. Exotic specimens like this can be bought in some of the several animal stalls at La Rambla, to be more precise at La Rambla dels Estudis, also known as La Rambla dels Ocells (Birds). The stalls give color to the walk, both those selling animals or the ones selling flowers, and are part of the history of this famous street. But there have been protests against animal vendors by animal rights activists. The City Council is trying to regulate vendors' activities and surely will end up reconverting the 14 stalls as there is a project to open interactive information stands for tourists on the same place. In the meantime they are still there as their business is totally legal thanks to a permit granted by the City Council itself. I reckon animals should live in better conditions but owners and their families should be compensated properly too.

Humming Bird in Barcelona

Leaning over a small pond to take a picture of the flower I saw what I thought was a big drone or a bumblebee feeding. On looking at it closer I realized it was a hummingbird. I was not prepared so I relied on my luck. The bird was not as stunning as in a side profile picture but was visible in my image and the flower was not that bad so I chose to share them with you.

PS: I was wrong, it was a moth, a hummingbird hawk moth

The Friend of a Friend

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Africa is her name, and she is my friends' new best friend. We don't have pets ourselves except for a farm she-rabbit and a couple of parakeets (one of them born here at home). My daughter goes nuts about having a dog so they let us have it a whole day last Christmas. The use of the flash so close gave the little animal this sort of David Bowie eyes so I thought you would like it. Awaiting for my next photo excursion I am experimenting with the camera at home as you can see. Odd enough I haven't taken any pictures of Barcelona streets in two weeks in spite of the holidays. I hope this somehow "reloads my batteries" for another year but don't worry, that doesn't mean I dont' have any in stock. As to the doggie, you know the breed alright, the quiet and lazy kind!...

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A Dog's Day

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As far as I am concerned I had no pictures of dogs. Recently I posted my first cat so I've got my classic animal pictures after so much time. Maybe I can even start an animal photoset at Flickr, who knows!. Last weekend, on our way to the Auto Retro exhibition in Fira de Barcelona and some steps ahead of me was this beautiful dog, a boxer or a bullboxer I guess (please correct me if I am wrong) walking unleashed near his owner. The light was so good that I started to chase him trying to find the right moment. I got his butt all the time in my viewfinder but suddenly he paused to wait for the master and here is the result. Then came the eternal question black and white or color. I settled for bw, using a tritone combination that looks more like sepia but maybe you prefer the original color version.

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Cat at Large

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That's it, just a little cat beating around the bush. As you noticed I don't have many pictures of animals and I think this is my first cat. Everybody's got a cat or a dog in their repertoire so I thought I'd give it a try. I liked the place most of all, next to an old house along the road to the fortress town of Suria, although it could be anywhere else. Suria is in Barcelona province but the cat is just a cat.

PS: I am doing my best to keep daily posting. As you know my dsl is down. I proceed to publish past and upcoming posts in a row till next Sunday. I know it is pretty weird but I won't be able to have a connection until Monday when I am back at the office. Friday is a bank holiday here in Spain. I don't want to bother anyone with a "push button" request now since I don't know how long my problem is going to last.

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Eagles Peak or Cim d'Aligues near Barcelona

Back in May, in my post B from Barcelona, I explained what Cim d'Aligues natural reserve was (a "centre created for the study, breeding, exhibition and free-flight of birds of prey"), but I didn't get to publish any photo showing the birds, except for the ones you could see if visiting the official site link. Today I present you with two shots: one of the girls in charge of the animals holding an eagle and a vulture in this other photo.

Barcelona Zoo: I Wanna Go Home

Today I am experimenting with BW in this shot taken at Barcelona Zoo. The chimp in the picture seems to be sad and fed up, so I put words in his/her mouth: I wanna go home! or maybe I feel sorrow for you!. No matter how well conditioned zoos are, nothing can replace an animal's natural habitat, and we don´t have any right to do this just to satisfy our curiosity.

Explore Barcelona Zoo Satellite Image on Google Maps.

Update:

Barcelona Zoo is a charming fixture in the heart of our city. Founded in 1892 using animals from the private collection of Lluís Martí i Codolar, the zoo was inaugurated on September 24th, coinciding with the Feast of La Merce.

The zoo occupies a city block in the Parc de la Ciutadella near the picturesque Cascada fountain. It features several biozones that recreate habitats from tropical, temperate, and desert regions. The premises are home to around 300 species and 2000 animals. The collection includes mammals like giraffes, lions, tigers, gorillas, rhinos, kangaroos, camels, and anteaters; birds like pelicans, flamingos, and macaws; as well as reptiles like anacondas and komodo dragons. The zoo also cultivates over 300 plant species and is a habitat for diverse urban wildlife.

One crowd favorite used to be Snowflake, an extremely rare albino Gorilla. Snowflake arrived in Barcelona in 1966 after being captured by chance in the forests of Río Muni, in what is today Equatorial Guinea. He died as a venerable patriarch in 2003.

One of Barcelona Zoo's main attractions are its unique exotic animal collections. The zoo is home to Komodo dragons, Gila monsters, and other animals not commonly found in European zoos. Visitors can get close to giraffes and feed elephants by hand at scheduled times. The Terrarium contains diverse amphibians and reptiles species and there is also an extensive Aviary with more than 70 species of birds from different continents..

While Barcelona Zoo provides many benefits, the practice of housing wild animals for public display raises ethical questions. Critics argue captivity often falls short of meeting animals' natural needs and reflecting their true habitats. The zoo elephants' small enclosure, for instance, lacks the rich social structures and hundreds of square miles elephants roam in the wild. Some also believe resources spent on zoos would better serve conservation if directed to protecting natural ecosystems.

The Barcelona Zoo has not been without controversy. Critics have accused it of losing prestige due to a declining focus on conservation and research. The dismissal of zoo director Carme Maté, a primate specialist, led to complaints about Townhall prioritizing business interests over animals. The death of one of its elephants in 2008 also sparked protests, with activists and veterinarians arguing the remaining elephant, Susi, should be moved to a sanctuary. Politicians and activists criticized the zoo for keeping Susi in isolation and small enclosure. Despite petitions and proposals to relocate Susi, the Barcelona Zoo refused to part with its lone elephant.

Regardless of past controversies, the Barcelona Zoo continues to implement reforms that prioritize animal welfare, conservation, and education.

In recent years, the Barcelona Zoo efforts include:

1. Participating in nearly 100 European endangered species programs.
2. Over 85% of animal species classified as threatened by the IUCN Red List.
3. Nearly 30% of animals born at the zoo released back into the wild in recent years.
4. Over 1.5 million euros invested in research projects in the last decade, 50% focused on native species.
5. The Barcelona Zoo works closely with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) to promote wildlife conservation and habitat preservation. The zoo's Research and Conservation Program funds scientific studies and supports projects to protect threatened species globally.

Along with its conservation mission, Barcelona Zoo provides families and tourists an engaging day of fun, learning and animal encounters.

With its wide variety of species, the zoo aims to foster respect and appreciation for wildlife while also actively supporting habitat protection and breeding programs for endangered species worldwide. As one of Spain's most visited attractions, the Barcelona Zoo strives to inform the public about biodiversity and inspire visitors to join efforts to preserve nature. After more than a century of operation, the zoo remains committed to its mission of conservation, research, and environmental awareness.

Glow on Snail

Just a snail.

What the heck does it have to do with Barcelona, nothing. But today I felt like improvising a little so I decided to grab the little animal from the grass and make it pose for my camera. I guess it is very hard to post a daily picture about Barcelona and its reality, someday I am going to run out of ideas, so I better start training.

Barcelona Zoo: Dromedary Complains About the Heat

It is hot these days in Barcelona so even animals so well adapted as this dromedary at the zoo seem to be claiming for justice: no more sand! I want to be transfer to the penguin tank!

See Picture of Barcelona Zoo on a Google Earth Map.

Barcelona Zoo: Peacock on Ice

No, there's no ice in Barcelona Zoo, though the peacock originally was white as snow, which makes it an ideal subject for image inversion. You should not leave the city, specially if you travel with kids, without visiting Parc Zoologic de Barcelona where a great variety of animals can be seen in a reproduction of their natural environment.