Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

My husband took this photo of a sperm whale at Kaikoura in the South Island of New Zealand. Kaikoura is one of the few places in the world where the whales hang around for the entire year.

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I took this photo at the Wellington zoo. This is an elderly chimp and all she wanted was to eat her treats in peace.

This is one of our holiday shots from our last trip to the US. We visited Vancouver Island, which is actually in Canada, and did a trip over to Bute Inlet in Campbell River to search for grizzly bears.

We had two sightings, and this is one of them. Personally, I thought this was close enough. They have wicked looking claws.

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This week my Camera Critter is an elephant seal. We stopped at Point Piedras Blancas when driving from Monterey down the Big Sur in the US. The male elephant seals look really weird with their “trunks”. They’re definitely not attractive animals. They hang around the beach with harems of females and fight each other. The seal pups are often crushed by the adults who are very large. They’re unpredictable in behavior–definitely not animals to approach on the beach. We kept a healthy distance!

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Hubby and I took this photo of a mountain goat not far from Mt. Rushmore. Mountain goats are not true goats, but are really goat-antelopes. They inhabit alpine areas and are very nimble, able to jump up to twelve feet in one leap. This was one of a group, and they were busy drinking the water trickling down the face of a cliff.

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I took this photo out at my father’s farm last weekend. This photo features a stallion, two mares and two foals. One foal is hiding behind the other one. The stallion (named Fred) is on the far left.

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I took this photo at the local A & P show. The donkey was in the kid’s petting area and he looked as if he desperately wanted to escape their wandering hands.

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I took this photo at the Sydney Easter Show earlier this year. This alpaca had a long conversation with me. I’m not sure what he was saying, but he was certainly cute with his tufty ears.

To visit more animal photos go to Camera Critters.

There’s nothing cuter than baby animals. I’ve posted these before, but I thought I’d repost them together as a set.

This is Patch Adams, the puppy we fostered for the SPCA. He’s now adopted out and is hanging out with his new owners.

This is Bugs. He was weaned about six months ago and has left the farm to live with his new owners.

This is Thursday, named because this was the day she arrived at the farm. Someone dumped her and she made herself at home with my sister. She’s growing well and is a cutie. The little green ball isn’t doing as well. My sister stood on it and broke it!

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This is the skeleton of the champion racehorse, Phar Lap. Phar Lap, which is Thai for lightning in the sky, was a chestnut. He was born near Timaru, New Zealand in 1926 and died in Menlo Park, California in 1932 after eating poisoned grass. He was poisoned on purpose, and rumor states the mob was responsible, carrying out the poisoning to protect their financial interests. Shortly before his death, he won the world’s richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap in California. He did most of his racing in Australia and loved to run at the front of the field. Nicknamed Big Red, he won 36 of his last 41 races.

Phar Lap’s skeleton is in the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand.
His heart is in a bottle in Canberra, Australia.
His hide is in the Museum of Victoria, Australia.

Currently, his skeleton is in Melbourne, Australia (on loan) to celebrate the running of the 150th Melbourne cup, a race that Phar Lap won in 1930.

To visit more animal photos go to Camera Critters.