Saturday's Critters # 554

Welcome to Saturday's Critters! Hello and Happy Saturday!

 If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

I have just two more days of Arizona photos, more critters for you to enjoy. These are from April 27th and the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson. It was a great zoo, I enjoyed seeing lots of wonderful animals and even some wild birds seen in and around the zoo.

1. The Chilean Flamingo, it is said these flamingos are in the decline. The disturbance of the nest and illegal taking of the eggs. Also water levels and climate change have an affect on these wild birds. 

2. The Chilean Flamingo exhibit was nice, they are lovely birds. 

3. In the Aviary, I saw two Sun Bitterns, Motmot, Roseate Spoonbill and a Black-necked Swan. There were lots of birds, flying around and very hard to capture with my camera.

The wild birds seen flying free at the zoo were the Vermilion Flycatcher, various hummingbirds, a raptor and the Black-crowned Night Heron. 

4. The young giraffe below born to Penelope (Penny) is named Moyo was born on January 15th and was the first giraffe born in the zoo in 24 years. The Reid Park Zoo is doing their part in saving animals from extinction. 

5. The young giraffe named Moyo with it's Mama Penny.  Moyo is the Swahili word for heart.

6. The Reid Park Zoo is committed to the conservation of endangered African elephants. The baby elephant's name is Meru, named after Tanzania's Mount Meru the 5th highest peak in Africa.

7. The baby elephant Meru was born March 8th 2024, weighing I assume a healthy  265 pounds. The baby elephant is well cared for by Mama Semba and big sisters Nandi and Penzi. 

8. A Meerkat portrait, adorable zoo critter. The Meerkat is a member of the mongoose family.

These are called Aldabra Tortoise, endemic to the island of Aldabra off the coast of Africa. 

The Lion reminded of Iris's Henry the lion. 

I will do a part two later sharing our visit to the Reid Park. I hope you enjoyed my critters.

I am linking up to Heidrun's Mosaic Monday  I hope you can stop by and visit Heidrun and check out the Mosaic Monday post.

Thanks to all my visitors and for your past and present comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves and respects wildlife. Thank you for linking up a critter post.

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Curacao Pink Flamingos

 For Nature Notes and Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday   I am so happy Stewart has started the new World Bird Wednesday. On this post I am re-visiting Curacao and the Pink Flamingos. Did you know there are actually different species of Pink Flamingos? The Pink Flamingos I saw in Curacao were the Caribbean Flamingo and then there is the Greater Flamingo and the Chilean Flamingo.

The Curacao Pink Flamingos were found at a saltwater lake or what is called the saltpans.  I believe the Caribbean Flamingos can also be found on the southern tip of Florida. Some neat facts about the flamingo. They stand on one leg to conserve body heat. They can travel 300 hundred miles in a day to a new feeding site.

The Chilean Flamingo is considered threatened due to egg harvesting and and habitat loss. I read that the Chilean Flamingo breeds in temperate South America. But, there is a small population in Utah and California?  I guess they were a little off course or introduced to the US?

The Greater Flamingo is the largest of the flamingo family. The Greater Flamingo is found in Africa, Asia and Southern Europe. The male can stand as tall as 74 inches. The use their feet to stir up the mud and then suck up the water and filter out the shrimp and other food.

The juveniles are more of a pale grayish color. In this photo there are four adults, a juvie and way in the background a Black-necked Stilt.

Above are a few of the Caribbean Pink Flamingos and a few Egrets in the background.


It was a treat to see the wild Pink Flamingos, previously all my flamingo sightings were in zoos. I hope you enjoyed my post and thank for visiting.

To see more wonderful nature photos and watery shots please visit Nature Notes and Stewart's Wild Bird WednesdayThanks to Michelle of Nature Notes and to Stewart for starting the new Wild Bird Wednesday.