Mother Nature is a beautiful thing

Hello again,

So as you know by now, I have several hobbies. Promoting environmental and wildlife conservation is my main hobby. One of the ways I do that is through photography, which just so happens to be another hobby of mine. I have posted a few pictures that I have taken for my college yearbook, but now I would like to share with you some of my nature and animal pictures. Below is a link to my Flickr page where you can view a few examples of my photography. 

PHOTO GALLERY

I live in Alabama, so when it snows here, it becomes a big deal. I have only seen snow about five times in my life. Some of the pictures that I took of the snow are from 2010 when it snowed at my parent’s house. The other half is when it snowed last year and I was at Troy.

As I have stated in the past, I am a Native American. That being said, wolves are powerful symbols in my culture. I was lucky enough to be able to get close to two abandoned wolf pups after their mother was shot and killed by a poacher. My father and I took them in and raised them. Timber and Bandit are the two wolf in the pictures.

And finally, you will get to some more pictures of the animals I worked with at the zoo. Being a zookeeper was a dream job for me. I have always loved animals and getting to work with them was a dream come true. I got to establish a personal connection with my animals, and that is something not many people can say. 

The keepers name the animals to keep track of them, as well as their information. We also think its more personal than just giving them a number. 

The names of some of the animals are: Sam, who is a Grant Zebra, and was named after the vet who was there when he was born. 

Bulwagi, an African Bull Elephant, came to us from Disney World. His nickname is Mickey. 

Next, you will see Jalil, who is reticulated giraffe, and I taking a “selfie”. He was hand raised, but all giraffes are naturally gentle. Then you will see Willow, another giraffe, who got her name after the willow tree because that was the first type of browse that she would eat. After Willow you will see our youngest giraffe, Zuri. Zuri is the Swahili word for beautiful, which fits Zuri perfectly. 

Next you will see our lioness Akili. Akili an African Lioness and gave birth to her first litter of cubs in 2011. She had five cubs, all of which survived, which is very rare for a females first littler. Shes also a camera hog. She loves to pose for pictures. As the last picture of my zoo animals, you will see Kumar. Kumar is a Malaysian Tiger and came to The Birmingham Zoo at the age of 3 and is now 14. His favorite thing to do is to chase the animals that are brave enough to come into his exhibit. He loves to tree the squirrels, but has only killed a few in his lifetime. He is a very playful tiger.

The thing that I want people to get from looking at my photography is that there is beauty in everything. Mother Nature is a beautiful thing. Not just the plants, but also all of the animals are beautiful in their own way. I encourage you to go out, even if its with your phone, and take 10 pictures of nature or animals. Then share them and let others see the beauty that is Mother Nature.