Call of the Wild

Close to Hanau in Klein-Auheim is the Alte Fasanerie, a kind of zoological park in a natural environment with mostly local fauna. The park was founded more than 400 years ago, though at this time is was not open to the public and instead was used to raise and keep animals the rich and famous could then hunt for fun.

I have some vague memories of going there when I was a kid and I actually believe there is some super 8 footage of me and my family being there, but I think it's been a good 30 years if not longer since I've visited.

I've had a couple of days off this week and the weather was gorgeous, so I decided to pull out my camera and and see if I could get a couple of good shots in. When I was there yesterday I saw that the park also has a falconry which offers shows once a day. As I had no time for it yesterday, I decided to come back today and have a second go.

Before the show you could get pretty close to the birds and they (at least most of them) obliged to pose for photos.

Not for the first time, I realized that getting a good photo of a bird in flight is damn hard. But with a sufficient amount of tries, at least one or two had had to come out all right.

One of the main reasons I went for the park was that I read an article the other day that the wild boar now had their young and if the weather was nice and warm enough, they would get the little ones out.

The park also has a group of three lynx. Yesterday they proved to be rather lazy, but luckily today they were far more active (in case you're worried, they one on the right is washing the face of the other one. Really, it was adorable)

The grooming didn't last long, though and soon they were chasing each other around the enclosure. While I was watching, one suddenly jumped a good three meters up a tree and made itself comfortable up there.

The wolves, on the other hand were not exactly active. But if you look like this one, you don't need to.
They also have a group of three polar wolves. A lady I was talking to, told me they had a little concert earlier in the day, but in the afternoon they mostly enjoyed the sun and didn't do much.