This squirrel in the Alps is quite active during the winter. The local casino puts out bird feed and nuts regularly through the woods to help support the wildlife during the winter months. The squirrels therefore don't need to store up as much food and are active bird table raiders during the cold season.
I am not a fan of going to zoos but sometimes you just have to practice with a new lens before you take it out into the wild. While in Berlin's Tiergarten I met this squirrel who was completely uncaged.
Sometimes animals like to live in zoos. I guess the Berlin Tiergarten is in the middle of such a large wooded area that the squirrels don't mind moving between the zoo and the park. This guy was completely uncaged while I was trying out a new lens on some of the moving animals within the zoo.
It isn't often that you see squirrels in the winter but the ones near Seefeld in Tirol, in the Austrian Alps are active all the time. The food available due to humans is enough to keep them happy in the colder months.
While this mother was feeding she kept one eye out all the time as her three cubs were with her. Despite a lot of protection in Slovenia the bears are still very wary of human contact.
The brown bear is not so common in Europe any more but their numbers are increasing due to a huge reduction in hunting and an increase in photographic hides in areas frequented by the bears.
I met my first bears in Canada by chance. However the thrill of seeing bears in Europe was so much more, knowing how much they are threatened by years of over population. This Slovenian bear was part of a family well known to the locals, who get fed grain regularly to prevent them wandering down into villages.
All I can say is that if I was a bear the number of insects would really annoy me regardless of the thick fur.
It isn't often that Chamois come down from the high mountains. However near my home in Innsbruck there are quite a number that regularly come to a disused quarry at night time. Having the daylight to get a photo is a rare but welcome occurence.
It isn't often that Chamois come down from the high mountains. However near my home in Innsbruck there are quite a number that regularly come to a disused quarry at night time. Having the daylight to get a photo is a rare but welcome occurence.
Despite our attempts to wreck the world the chamois still survived, and this family does so by coming down tot he empty quarry at night to feed on sparse grasses. However the steep sides of the quarry are not the trap for the chamois that they might be for other creatures. At the first sign of threat the chamois are already halfway up the almost sheer cliff faces.
