Photos published

A few days back I remembered that I had submitted two of my photos for some Turkish publication on wildlife awareness a loooong time ago.. so today I decided to write to them to find out what happened and guess what - they used it!!! .... : )

And this is what it looks like ...

(the cover of the book)

And here's the pages with my photos ...
The photos are of a Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) which is quiet rare in the wild.. both of my photos are of captive individuals- the portrait photo was clicked at Moscow Zoo and the second one was at Skansen island in Stockholm.

The book was made to help create awareness of some rare species that was thought to still exist in some part of Turkey but there was no sightings in a loong time so they feared that it could have gone extinct locally. However seen the publication of the book the researchers of the book succeeded in getting camera trap pictures of some real wild Turkish lynx.

Skansen, Stockholm

While on a very short trip to Stockholm with my family we went to see Skansen - the oldest open-air museum in the world. Skansen is also a zoological park. It is located on the island of Djurgarden very close to the city centre. Above is an overall map of the Museum courtesy their website - http://www.skansen.se/
The Skansen has a very interesting mix of a recreated village and a highly specialized zoo. The zoo focuses on only animals/birds found in Scandinavia species that I might never get to see in the wild. Here are a few snaps of the animals I saw there.

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)

Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx)

European bison (Bison bonasus)

Brown Bear (Ursus arctos)

Was surprised to see this Fox (Vulpes vulpes) inside the bear enclave.

Elk or as they call it in America Moose (Alces alces)

The other great thing about Skansen is the beautiful views it offers of the city and it's surrounding harbour.

And last but not the least the mighty Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa)


Here's one more pic of this majestic beauty.


View Larger Map
The above Google map shows the outline of Skansen. You can zoom in to see the park better.

Aquaria @ Stockholm

Also managed to seek in Aquaria while in Stockholm. Though this Aquarium is very small and occupies a very cramped location next to the harbour while on your way back to the city centre from Skansen I have to say that it's the best small Aquarium I have seen yet.
I have seen quite a few Aquariums of similar size (especially in India) and none have such an interesting design layout or ambition.

Check out the above design layout courtesy their website - http://www.aquaria.se/

As one walks thru this tiny Aquarium you see many different habitats.

Starting it a small Rainforest section (with down pours every 15 minutes) all with an nice pond full of tropical fish, tree frogs and also a couple of species of waterbirds.

Next up, a section on the importance of Mangroves, followed by a Marine tank with an artificial coral reef (not pictured). The last indoor section is called the Nordic Waters and is dedicated to local fish life.

And just when you think you're done with it all and you step outside on a nice deck facing the bay you see (what according to me is the best part of the Aquaria) the Fish Ladder.

Over the past years the Aquarium has incubated, raised and successfully released large nos. of Sea Trout. A fish that is know to fight all odds and climb back upstream along small channels of water to go back to it's birth place to lay eggs.And amazingly some of the fish raised here have returned years later to do exactly that.

I think that is a great achievement - to release these fish into the open bay and seas beyond and to see them come back. Here a view of the bay and the city across it (the fish ladder is to the left of the snap connecting the Nordic waters section to the open bay thru a series of small but steep steps of waterfall)