The peacock furls his tail

Does a peacock get tired of holding up its tail in a fan pattern? At the Aldergrove zoo, with an eye on his admirers, this one gradually relaxed the fan into an elegant rounded shape.

The peacock is a type of pheasant. Though both sexes are commonly called peacocks, the ladies are technically peahens and the general name is peafowl. It's the male who has the gorgeous iridescent plumage.

As shown  in the photo below, by Colin White, the peahen has a crown, and some iridescent neck plumage. But her tail is plain and greyish beige.

Peacock -- the other perspective

Peacock reveals back of fancy tail feathers at Greater Vancouver Zoo

I'd often wondered what the peacock's tail feathers looked like from the back; now I know.

This peacock let its guard slip enough to turn away from the audience.

The bird itself is still beautifully coloured, but the rear view of the tail feathers is distinctly unprepossessing, at least compared to the front view.

Peacock takes the limelight from the raptors

At the zoo in Aldergrove, the peacock strays into the area where hawks and falcons are about to put on a show.

From a human perspective, the peacock has acquired a reputation for incorrigible vanity.

"Forget about the raptor show," this one seemed to say. "Look at me."

When the trainers of the birds of prey tried to shoo him off, he lay down and stretched himself out at full length.

"Make me."

With that he began to preen his lovely turquoise neck.

Another use for animal horns

Now we know how an aoudad scratches itself.

Careful, buddy! Don't press too hard.

That could be painful.

Aoudad and admirer

At the Greater Vancouver Zoo, a tired aoudad sits by the fence, eying Rebecca, his observer.

This wild bovine, also known as a Barbary sheep, is native to North Africa, and is found in Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and other African countries.

The name Barbary is derived from the name of the Berbers, a group of people who have lived for many centuries in scattered communities across the region. 

The animal has been introduced into Spain and also into the United States, where it now well established in the southwest.

Giraffe and donkey

Intimate inmates at Greater Vancouver Zoo

Apparently size doesn't matter when it comes to friendship.

There used to be two giraffes, but now there's only one. This fellow was lonely, so the zoo people gave him a donkey as a roommate.

Now they're pals.

Laugh, kookaburra

Photo: Krikey the kookaburra at Aldergrove zoo

I hadn't thought about him for over five decades. And until I saw this fellow at the zoo, the kookaburra, also called the Australian kingfisher bird, lived only in my imagination.

When we were in elementary school in Alberta in the 1950s, we sang a variation of his Australian song. Back then, I didn't imagine I'd meet a real kookaburra all these years later at the zoo in Aldergrove. I didn't hear him laugh; in fact, he looked rather serious. He's also a lot smaller than I would have imagined.

His name is Krikey.