Here are a few of my favorite Wildlife photos from a few years back. Okay, so they are from a Wildlife Park and not the woods behind my house, but it is all the species that are/were native to Central Illinois.
I think I'm going to need to ask for info on where this was taken. As an aspiring wildlife photographer living in Illinois you have captured my interest. I checked out your flickr site.. ; googling the name you used for this photo group returned a "Wildlife Prairie State Park" in Illinois that I had no idea even existed. ; Is this the place? I can't believe I missed this. ; I've looked for zoos but I guess "wildlife park" was not a part of my searches. It's not too far away for me, Google says its a two and a half hour drive. ; That's definitely doable. ; It'd be especially worth it for the cougars, I don't have any other sources where I can get them in natural looking surroundings. ; Actually I also don't have a decent source for North American foxes either.
Whoop Whoop. ; I thought a "Cougar" comment was to easy for a pun so I had left it off my original posting. ; Glad to see someone else chimed in. ; Anyway, yes, Wildlife Prairie State Park is where I took these. ; It is about 10 minutes from where I grew up. ; I even volunteered there a few years while in High School. ; It is a great place to walk around in the woods (there are even some longer trails that take you down to a creek and a large cliff overlook). ; There are about 50 different species and a 1800's style farm area with a "Petting Zoo" area (No, you cannot pet the Cougars). ; Another cool thing is that they have some old Railroad Cabooses that have been renovated into Overnight Cabins that you can stay in. www.wildlifeprairiestatepark.org
Gary: ; quiet you. I guess I was in a literal mode. ; I wasn't even thinking of the possible double entendre. So anyway.. well cool. ; I'll have to get down there some time. ; Actually it's the foxes I'm most excited about, the only north american fox I've photographed so far was curled up and not very visible. ; I've seen some amazing fox pictures in their flickr group, I was browsing through it while talking with some friends online. ; I let out some sort of a sound of appreciation at one of them and everyone asked what I was on about, I gave them a link and they all sort of repeated the sound when they saw it. There's a guy who lives not too far away from me who had a fox family living practically in his backyard. ; I've been so jealous of that, he got so many amazing pictures. ; Ever since foxes have been high on my priorities.
one year in spring/summer, we had a female with a litter not too far from the house in a farm road hedgerow, as long as we stayed on horseback the kits would come out to look at us and would play in front of us. they play and roughhouse just like a litter of kittens. it was amazing, alas no photos
looking at the Parks flickr site I would say that some of the members either work at the park or know someone who works at the park. ; there are some shots where it would be nigh impossible to get the angle without being closer than the average park patron.
That was my suspicion as well, especially when you take into consideration the focal lengths they were using. They weren't just getting good angles.. they were getting impossibly close. ; I was looking at pictures that I figured were taken with a 600mm lens, and instead was finding focal lengths below 200.
Realistically, some of the shots looking down at the animal can be done. But when they are at eye level, shooting through a fence, yet standing at least 3 to 4 feet away from the fence, there is no way they are getting a clean shot. ; There was one photo of the eagles in which you see the netting/fence, that is what you would typically get. ; Now, that being said, you can look down on alot of the animals from above (Cougar, Bobcat, Black Bear, Wolf and Bison) and look over the fencing on a few others (Fox, Coyote, Badger and a few others). ; The Farm area is completely open and all the animals can be petted (with the oxen maybe being the exception). ; The Birds of Prey are behind nets and fencing (although I think they still have the pond lookout area for one of the eagles that the netting can be shot through). ; Finally, they have a herpetologic building with all the snakes and amphibians in glass tanks, but well lit. ; You are now making me want to go back home to visit the park again (photos were from back in 2004 I think). ; If you do get there, you should also check out Jubilee College State Park. ; It has a lot of trails to hike (as well as a 13 part Geocache if you have ever done that). ; Can't wait to see your photos if you go.
