Tag Archives: Emu

Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo

Sriracha, a tiger at Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, Hawaii
Sriracha yawns. Check out those teeth!

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Animal or Bird in farm or zoo.’ See more responses here.

Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo, in Hilo, is the only zoo on the island. It’s quite small, but is definitely a family-friendly destination. We like to visit once in a while to see the zoo’s star attractions, Sriracha and Tzatziki, a pair of Bengal Tigers. Captions are on the photos.

This is one of the many benches in the zoo representing animals that live there. These are ‘Alalās, the endemic Hawaiian Crow. There are no longer any ‘Alalās in the wild and just over a hundred in captivity. The building behind this bench is one of the few places where these birds are bred, with a view to reintroducing them in the wild. So far, attempts to do this have failed, for a variety of reasons including disease and predation. One of the current projects is a release on Maui where Ios, Hawaiian hawks, a major predator of ‘Alalās, are no longer found.

Cheerful Emu

Emu

This cheerful looking emu is a resident of Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens, near Hilo. What strikes me most though is how this photo is just like looking in a mirror. I mean, the hair, the beak …

Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge ‘Smiles.’

For more information about Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens, go to hilozoo.org.