Animals at the County Fair

[captpackrat]

Touch the nose.


Goat!  Dairy goats are normally dishorned as kids for safety, but show goats usually just have the tips trimmed.

They also had an "exotic" animal encounter show.  I got a few really great photos here.


A male Eclectus Parrot.  In an extreme case of sexual dimorphism, females of this species are bright red.


African Spurred Tortoise.  This guy is still fairly young, at a mere 50 pounds.  They can reach up to 200 pounds at full maturity.


Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches!  The girl managed to keep her wits about her, just barely.  She was right on the edge of freaking out.  I would too.


Juvenile American Alligator.



Patagonian mara, also called the Patagonian cavy or Patagonian hare.  It is the fourth largest rodent, after the capybara, North American beaver and the Cape porcupine.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Eep! Removing a goat's horns? That's a bit extreme, surely. Still, good to see them left mostly unmolested here. ^_^ But then, sheep always used to have tails docked, and seemingly no longer, so, things change.

Love the tortoise pose. "Give us a hug!" =:)

Really nice shot of the 'gator - presumably a fairly wide aperture for that DoF, or simply judicious background placement? Either way, a really nice result. ^_^

Not sure I'd be too enthused about the cockroaches either, at that kind of size. ^_^; She's got spirit!

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

If you're going to be milking a goat, especially by hand, the last thing you want is to be leaning over the goat and have her gore you in the face with her points. The horns can also get caught in fences; our goats like to try to eat the grass outside the fence and stick their heads through the openings. We don't alter any of our goat's horns, though one of our males appears to have a medical condition that causes one of his horns to fall off on its own.

All of these photos except the goat were taken with an 85mm (130mm equivalent) f/1.4 prime (because of the close range, the goat was taken with a 45mm f/1.8 prime). This lens has a magnificent DOF and it's become my favorite.