Every Parrot Lover’s Dream ~ Dusty Shutt Photographs Hyacinth Macaws

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Dusty Shutt’s animated images of these sweet tempered, good-natured Blue Hyacinth Macaws were taken at the Fort Worth Zoo. The Parrot Paradise Exhibit is a free flying avaiary where visitors see hundreds of colorful birds up-close-and-personal.

Photography by Dusty Shutt
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Notes on caring and feeding of Blue Hyacinth Macaws:

Hyacinths need more fat in their diet and this can be offered to the birds in many forms. Macadamia nuts and filbert, which are high in calcium, are a great choice since Hyacinths need a higher quantity of calcium than most other parrots. Coconut in season or coconut milk introduced slowly into their diet quickly becomes a favorite food. In addition to the nuts, it is imperative to continue to feed foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals like sweet potatoes and leafy greens.

Photography by Dusty Shutt
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Need more Macaws?

More information, including some remarkable video of Blue Hyacinth and other rare parrots can be found at the Lexicon of Parrots, a publishing house specializing in books about parrots. One of the most charming videos contains footage of  a colorful Camiguin Hanging Parrot from the Camigun Island in the Phillipines.

Photography by Dusty Shutt
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Tony Pittman’s Blue Macaw, along with more than 400 photos and 50 articles about Blue Hyacinth Macaws,  has breeding updates on rare pairs and some cool links to movie trailers of an animated film about a blue macaw – ostensibly a Spix’s Macaw – available on YouTube.

Greater One Horn (Indian) Rhinoceros

Joya, Greater One Horn (Indian) Rhino

Joya, is the Greater One Horned Rhinoceros that resides at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure in Salina, KS. The greater one-horned rhino lives in northern India and southern Nepal. In both areas, the species mainly inhabits riverine (flood plain) grasslands and occasionally utilizes some adjacent woodland. It is listed as a vulnerable species, which has been categorized as likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Indian rhinos have few natural enemies, except for tigers (Bengals) who sometimes kill unguarded calves, but adult rhinos are less vulnerable due to their size.

As the name suggests, greater one-horned rhinos have a single horn 8 to 24 inches (20 to 61 cm) long. So where’s Joya’s horn? Was it cut off? The answer is no, it wasn’t cut off. Joya, when he gets moody starts scraping his horn against different hard surfaces and wears it down.

Joya, Greater One Horn (Indian) Rhino Paintings

Joya had some dental problems that needed to be addressed. To help make the procedures less stressful, Zookeepers decided to train him to do certain behaviors. The began by teaching him to hold his mouth open and then to let the veterinarian file one of his front teeth. But his upper lip kept getting in the way.* So they began teaching him to “target” his lip onto a piece of paper. And while they were at it, why not add paint and see if Joya would like to paint? At first Joya was adverse to the taste, smell, and texture of the paint. Through operant conditioning (lots of sweet potatoes) and patience, he overcame that reluctance and began enjoying the painting procedure. Any of Joya’s works of art can be yours.

*The upper lip is semi-prehensile, well-adapted to grasping branches and leaves.

Polar Bear and Tigers

The Kansas City Zoo has 2 beautiful male Sumatran Tigers by the names of Langka and ???? (I’m waiting to find out his name) and a very playful Polar Bear by the name of Nikita.

Niabi Zoo

Great family zoo with a cool reptile house

Asian Forest Exhibit Features Amur (Siberian) Tigers

It was a hot day at the Pittsburgh Zoo when Dusty Shutt managed to photograph a 6 month old  Amur Tiger cub wrestling with her mother in the Asian Forest Exhibit.

Dusty is well known for her skill at photographing wildlife at play and her shots of these captivating Amur Tigers  (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as Siberian Tigers shows why. Her ability to catch the big cats at just the right moment takes dedication, patience and a keen eye as her extensive collection of tiger photographs for sale demonstrates.

If you want to see the  Siberian tigers cuddling together, as the mother and child in Dusty’s photo above shows or just playing around, the Pittsburgh Zoo offers a special Facebook Fan Night for visitors.  Social media followers will have the Zoo all to themselves with behind the scenes visits with the tiger cubs and giraffes.

There will also be opportunities for free photos with an elephant, and at night’s end, watch one or both of the polar bears to go for a swim.

The FAQ from the Pittsburgh Zoo for Facebook Fan Night says:

Will I get to pet the tiger cubs?
Definitely not. Though only 8 months old, our cubs have extremely sharp teeth and claws. It’s no longer safe for our keepers to be in an area with them, much less visitors. But you will have access to a behind the scenes area where you will get to see them up close and take pictures.

Do I need to bring a camera?
If you want a photo with the elephant, you must bring your own camera. Normally elephant photos are $10. On Facebook Fan Night, they’re free.

Will the polar bear definitely be in the water?
While we can’t force him to go for a swim, he almost always goes in when there is fish in the water.

For more information about this and other truly special events at the Pittsburgh Zoo, check out their blog.

For more of Dusty’s collection of unusual and unique Amur Tiger Photographs, visit her other site, The Forest’s Edge.

Dusty Shutt Catches Polar Bears Playing Around at the Pittsburg Zoo

It was playtime at the Pittsburgh Zoo this week when Dusty Shutt stopped by to take some of her entertaining animal photographs. Splashing around with a plastic 55 gallon drum(called an enrichment), Meesca the Polar Bear dives into the water at the at the Water’s Edge Exhibit while Sosa, on the right, paces in the background.

The amazing Water’s Edge Exhibit take you on a journey to a coastal fishing village that offers  two enormous underwater viewing tunnels and indoor and outdoor viewing windows, giving you a unique closeup of the stars of the show: Meesca and Sosa.

Native to the Arctic Circle, Polar Bears are the largest land carnivore and the largest of all bears. They are more than twice the size of Siberian Tigers. In 2008, the US Government listed the Polar Bear as a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

As the official mascots of the Pittsburgh Polar Bear Club, they are an inspiration to the approximately 200 river-jumpers who showed up for this years annual New Year’s Day Jump at Pittsburgh’s Mon Wharf. Meesca’s impressive long distance dive in Dusty Shutt’s photograph shows why.