Wolverine, originally uploaded by http://andrewskelton.net.
Forget the spandex, lycra and adamantium skeleton – this is the real deal (as they say), and much more vicious, Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the real Wolverine. I’ve never seen these creatures before until Whipsnade took delivery of two of them and up to now I’ve not found them in conducive enough situations to photograph them, but they were incredibly active during yesterday’s visit. One of the pair would repeatedly stretch out on a fallen tree trunk which I thought would make for a good photograph. Predictably, as soon as I got into position the creatures were off gamboling around their enclosure. They have a fair turn of speed to them, and before I knew it both of them had scrambled up into a tree around 20 feet from where I was standing. I had of course bribed them earlier (if only all animals were as accommodating) and they obliged for 10 minutes climbing up and down the various branches, in fact on to branches that didn’t look like they would take the animals considerable bulk.
There were a number of altercations between the two animals, and I managed to get a number of shots of their not inconsiderable set of teeth but this is the shot I’m most pleased with – the image hopefully reflecting their arboreal nature (and sharp teeth).
These weren’t my favourite photos from the day, not by a long way.. consider them a teaser for what will be coming up in the week, which I hope you’ll think are, well… quite good. For once I missed out a number of the enclosures as I knew I wouldn’t be able to get any photos were displaying. So instead of visiting the Lions and Tigers, I went to see if the Wolves and Moose were out (though not in the same enclosure of course, though they are adjacent to each other). Of the two, the wolves provided the best photo opportunity even though the light levels were, at this point, dropping meaning I had to use a higher ISO to achieve a
useful shutter speed… but these aren’t the photos I’m pleased with! You’ll just have to wait.
*Xmen: Origins
Andrew Skelton: 
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