Day 91: Lizard

We went to the Highland Wildlife Park today - normally I come back with tons of photos of the Amur Tigers - today I come back with lizards! Isn't it ironic that I passed over the exotic species for the native? Well not entirely - I still have several tiger photos I like but it is so unbelievably cool to get photos this good of lizards. They are small and fast and well it is pretty hard to focus on them and keep them all in the frame without the majority of them being hidden by grass or whatever they are living in (we usually see them up the moors where most of the lizard is usually obscured by grass or heather). This was on a bank next to a raised walkway which was perfect for them sunbathing and for me being at just the right distance to use my zoom lens. I actually cropped this photo down because I didn't have enough depth of field to get his (don't know if it was a male or female actually as the only way to tell is by seeing their tummy) tail in focus, but I really thought the rest was pretty damn good. We also saw a couple of stoats running around and squeaking and playing, as did the tiger cubs who spent a good long while watching them and chasing up and down their enclosure fence to keep an eye on them. It's pretty cool to see the stoats so at ease but I guess they have the same safety that the lizards do - they are fenced off and I guess they could think of the humans as being captive - they know we can't get at them and that they are pretty safe where they are - which is what makes zoos and wildlife parks a pretty good place to keep an eye out for native wildlife too!