A SMALL WILDLIFE ENCOUNTER

Kopia – Observed lives (1).jpg

This Sunday afternoon I would like to invite you for a short walk through a zoo located in the Czech Republic. This time it is not another stop along my European trucking route, but simply a family moment.

During the summer we organized a small trip together. My two sisters came with their families, my parents joined as well and for a few days we spent time exploring the area together. Since we were staying not far from the Czech border, visiting this zoo became one of the points on our little travel map. I will not go into too many details about the zoo itself today, because I would actually like to present the place more thoroughly in a separate post.

Instead I would like to focus on a few animal encounters that caught my attention during that visit.I managed to photograph very different animals. For today I choose a bright green snake resting on a branch, a massive hippopotamus enjoying the sand and several tortoises slowly wandering through the grass.

What I enjoy most in moments like this is simply observing. Even in a controlled environment like a zoo every animal has its own rhythm and behavior.

Below you can see a small selection of photographs from that day — just a few quiet wildlife moments captured during a family trip.

During our walk through the zoo this bright green snake immediately caught my attention. It was resting quietly on a branch blending with the surrounding leaves. At first glance it looked like just another green shape among the plants, but once you notice the eye and the curve of the body, it suddenly becomes impossible to miss. I always find snakes fascinating to observe, because they can remain perfectly still for long moments and you have the feeling that they are carefully watching everything around them.

The species presented here is GREEN MAMBA (DENDROASPIS VIRIDIS). This snake naturally occurs in the forests of West Africa and is known for its vivid green coloration, which helps it blend into trees and dense vegetation. Unlike the more famous black mamba, the green mamba spends most of its life in trees and is an excellent climber. It is a highly venomous species, but it is generally shy and prefers to avoid confrontation, relying on its camouflage and agility to stay hidden from potential threats.

Now we move on to the second animal from this short walk, the hippopotamus, more precisely HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS. I have to admit that when I saw this large animal lying there and resting so peacefully, a smile immediately appeared on my face. He looked incredibly relaxed, almost as if the whole world had slowed down around him and for a moment I honestly envied that carefree laziness. The hippopotamus was resting very close to the fence, which gave me the opportunity to observe him from quite a short distance and capture a few photographs without any difficulty.

Despite this calm appearance the hippopotamus is actually one of the most powerful animals in Africa. HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS is a large semi-aquatic mammal that spends most of the day resting in water or mud to keep its massive body cool. Adult males can weigh well over 1,500 kilograms making them one of the heaviest land mammals on Earth! Although they often appear slow and lazy, hippos can be surprisingly fast and are known to be very territorial, especially in water. Their lifestyle is closely connected to rivers and lakes, where they spend hours submerged with only their eyes, ears and nostrils visible above the surface.

At the very end I would like to share a few photos of the tortoises. These calm animals also brought smiles to our faces, especially in the moments when fascinated children (not only ours) were asking their parents what the tortoises were actually doing. I must admit that some of the parents’ answers were really funny and sometimes far more creative than scientific. The whole situation looked quite amusing because the tortoises seemed completely unconcerned with all the curiosity around them and simply continued doing their own thing.😁

In the photos we can most likely see several different species of land tortoises. Among them are RADIATED TORTOISE (ASTROCHELYS RADIATA), easily recognizable thanks to the characteristic star-like pattern on their shells and probably also AFRICAN SPURRED TORTOISE (CENTROCHELYS SULCATA), one of the largest species of land tortoises in the world. Tortoises are well known for their calm lifestyle and impressive longevity, with some species living for more than a hundred years. Although they move slowly, they are perfectly adapted to life on land thanks to their strong legs and hard shells, which provide protection from predators.