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Mouselemur — Sleepyhead
Published: 2012-07-13 15:59:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 1109; Favourites: 94; Downloads: 55
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Description
Photo taken in February, 2012 @ Natura Artis Magistra, Royal Amsterdam Zoo, The NetherlandsFinn the Fennec Fox is sleeping again, his favorite pass-time.
Species: Fennec Fox (Fennek vos of Woestijnvos)
Latin name: Vulpes Zerda
Originates from Northern Africa.
Current status: Least Concern
Did you know:
…The word “Fennec” is Arabic for Fox, so basically, we call him “Fox Fox”.
…Its large ears are its most distinct feature, and serve to dissipate heat.
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Comments: 19
So cute! 
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Thanks
Well, this photo is already pretty old; if you scroll down, on the right you can see which camera I used to take this photo (nowadays, I use a different one).
Such a bummer that you weren't able to take a good photo
The Fennec Foxes in this zoo are only rarely awake, and this is their "inside" enclosure, which happens to be indoors for visitors, too. The overlight lamps of the visitor area, as well as the hot lamp hanging right above the plateau he's sleeping on, are a huge factor in the lighting of this photo, You can see the shine of his fur, which is caused by the lamp above him 
To see them moving around, I really have to visit at certain hours of the day, mostly, lunch time. They're eager and seem to know when they're being fed so they're awake. But mostly, as they keep the enclosure in daylight they're always asleep.
Many zoos try to accomodate to visitors, by casting nocturnal animals' enclosures in the dark, so people can see them awake and moving around. I personally find them to be a lot of fun, because you get to see different animals for once, who'll show themselves for a change. It's a disaster for taking photos however - they have to relatively close, to get even a bit of light on them, basically because you don't want to startle them by using the flash after all, and also, it tends to reflect back at you because of the glass.
The only thing that sort of helps with nocturnal houses is a lot of patience, and see if they're willing to get closer. This is going to sound kind of strange, but I have a camera that I carry around on a strap around my wrist; the dangling silver camera tends to catch the attention of several animals through the glass, bringing them closer and causing a lot of fun for seeing them being playful
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Thanks for all the info! That is a much newer camera than mine, but I don't know if having a newer camera would have even helped me unless it had night vision. (If that's even a thing cameras can have.) That is a conundrum about what to do with nocturnal animals. Do you put them in the light so people can see them better and take pictures but they're always asleep, or do you put them in the dark so they'll be active but no one can take pictures? I wish they had both kinds of areas for them, but connected, and they could go in whichever one they wanted to when they wanted, like how the ringtailed lemurs had and indoor area with a window where they could climb out into the outdoor area. Then maybe there would be a chance to get photos depending on which area they happened to be in at the time you visited.
At least the enclosure at your zoo had the heat lamp and overhead lights in the visitor area. The building at my zoo only had these weird, very dim red lights in the enclosures, and in the visitor area I can't remember what they had for lights but it didn't make much difference. From what I could see on my camera's screen, it looked like it would take a picture, albeit a red-tinted one, but in reality it didn't work. One of the fennecs was asleep anyway, but I wouldn't have minded a photo like that. In fact, I only tried to take a pic of the sleeping one because although the other one was awake, it was in one of the front corners by the glass, sort of pacing side to side really fast. It seemed to be looking out but not necessarily at us. I have no idea why it was doing that, but nobody was coming to feed it at the time. Maybe it was bored or something. But I figured if it kept moving around like that the photo would come out too blurry, so I just went for the sleeping one.
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A lot of zoos do have enclosures where the animals can go in or outside at their will (luckily). Others are only kept inside, because they're adapting their bio-rhythm with the night-time during the day, and daylight-ish at night.
I recognize the Fennec Fox's behavior; a lot of animals in zoos tend to fall back on that kind of routine behavior: walking the same path over and over and over again... It's kind of sad, but also hard to take a photo 
As for night enclosures, I put some photos in my sta.sh as an example
Here's one: sta.sh/01wvfkf1sukx; this photo was taken with a fairly new camera that I bought for it's quality in photography in low light. It's a night enclosure, with perhaps one small light above the the food bowl, I believe. Because of the type of camera, I could up the ISO quite high, resulting in this photo. Shutter speed was rather low to catch as much light as possible. Because this is a slender loris, and not very fast - which is sort of a must when shooting a photo with these settings - the photo isn't too bad.
Now this photo sta.sh/01t7myi0ixlb was taken with a different camera. It's less specialized in low light, so with high ISO, the photo turns blue and very, very grainy. With the low shutter speed, each movement - from the animal, but also my unsteady hands - impacts the photo, which is why you can hardly see a thing here.
A lot of the photos I've taken of Mouse Lemurs (next to the enclosure of the Fennec Foxes at the zoo "sleepyhead" was taken at) are also in a night-time enclosure. For example, this photo: I'll Lead You Through the Dark Night has a red dot caused by my camera whilst focusing, while Red Light District is taken without any real light and was edited with Photoshop to make it clearer (though there's no helping the grain).
I hope this helps too
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Hm, good point about the bio-rhythm. Letting them go in and out at will could get them really confused about when to sleep. The fennec was the only animal I saw doing any repetitive behaviors like that; maybe it had too much energy. 
I was kind of doing an experiment to see what kinds of pictures I could get with my iPod Touch's camera, so probably none of them were as good as they could be if I had used my real camera, but then my real camera isn't great either. I'll have another chance sometime. I need to try to get a better camera before then; mine's digital, but it's quite old and doesn't even have special settings or a very powerful zoom. I'll try to find something that works well in low light now that I know about these kinds of situations, and I will also have to pay more attention to the functions so I will know how to change the shutter speed and all that. When I got this camera I was still in high school and not concerned with reading all the instructions and learning all the finer points of using it. I just wanted to take pictures of my dog.
Oh, I like that first picture! Great job on that one.
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Those lamps really do work miracles
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I love fennec foxes. 
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They're still one of my favorite animals
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Ooooh he is sooooooo cute I just want to give him a big cuddle
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Thanks
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