Wild mammals in Shanghai - wonderful ! Today I went back to my favourite birding haunt - Shanghai Zoo - to see if I could find the Hoopoes again (no luck - too many people as tomorrow starts a public holiday). Instead I amazingly found 3 Raccoon Dogs, happily living in the wooded areas of the zoo.
I should explain, Shanghai Zoo is an incredibly interesting place, not like any other zoo I've ever been to. There are more areas set aside as huge public fields, copses and ponds than there are for the exhibits ! You should be able to see this in the plan below.
Instead of my usual spots I decided to walk around and see if there were any other areas I hadn't yet explored. There are little tracks and paths that lead you to the most unexpected places, canals with a felled tree across it, wild overgrown ponds and walks through 10 metre high bamboo which you exit onto yet another small private field.
However where the Raccoon Dogs had set up home was not even in one of these secluded areas - it was on the bank of a canal, 35 metres to a zig zag wooden bridge on the left, 70 metres to a small humped back bridge on the right, 50 metres to a public pathway , through dense woods, behind them and with the canal and a high hedge shielding them from a children's horse riding track in front. See the two location shots below.
The only way the Raccoon Dogs could be seen was from the Zig Zag bridge - if you knew what to look for or were just downright lucky or if you pushed through the hedge on the opposite side of the canal, and there was no obvious reason for anyone to do that ..... so I just got lucky. I got their attention for these shots by, I guess we can call it the mammal version of 'phishing' for birds, just by emitting a few high pitched squeaks and smacking sounds from pursing my lips ! The stood up to see what the strange sounds were then promptly settled back down to enjoy their sunbathing again.
Hope you enjoy this amazing discovery at least a little bit as much as I did !
#1 - Plan of the Zoo
#2 - The view from the Zig Zag Bridge. Can you see the Raccoon Dogs ?
#3 - The view from opposite their home - after pushing through a high hedge.
#4 - Home ! Yes, up that water culvert.
#5 - Shock ! This Blackbird was in for the fright of it's life when they spotted each other ! Good for a size comparison.
#6 - Spotted !
#7 - Debate
#10 - Warning ?
#11 - Alone
#12 - Carefree
Finished sunbathing for the day they headed back home whilst I was working my way around to the opposite side .... until next time, the pups should be born in April or May !