Selfmade photos and videos of animals living in your country

Boy oh boy what talented photographers you are! Kind of embarrassed to say, I haven't taken many good wildlife photos in the "exotic" countries I have been in, either because I was busy on a work assignment there, or because I was too young to own a camera (and too old for a phone, I'm giving away my age here lol!). But here are some of my favourite pictures I took in Sauerland (in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia), I have family and friends nearby so I've been there quite a few times.

My German is not very good but I'll try my best, I'm really guessing at all but one of the breeds, so I'm tagging some people who might be able to help - , some of the animals Bakie and francien may be familiar with as wildlife is not too different in the Netherlands I think (to get there I usually fly to Niederrhein Airport, close to the Dutch border, and sometimes I unconsciously wonder whether it is still Germany or if it's already the Netherlands). I don't know where in Germany @stevenssimsstuff lives but maybe he knows the proper terms. Please do correct me, I know quite little but I am really interested.

Here is your standard shepherd, German shepherd and sheep. My guess is that they are German Whiteheaded Mutton Sheep (Weissköpfige Fleischschaf) rather than East Friesian sheep (Ostfriesisches Milchschaf). Please let me know if I guessed correctly, I looked at the woolly tail, head shape and upkeep tendency (shepherded rather than penned).



In case you need a closer look at them whilst they invaded my lenses...



And they trailed off, love the dark one looking at a different direction from the rest. Guess that would be me.




About these sheep, the two smaller ones in the centre (they have striped faces) are Cameroon sheep (Kamerunschaf) , the only sheep I know very well, because they are originally from West Africa (where I was born and raised). The other two... I believe are German Black Head Muttonsheep (Schwarzköpfiges Fleischschaf). 



Here are the same four sheep again, you can see the striped faces here on the Cameroon sheep. This one I took at the end of winter (technically it was actually the first day of spring), and it was beginning to snow.



This is a close-up of one of the sheep I believe to be German Black Head Muttonsheep.



You wanna see some Cameroon sheep newborns? These were a day old. I fell in love with them the moment I saw them. Yes, they could stand but they were a little clumsy.



Okay, this is probably a Western honey bee (Apis mellifera in Latin, in German Westliche Honigbiene). I think the flower is sage (Salvia officinalis in Latin, Garten-Salbei in German).




Another kind of bee, probably the German black bee or European dark bee (Dunkle Europäische Biene in German, Apis mellifera mellifera in latin).
I don't know what flower it is, but it belongs to the Asteraceae or Compositae family (same as daisies).



This is one of my favourite pics because although at first glance it is one animal, there are four. The cow I guess is a Braunvieh (same name in German as in English, it means brown cow and originates from Switzerland). Animals 2 and 3 are a ladybird beetle (or ladybug in the States, although it is not a bug; Marienkäfer in German), the latin family is called Coccinellidae - and the other is a face fly I think (Musca autumnalis) (Herbstfliege). The fourth is Mulier non sapiens - my head is reflected in the cow's eye (sorry, the original photo is much higher resolution and I can see it better).



FYI the face fly is annoying but does not bite or transmit anything terrible besides bovine pinkeye or infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (which can be painful, annoying, etc but not lethal). The ear tags on many of the cows most probably have insecticides to help control face flies and horn flies.

Here you can see ear tags. And cows. And happy fields.



And proof that cows kiss.



This filly (female horse) is called Hanni, I didn't see her owner but the coat type is Palomino (blondish mane, chestnut hair, not a very good description but I'm not an expert). The breed maybe is Haflinger/also known as the Avelignese...? It's the same name in German, although it could even be a Edelbluthaflinger, a relatively new breed not much known outside Germany, as it looks a little bigger to me than the Austrian-Italian variety. Whatever breed, I think she is so lovely.




Another wild guess, this lovely horse might be a Trakehner, a light warmblood breed of horse, based on the finely chiseled head and majestic appearance. Warmblood (Warmblüter in German) refers to the fact that it is not "hot blood" (light saddle like Thoroughbreds, Arabs) nor "cold blood" (heavy draft horses).And kitty there - well I guess we have a case of Felis silvestris catus. 




I think these dark chickens are Barnevelder (same name in German, medium heavy breed of chickens named after the Dutch town). The cockerel though - Sussex? Leghorn?



I guess a Barnevelder and Leghorn or Sussex chicken? The house on that field is for rent, in case any of you want to vacation there lol.



These brown chickens are your basic hybrids, though we just call them tuktuk.



This is not the same cat, by the way.




This is a wild boar (German: Wildschwein Latin: Sus scrofa) that lives in a nature reserve there. I think it's the Central European boar (S. s. scrofa).



The babies (piglets) are called Frischlingen in German and are mega cute. And stripey.





These have been featured before here I think - Red Deer (German: Rothirsch, Latin: Cervus elaphus)

 

I don't know about this one though - I'll have to research it.



And this is just a bonus image of the landscape! Really beautiful place.



Hope this wasn't too boring for you all! Most are basic farm animals but I look at them all with starry eyes.

Thank you orangemittens ! A real quickie question for a busy lady- what's your nearest (non-human) animal right now?

I think you are right Bakie . There was a sign for red deer so I thought it was them, but I see the spots and them not being shy, so it makes sense.
Thank you for correcting me!!

Here is a little video of the newborn lambs, they're priceless in motion.

Well, these are wild animals, but not technically "wild" (guess where I work):

Oh wow indiaskapie!! What amazing photos, did you really take them all yourself!! Really impressive! So you work in an animal park/nature reserve? That's so lovely! It must be hard sometimes though, I imagine? They all look healthy, I hope the conditions are good for them there?
I especially like the reptiles and seals by the way. But all the photos are really perfect. Can you name all of the animals by the way? We kind of got in the habit of putting them if we know it, just to share the love and knowledge. Thank you so much for sharing, I've enjoyed them immensely!

Wow indiaskapie!

Those are some great photos and some great work you're doing!
I like it how stingrays, most of the time, "look" so happy if you see them from below. But yours is't isn't looking happy at all!
he looks very sad :P

I like those little Nemo's (Clownfishes) too. Are those the 2 or 3 banded?
And reptiles are cool too. In the bird park I worked there were also reptiles like bearded dragons, blue tongued skinks, all kinds of snakes and all kind of geckos like the beautiful Madagascar giant day gecko. And some giant iguanas too who were walking freely in the tropical hot house I worked in.

Been away for the weekend off roading and camping, had some locals drop by