Hairy time

Continuing with the spider this morning, I added the hairs to more legs and onto the abdomen; also going back over the other legs already done, adding a bit more colour and highlight as I go to make the spider stand out and to boost the colour of that reddish pink. 

I am working from photographs that I took of an adult female here at the zoo and the colour has been flattened a lot, so I am referring also to my memory of her colour and some other photo's that I found on an internet search. The thorax (bit of the main body that the eyes sit on and the legs are joined to) of the adult spider is a metallic green. This has also not transferred well through the photographs coming out either almost white (due to light reflections) or a blue colour. So I have contacted Mark, Assistant Curator of Invertebrates, to see if I can have another look at the female to get a better idea of that green before I start painting that part of it.

In the latter part of the morning I did some more scanning in of more photographs for Phil, my boss - Graphic Design Manager, this handily filled the time whilst I wait to see the spider.

So, as of lunchtime, this is as far as I had got with the hairy one...

 

During the course of the afternoon I managed to get all the remaining legs done apart from the segment that overlapped the thorax on the leg that sits middle front of the image. Mark was on his own on section today so being as I never heard from him I guess he was a wee bit busy. Hopefully next week I can get a look at the spider so that I can finish this illustration.

I had a call from Simon, a Senior Keeper, requesting a permanent ID sign for the two Linne's two toed sloths now housed in the nocturnal house. We already have this species in there but these are two new animals and are in a seperate enclosure for a while (presumably for quarantine reasons). So I printed off the ID sign that was already on file in the computer, laminated it and took it up to the section to stick onto the board in front of the enclosure.

On my way back I stopped to chat to Charlotte, a Keeper, who was washing down the windows of the Asiatic lion enclosure. Shiva, the adult female, and her two strapping youngsters (now aged 16months)  were sat lounging peacefully watching her. I got a blink greeting from Shiva (cats blink as a sign of non aggression), which I was very pleased to have got. After leaving them I stopped by the meerkat enclosure to see the new babies, just about a week or two old. All I could see was the back end of two wriggly pups sticking out from the protective crouch of the female as she nursed them. In all there are four pups; one had apparently been taken down into the den and the other was also in the protective crouch of one of the other adults. They are shut in their indoor area at the moment as it is very wet  and rather chilly outside - not ideal weather for delicate little pups. There were a number of visitors enjoying watching the antics of the adults and the wriggly pups. I love the noises they make to each other, constantly keeping up a communication.