Click on the image in each blog post to see photo galleries from some of my fun research trips and vacations featuring lots of cool animals.
Shedd Aquarium in Chicago
We saw so many amazing water creatures when we visited the fabulous Shedd Aquarium in Chicago last August, but I mostly focused on animals that I needed to research for upcoming books, including lots of turtles, as well as a few more unusual super swimmers. Sea lamprey Seahorse Sawshark Painted turtle Alligator snapping turtle Pig-nosed...
read moreMore Metro Richmond Zoo fun!
Here are some friends I visited on a rainy morning at the Metro Richmond Zoo. So many animals were making lots of noise and having fun, and we were surprised to see many new baby animals, including a brand-new, one-week-old pygmy hippopotamus, a baby snow leopard, four cheetah cubs, a baby orangutan, and more! Check out the pygmy rattlesnake in these photos, like the one in my book Tiny Terrors! Notice that the little snake is barely bigger than a pine cone! Pygmy rattlesnake Sleepy sloth Beautiful grey wolf Curious capybara Giraffe snoot...
read moreAmerican Museum of Natural History
This is the super-fun and huge museum where the movie Night at the Museum was filmed. Can you imagine these giant prehistoric creatures (featured in my book Maxed Out! Gigantic Creatures from the Past) coming to life and roaming the streets? All of these animals, except for the narwhal, are extinct and only known from these fossils, or the bones they left behind after they died. Narwhals, the unicorns of the sea, are still swimming around today! Tyrannosaurus Rex Giant sea turtle Megalodon tooth Woolly mammoth Giant ground sloth...
read moreBronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo in New York City is the largest urban zoo in the United States, home to thousands of fascinating animals. I recently visited with my family and wanted to share a few of my favorite animals here, many of them featured in my books. red panda white’s tree frog white-cheeked gibbon Przewalski’s horses Asian elephant Male lion poison dart frog poison dart frog pig-nosed turtle horned lizard Galapagos tortoises flamingos kookaburras okapi...
read moreAnimal Kingdom
You get the idea that I love visiting places where I can see lots of animals from all over the world. So you can probably guess that a trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida was an exciting one for me and my family. Here are some of the highlights: naked mole rats dung beetles kangaroos meerkat lowland gorilla alligators giraffes African elephants! fruit bat hanging from a...
read moreAmazing Aquariums
The word aquarium means “place of water,” but whenever I visit one, I feel like it is a place of wonder. Check out these gorgeous jellyfish at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland: At the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, I got up close with a variety of wildlife: spotted stingray hyacinth macaws South African penguin giant spider crab jellyfish sea turtle And at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach, I got to spot these fearsome creatures: Komodo dragon stalking Komodo dragon posing Komodo...
read moreMetro Zoo of Richmond
We visit this great small local zoo near our home in Richmond as often as we can. Here are some of my favorite animals from our various trips over the years. Enjoy these crazy creatures! flamingos peacock kissing budgerigars roseate spoonbill and wood stork South African penguin Galapagos tortoise African porcupine Australian binturong orangutans warthog rhinoceroses giraffe dromedary camel baby dromedary camel...
read moreSmithsonian Museum of Natural History
I took a terrific trip with my family to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. recently, and we saw many of the animals from my books there. If you get a chance to go, check out the giant squid in the huge tank that was too big for me to photograph, plus the other weird creatures in the Deep Ocean exhibit, and of course the awesome...
read moreBaby Otter Learns to Swim
As I explain in my Baby Otter book, young river otters are sometimes unsure about getting in the water, because they don’t know yet that they will be good swimmers. The mother otter helps them out, but she sometimes has to give them a firm but gentle push. Check it out!
read moreA Trip to the Zoo
I went to visit some of my favorite animals at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. last week, and I wanted to share some of my pictures with you. See how many of these animals you can find in my books, and tell me about your favorite animals! American alligator Cheetah Asian elephant Flamingo Basilisk Land iguana Meerkats Naked Mole Rat Giant...
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