Diorama Details At The California Academy Of Sciences

There's an impressive group of African animal dioramas at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. Lions, a gorilla, some regal creatures with hooves. Labels are good.

And so are details. Like a gorilla's arm.

How about a steenbok being dwarfed by a sexy king protea? Or a couple of African wild dogs? Woof!

Cheetah kill.

Profile of a sable antelope. And a rump sliver. Bongo leg in bamboo.

Olive baboons, grooving.

Failing To Find Reality At The Surabaya Zoo

Zoos, by their definition, aren't a true reality for their captive residents. Animals in cages, species found continents apart now living next to each other. Surabaya has a decent zoo, a meandering property full of enclosures that try to look natural.

Morning feeding at the elephant enclosure, the painted background looking a little like a vintage Hollywood rear projection setup.

Part of a tiger. Flora, some real, some not.

Large rocky waterfall display for some sort of animal. Minus the creatures, water and real rocks.

Some real animals, cropped.

Nature, caged. An aviary.

Taxidermy Nirvana At The Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery

Medan, in Indonesia, has one of the best animal taxidermy collections in the world. Why? Its founder, Dr H. Rahmat Shah, is an avid hunter and he's crisscrossed the world, shooting everything possible. Their loss of life is the museum goer's gain. It's an amazing place, both in the variety of animals and the quality or preservation and display.

Various cats getting busy. The museum loosely divides animals geographically and/or by similar species. Noah couldn't have done a better job.

Two animals of the "Big Five" trophy animals to hunt. Can you name the other three species?

Important birds.

Big horned thing and a snarling hippo, blue light for water mood.

The  furry behemoths in the bear cave, not happy a wolf is crashing the party. BYOB. Bring your own bird.

Getting local to Sumatra, the orangutan. Formal warthog portrait.

Tigers, showing what they do best.

The "Big Five" animals to hunt: lion, rhino, elephant, leopard and panda. Oh no, not a panda! Correction, the last animal of the five is the cape buffalo.

Flora And Fauna At The Sabah State Museum

The highlight at the Sabah State museum are the classic dioramas of animals and their jungle environments. Bringing wild Borneo to the masses.

Earnest rhino.

Setting the scene. Bloody cobra, scared squirrel.

Crocodile and brave birds. We especially like how the background image comes to 3D life for the high bird branch.

Eager eagle. A bunch of bamboo, mind the outlets.

Adorable white mongoose.

Animals Of Australia

Lots of fauna to see if you take a week or so road trip through Western Australia. Let us count the animals.

Confident cows in the rain.

Ram, ready to get his butting on.

Eerie emu.

Lovely lamb.

Curious kangaroo, at least the little one, safe with a pouch view.

We Herd About Cowaramup In Australia

Up with small town ingenuity!

Someone in the tiny hamlet of Cowaramup in Australia got the obvious idea that the place needed cows - and lots of them. A motivated populace, some plastic molds and paint and suddenly the herd appeared.

Walk the main drag and see the cows.

Lots of them, all over the place. Hanging out on lawns, hiding at restaurants.

Questionable juxtaposition.

Great attention to detail, a cow tag, doubling as a donation thank-you sign. Clever. Fake cow dominating real dog.

Cow crossing.

Seeing The Stuffed Animals At The Terengganu State Museum

The city of Kuala Terengganu has a big museum, a grab bag of textiles, local history, royalty, oil. And animals, a great room filled with taxidermy treasures. Take a little time to photograph them and the stuffed figures seem to come to life.