Exotic Babies at the Steinhardt Estate
My friends and neighbors in Bedford, Michael and Judy Steinhardt, live in a veritable paradise. In fact, their fifty-four acre property can be described as an exotic wonderland. All the landscaping is an ongoing project of Jerome and Carole Rocherolle, owners of Shanti Bithi Nursery in Stamford, Connecticut. The property includes beautiful woodland plants and spectacular flowering shrubs, moss-covered bridges and ponds, and more than 400 cultivars of maple trees. But the grounds also feature a menagerie of animals, including camels, zebras, wallabies, ostriches, and hundreds of other exotics and waterfowl. It’s always fun to visit and wander around. Please enjoy these photos of some of the Steinhardt’s recent arrivals.
1 Coco, a 3-month-old camel, shares a living space with Angel, a young llama.
2 Sadly, after birth, Coco's mother, wanted nothing to do with her and would not feed her.
3 This is Zach feeding Coco. The bottle contains a milk formula especially for camels.
4 Coco drinks quickly and gets a bottle like this three times daily.
5 At six months of age, Coco will be weaned from the bottle.
6 Bottoms up!
7 With agile hands, Jason grabbed hold of an East African Crowned Crane.
8 These beautiful birds are known for the complicated and energetic dancing, and keen eye sight.
9 This is a Sarus Crane - the largest of all cranes. These non-migratory birds are found in parts of the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
10 In India Sarus Cranes are considered symbols of marital fidelity, as they mate for life and pine the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death.
11 The sexes do not differ in plumage although males are on average larger than females. The bare red skin of the adult's head and neck turns brighter during the breeding season.
12 These are Egyptian geese. They are very pugnacious and aggressive, especially during breeding season. They are intolerant of other birds and are among the most vicious of all waterfowl.
13 These are African porcupines - when danger approaches, they raise the long quills on their backs and tails, making them vibrate and producing a very scary sound.
14 One week ago, this little baby was born.
15 Zach managed to catch the little creature.
16 The babies have soft quills but by ten days, those quills become hard, sharp, and nasty.
17 This baby is still adorable!
18 Right near the porcupine pen is an aviary containing these beautiful and colorful macaws.
19 The llamas also had a baby recently.
20 These birds live in the llama pen. The one on the left is an emu and the other is a rhea. Like the ostrich, these are flightless birds.
21 This is a cria, the name for a baby llama. It is four weeks old.
22 The mother was very concerned about her cria.
23 That's enough visiting for one day!
24 Adjacent to the llama pen is the lemur house. Lemurs are a special group of primates found only on Madagascar off the coast of Africa.
25 These are ring-tailed lemurs with mother on the left and her two month old baby.
26 Of the 50 species of lemurs, 17 are on the endangered species list. Habitat loss is the main threat to lemurs, as people clear their native forests for farm land.
27 This lemur is a Red Ruffed. Lemurs usually have a vegetarian diet, consisting of leaves and fruit, although they will occassionally eat insects or smaller animals.
28 Most lemurs are arboreal, which means they spend most of their time in trees and bushes. Alarmingly, eighty percent of the lemur's original habitat in Madagascar has been destroyed.
29 With their long noses, lemurs have an excellent sense of smell, which they rely heavily upon.
30 This large duck is called a Flightless Steamer and it cannot fly due to its short wings. Instead, it uses those wings in a circular paddling motion to 'steam' across the surface of the water looking a bit like a paddle steamer.
31 This gorgeous cat is called a serval, native to sub-saharan Africa. Its large ears are highly sensitive and allow them to zero in on prey that they cannot even see.
32 There is also an enormous aviary on the property, containing many species of water fowl and other birds. These ducks were hatched in an incubator from random eggs found after mating season.
33 Because they are still so young, it's impossible to know what species of ducks were hatched. Time will tell.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
What a fantastic place! The animals are so Blessed that someone can provide a home for them as they lose ther natural habitats.
I realize that they can't save them all, but at least these are safe.
What great neighbors you have.
Gloria!!
Posted by: Gloria | August 20th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Wow, here I thought you were the Dr, Doolittle of the area. Who knew that Bedford was such an exotic farm locale?
Have a fab weekend!
Posted by: Sonya | August 20th, 2010 at 12:28 am
What an amazing neighbor! This must be an amazing undertaking, to care for these animals. I think I'll just stick to my chickens. http://www.meandmartha.net
Thank you for sharing such wonderful pictures and information about them!
Dan Viger
Hollis Center, Maine.
Posted by: Dan Viger | August 20th, 2010 at 1:18 am
I love them! They look so cute!
A hello from Holland
guusje
Posted by: Guusje | August 20th, 2010 at 5:29 am
I have always loved llamas. All the animals are fascinating!
Posted by: Kari | August 20th, 2010 at 9:39 am
It is a paradise, that's for sure. However, with all of their apparent resources, I was hoping to see some of the abundance of abused/neglected domesticated animals from their community. It appears that they could take care of dozens of them that are destined for euthanization. However, I do see the importance of taking care of endangered animals. Maybe they do both?
Posted by: Sara Campbell | August 20th, 2010 at 9:59 am
I love animals and how wonderful your neighbors are to take care of those awesome creatures! I'm curious what they do during the winter? Are the animals kept in a barn?
Posted by: maria | August 20th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Hi Martha,
I remember Michael Steinhardt being on the show last year so I looked it up and copied the link which I hope you don’t mind. The date was August 5, 2009, and it was one of the Cooking Shows. The two baby Servals he brought with him were 7 weeks old at the time and so cute. I wonder if that is one of them in picture #31 –so big now if it is! Here’s the link to the video clip: http://bit.ly/96cb7O You have very nice and interesting neighbors Martha and I’m sure they think the same about you! Trish
Posted by: Trish | August 20th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Martha, thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | August 20th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Martha, I enjoyed this so much. It was very informative. Keep them coming!
Thanks again.
Susie
Posted by: susie | August 20th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures and comments with us...you have great neighbors to be able to share such a wonderful place!! Have a great day!!
Posted by: Shirley Slater | August 20th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Yes, I too hope your friends take in some area animals that need their help. It must be wonderful to do such good for these endangered souls. On my word press blog I have a story about a woman named Wendy who saves parrots. Wendy has about 800 and lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Thanks Martha.
Posted by: http://twitter.com/Geotravel | August 22nd, 2010 at 10:25 pm
What wonderful pictures!! Looks like these folks have their own little zoo!
Posted by: Wendy | August 22nd, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Hi Martha, What an exotic blog this is! This exotic wonderland is simply filled with spectacular animals and your photos are stunning! Every animal and bird would be so much fun to see in person. It almost seems like they are in another country like Africa and yet they are right there in Bedford! How wonderful that you could share this with us! I absolutely love it! Thanks again for sharing. Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | August 22nd, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Love this site but how come it takes me 6 times or more to actually get to the Garnet Giveaway every day? Click on the Garnet tab and you get a site to sign up for the magazine, which I already get. Click again and go to another site and another and another. What is up with that?
Posted by: Carol Sue Egan | August 24th, 2010 at 11:48 am
I don't think I've ever seen a baby camel. When you just see the head in the photos it almost looks like a baby moose.
Posted by: Candylei | August 24th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Martha,
I practically live around the corner in Greenwich. I also saw the show where you toured the Steinhardt Estate last year on your show. I have been trying to find out ever since when the Estate is open to the public? My granddaughter and I would be thrilled to visit. How can I find out more?
Posted by: Carol Z | August 27th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
When you visit don't miss the bear!
Posted by: Arnie Schwartz | July 28th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Martha we met on 14th St. Kmart right before 9/11-You kept asking me what was wrong-You could see the pain of survival we live as independent artists. Pleas check out Stephen Stoller,my husband's web site:www.fortgang.com-Perhaps we'll be able to communicate about art now-
Posted by: Francy Stoller | December 18th, 2012 at 11:40 am