This is Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire, England. Whipsnade is one of Europe’s largest wildlife conservation parks – it’s home to more than 2,500 animals, many of which are endangered in the wild.

Thanks to Google’s new upgraded imagery, several different species of animals can be seen within the grounds. Unfortunately I can’t seem to work out what any of them are… even when I compare them to their publicity shots!

Wait a minute…

I’ve got one! I’m pretty sure it’s a Lion, right?

Thanks to John and Steve Wrona.

This is San Francisco’s popular tourist spot, Pier 39, and covering nearly every square inch of those floating docks in the harbour are hundreds upon hundreds of sea lions. The light coloured patch in the middle-left is the only bit left uncovered by the marine mammals – which you can see much more easily in Google Earth. Although… there seems to be a lot less of them in GE, and it doesn’t look like such a nice day either!

Apparently the only thing missing is the smell…

For any of you unconvinved that these really are sea lions, here’s the proof!

Thanks to Matthew Brown, Michael Lustig, Jeff Burton, Markus and Andy de la Rosa.

What do you guys think, could this really be two whales off the coast of California? Looks pretty convincing to me!

Thanks to Tara Wells. (Very sneaky Tara, but it worked! )

SeaWorld is a chain of theme parks featuring killer whale, sea lion and dolphin shows. When I first read about SeaWorld I was very confused by the fact that “Shamu”, the chain’s mascot killer whale, manages to appear twice a day at all three parks across the states. As it turns out the name Shamu is a registered trademark of SeaWorld and the 3 whales currently going by that title follow in the footsteps of a long line of “Shamu” performing whales.

The first SeaWorld we’re visiting on our tour today is SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas. You can use the officical park map to identify the various areas and rides.

Next stop is SeaWorld San Diego in California. In the thumbnail shot you can see a crowd has gathered for the dolphin show (official park map).

Our last stop is SeaWorld Orlando, Florida. Some of those who submitted this site were sure that the black splodge you can see in the pool is Florida’s version of Shamu the whale, but I’m not convinced.

Thanks: R@lf, Roxy, Tim Gregory, Kate, Patrick Gunderson, Stephen, Tom Boyce, Jesse, Philip G, RPirolli, PapaPenguin, Dan Mowry, Alex, Brett Stephens, Michael Zacherl, Dave Kellenberger & Peter

Jeff says:

This is located over a marsh in South Louisiana. This is the area where I sail, and I was scouting out possible anchorages when I saw these birds.

Someone apparently said in the comments that yes, this definitely is a flock of birds – geese in fact, picked up because they fly so high. So cool, thanks Jeff!