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By Vicki Croke, Globe Staff, 04/29/2000

eering through the dense vegetation, I could clearly make out the distinctive black-and-white markings of the elusive giant panda. Poised in the crook of a tree's low branch, she sat upright, gorging herself on shoots and leaves, using her pseudo-thumb to steady her grip.

Then I slumped back against the cushions and ate another cheese crunchy. Yes, it's possible to stay home and view wildlife if you're on a cyber safari.

As technology becomes more sophisticated, it is getting even easier to be an armchair wildlife enthusiast. Video and still cameras can beam images from zoos and sanctuaries and wild places around the world into your computer. Nothing can take the place of really being there - you know, the joy of swatting mosquitoes and having your trousers torn on thorn-covered vines - but there are benefits to techno treks. In many cases, you simply would not be able to get as close to an animal as a camera can.

But all animal Web sites are not created equal. There are hundreds of them, offering everything from ants to ant eaters to cheetahs, elephants, peccaries, ferrets, cockroaches - a Noah's archive of animals. The best ones use "streaming video," in which, a little jerkiness of motion aside, the picture is almost like watching TV on your monitor. Next are those sites that present a still picture, but one that is "refreshed" periodically. This can happen every few seconds or every few minutes. Some sites do it automatically, while others tell you to reload the page. But many sites bring you out-of-focus shots of empty rooms or fields and promise that something will happen eventually.

Here then, is a field guide to some of the best animal sites on the Web:

Two pseudo thumbs up for the panda cam at the San Diego Zoo. (sandiegozoo.org/special/pandas/

pandacam/index.html). This site is reliable and fun, and the picture quality of the real-time streaming video is crisp. There are three pandas at the zoo: dad Shi Shi; mom Bai Yun; and little baby Hua Mei. Because of a quirky digestive situation, pandas eat almost constantly, so they are active most of the viewing day. But even in slumber, they are terrifically cute. One afternoon, the lens captured a dozing panda straddling an elevated log. Four black limbs dangled down and the panda's great head faced directly into the frame. Often, you can see little Hua Mei in panda play while her mother methodically eats up every scrap of vegetation nearby.

Gambling magnate John Aspinall has an unconventional facility in England for endangered species in England, called Howletts. No expense is spared for his gorillas, tigers, and other animals. They have large, open enclosures, and they get to do a lot of roaming. Keepers and Aspinall's family members form close bonds with the animals - sometimes too close. At least two staffers have been killed there, one by a tiger, and one by an elephant.

Six live Web cams capture a lot of activity. The pool inside the elephant area is a real hangout for the inhabitants. The Web site howletts.

co.uk/webcams/ is supposed to bring you, via streaming video, inside the tiger, gorilla, and elephant enclosures. However, so far, I have been able to reliably access only the elephant cam. At this site, you can control the camera: tilt, zoom, and pan.

These huge animals swim and splash, and amble around the exhibit. For some odd reason, it's also delightful to see zoogoers on the peri meter - carrying umbrellas one day, clad in sweaters the next - and know the weather conditions across the Atlantic.

Because afternoon here is evening in England, the best viewing times are morning and early afternoon, our time.

It's not streaming video, but it is an exciting site. A camera is focused on a nesting pair of bald eagles and their two chicks - nu.com/

eagles/eagles.htm. The birds' 800-pound nest is located on an island on the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. The first egg hatched April 15; the second, April 18. Since eagles grow to adult size in just nine weeks, a camera that refreshes an image every five minutes will still give you a remarkable experience. Check in at least once a day and you could be there the moment those little/big babies leave the nest.

At greenworkschannel.org/

falcon/, you can tune into streaming video of a nest that two peregrine falcons have built on the 15th-floor ledge of the Rachel Carson building in downtown Harrisburg, Pa. Real time is fun to watch, and a video clip gives the story of the peregrine falcon species and these two individuals.

Take a walk with Wildlife Conservation Society's Michael Fay as he makes his way through the Congo with a laptop computer and a digital camera. (national geographic.com) There are updates of activities, pictures, video of a pygmy party for Fay, night sounds of the forest, and a map with zoom-in features. You can email questions to him, too. And right now, the National Geographic Web site is also featuring a live otter cam.

OK, quantity is not necessarily quality. But discovery.com, the Web site of the Discovery Channel, is a veritable animal-cam clearinghouse. Here, you can easily swing, primatelike, from ant cam to bear cam to eagle, kitty, manatee, naked mole-rat, orangutan, penguin, puppy, seal, shark, and tiger cams. Beware, however, that sometimes the cams aren't running at all and sometimes the animals are simply not in range. But then there are the great moments when the creatures are in, and it's so easy to click from one to another, it's worth checking out.

You can also find a tiger cam at mnzoo.com. Tigers, cheetahs, orangutans, naked mole-rats at the National Zoo (si.edu/organiza/

museums/zoo/nzphome.htm). A strange bird at quetzalcam.org - a camera set up in the cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, at a quetzal nest. Monteray Bay Aquarium promises live streaming video soon, mbayaq.org; and, finally, teach your dog new tricks with videos at trainingyourdog.com.

This story ran on page F01 of the Boston Globe on 4/29/2000.
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