07 March 2008

Opening Day at the Zoo...

Well, a sort of opening day. First day that Africa was officially open, and there were huge crowds. Just the last weekend, the place was virtually empty!

The elephants were out:


These might be gibbons? I don't remember.


African Wild Dogs:


A rhino in the sun:


The ever amusing Rock Hyrax:


Some variety of desert fox, I believe a Bat-Eared Fox.


Sacked out after a long day of....sacking out.


Something that would probably taste nice smoked over oak or hickory:


One of the many duikers:


A slightly more delicate, deer-like duiker:


The last duiker I found:


File this one under "Weird Birds the Name of Which I Never Bothered to Read":


A leopard laying on the cage structure over the walkway:


Up close....pissy, but lethargic. A classic cat.


Another variety of hooved mammal that looks rather grillable.


Strange birds that flipped out and tried to take off en-masse (to no avail):


Another closeup of that aforementioned walking hamburger:


Gorillas have the funniest facial expressions:


My lovely wife, taking a break after traipsing through most of the Africa exhibit:


Lastly, this statue gets me every time. If cranes ruled the world, they would commission this sculpture in their nation's capital. It's like their hoisting the flag over Iwo Jima, each crane posing heroically with beaks upraised and wings spread gloriously in a timeless celebration of crane patriotism. Now, the fish in the beak of the crane on the left, you can guess he didn't care much for posing for this sculpture.

2 comments:

Percussivity said...

It was binturong of you to neglect your favorite animal!

(Sorry to use your own joke against you.)

SQLFunkateer said...

Ha, well, I would have been up for galavanting over to that section but Debra was a bit tired, the Africa section is a decent walk (especially bearing in mind her condition!). Perhaps "condition" isn't the right word.