Early Fall At The Zoo Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I went to the Denver Zoo this past Tuesday to take a few photographs. Since it was pretty hot and sunny, most of the animals were snoozing in the shade. One exception was the jaguar, who was in a shady spot on top of an outside shelter, but was gazing right at me. This creature always looks me right in the eye whenever I take it's photograph. Now those are the kind of animals the Denver Zoo should have more of. And by the way, what ever happened to petting zoos? I'd like to thank that jaguar in person.

On the other hand, those damn lions, including the two lion cubs, were sound asleep. Tobias, the father of those two cubs, can be seen in the photo on the right, dead to the world, no doubt until suppertime. Hopefully, once the weather turns cooler, they will be a bit more active. This is exactly why the zoo needs to have an intern go into those cages with a big stick and get them all moving around. I keep suggesting it, but zoo officials just ignore me. How insulting.

I also have a complaint - surprise - about the gorillas at the Denver Zoo. Not too long ago, a baby gorilla was born there, and not too much later they moved the entire family to a different zoo, long before I was finished taking photographs of it. They still have some gorillas around, such as the silverback in the photograph on the left, but it is just not the same.  Granted, this silverback does look like it has a lot of piss and vinegar, which always makes for good photos, but it just does not have the cuteness factor of that baby. Bringing up a recurrent theme of mine, I wonder how much money you would have to pay a zoo intern to go into that particular compound and coax that gorilla into being a bit more lively? The photographic result, I have to say, would be priceless.

Strangely enough, almost all the elephants at the Toyota Elephant Passage were huddled together Tuesday afternoon, as seen in the photo on the right, which is the first time I have ever witnessed something like that. Most of the time, they are wandering around by themselves, lost in their own thoughts (is it dinner time yet?), and so I had to wonder, what were they planning? Storming the gates and making their escape? Now that would make a great photograph, especially if you were standing in front of them when they charged. And would I really do that if I had the chance? I'll take the fifth on that one.