Wild Dogs And Vultures - Perfect For A Time Of Pandemic

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I spent a rather cold Wednesday afternoon at the Denver Zoo, happily finding that most of the animals were nevertheless out and about. The first animal I saw after I went through the gate was a wild African dog, seen in the photograph on the left giving me a cheery look.  I must say, when you think of pandemics, the idea of wild dogs running around loose seems quite natural, although this particular wild dog was still in it's compound. At least for now.

Vultures are another breed of animal you tend to think of when you think of pandemics. Of course, that is based on commonly held stereotypes, which I am sure have been exaggerated.  I imagine the pair in the photograph on the right are actually just smiling at me.  Vultures have always had a bad rep, just because they circle around dead carcasses, waiting to swoop down and feast. As they famously sing in that James Bond film, live and let die.

On my first pass around the zoo, I didn't see any zebras at all. My second time around, they were all out and about, frocking around their compound. I was pretty surprised to see this, since they usually tend to just mosey around, usually to their feed bins for a two or three hour snack. I took the photo on the left of one posing for me just before it went inside for dinner and to watch Animal Planet on the tube.

All four of the bachelor lions were in the smaller lion compound Wednesday afternoon, while the wild African dogs had the run of the much larger compound called Predator Ridge. The Denver Zoo has two sets of lions - the four bachelors, who came to the zoo as cubs and two of whom can be seen in the photo on the right, and a family of lions (a pride?) that includes 3 cubs. Evidently, if both groups of lions were put together, they would wind up killing each other, which might upset zoo guests, especially the younger ones. I am not sure where they keep that lion family when the bachelors are out and about. They probably stay at some zoo employee's house. Hopefully they get reimbursed for cleaning costs.