I went to the Denver Zoo yesterday afternoon to walk around and take a few photographs. It has been a pretty typical January here in Denver - a few days of cold and snow followed by a few days of sun and mild temperatures, such as yesterday. Because of that, the zoo was packed, especially with families. Thanks to the zoo's family membership plan, it is affordable to take the kids to the zoo all year long, which is especially helpful to those who can't afford an annual vacation. And most of those kids seem to love it there, with the possible exception of a few of them (perhaps more than a few) screaming their damn heads off. But I digress.
Many of the animals were not in a very sociable mood yesterday, although the elephants were willing to look at the camera and smile, such as the one in the photograph on the right. The elephants at the Denver Zoo have a large compound called the Toyota Elephant Passage, a $50 million facility no doubt sponsored by - you guessed it - Honda. These are all Asian elephants, and I suspect if they tried to put them together with African elephants, there might be a rumble, no doubt rivaling the Sharks and the Jets.
The giraffes were pretty attentive, too, at least when there wasn't anyone feeding them across the compound at the "Giraffe Encounter." You used to be able to walk over there and photograph them being fed, but these days you have to make a reservation in advance (for an additional fee, of course) and then are escorted to the feeding platform - no one else allowed. To me, that seems pretty chintzy, but that is just a cheapskate's opinion. Still, I was able to take the photo on the left with a zoom lens. Not an up-close, personal experience, but what can you do?
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