Spring Arrives At The Denver Zoo

I went to the Denver Zoo yesterday afternoon to take a few photographs, and was pleased to see that despite the cool temperatures, most of the animals were out and about, including the tiger in the photo on the left. When I first arrived, it was lying down and sound asleep, but once the gate to the inside portion of the enclosure opened (where there was, no doubt, food, drink, central heating, and Animal Planet on cable), it woke up, posed for a portrait, and quickly went on its way.

While the tiger was happy to pose, the clouded leopard never stopped pacing, and it was only by chance that I got the photograph on the right when it briefly looked up. This creature was waiting for a zoo employee to come and throw some treats over the fence, which eventually happened, but did not stop the pacing. As I have mentioned before, this clouded leopard was originally paired with a mate, and they produced a litter together. However, once the kids grew up and left home, they began to constantly fight, and agreed to a separation, taking turns sharing the larger compound (no doubt part of the joint custody arrangement). I wonder if the zoo tried bringing in a marriage counselor to try and patch things up before the big split?

Back in April of 2020, twin lion cubs, a male and a female, were born at the Denver Zoo. The newspaper gushed about how cute they were, but as some of you out there might remember, that was right when everything, including the zoo, shut down due to Covid. Once things got back to normal, and I was finally able to visit the zoo again, they were no longer cute. They are now almost two years old. Since the two lions in the photograph on the left were doing a bit of roughhousing, as adolescents tend to do, I am assuming  these are those cubs, although coming from the South Side of Chicago, where African lions are a rarity, I can't be sure. In any case, if these are them, they do not look the least bit cuddly.  Still another sad consequence of the pandemic. I definitely feel the Denver Zoo owes its members another set of lion cubs, and should do whatever it takes to make this happen. Just my humble opinion, of course.