February At The Zoo Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I went to the Denver Zoo Wednesday afternoon to take a few photos. And as usual, the most willing subjects were the lions. They tend to sit in one place and watch the zoo visitors pass by, making them easy to photograph, which is why I feature them so often. My one complaint is that there have not been any new lion cubs since 2020. The last cubs to be born at the Denver Zoo were twins, and arrived at the height of the pandemic, when the zoo was closed. By the time the public was allowed back in, they were no longer cute. What a rip-off. 

Our friend the baby mandrill is no longer a baby, but is still running around the compound like one. I took the photograph on the right of him in one of the rare moments when he was standing still. For the longest time, the mother would hold it by the arm wherever she went, never letting it run free. Being so overprotective can cause problems down the road. Perhaps the zoo's animal psychiatrist finally had a talk with her.

For some reason, all of the giraffes were inside Wednesday afternoon. Is 45 degrees too cold for them to go outside? But in any case, I walked into the giraffe house and took the photograph on the left. I am not sure what the three zoo employees were doing. One was giving a giraffe food, another was up on a ladder inspecting it's neck, and the third was holding the ladder. Still another mystery at the Denver Zoo. In any case, I am just assuming they were zoo employees. After the recent events at the Dallas Zoo, you just never know. However, so far I have not heard of any missing giraffes, which is definitely a good sign.

Finally, for the first time, I saw two elephants crossing the elephant bridge that connects two compounds. I had a zoom lens on my camera, useless at such close range, and by the time I got the other camera out, I was only able to get a clear photograph of one of them, and just the backside of the other, as seen in the photo on the right. Another great photographic opportunity lost forever. If there was a zoo employee around, I would have asked him or her  to have the elephants go back and walk over the bridge again, but sadly, no one was in sight. The zoo definitely needs to hire some interns to help facilitate such photo opportunities. Just give them a big stick and set them loose in the compound, filling requests. What could possibly be wrong with that?