Early Autumn At The Zoo

Ok. Ok. I know Autumn does not begin until tomorrow, but the official start of fall is only 40 minutes past midnight, and so I say close enough. In any case, it was a warm and sunny day yesterday, and so my sister Susan and I decided to visit the Denver Zoo. The high was only 82 degrees, but many of the animals still wanted to cool off in the water, such as the bear in the photograph on the left. This is the first time this year I have seen one of the bears at the zoo - they (the zoo employees) have been doing a lot of work on that compound, and the bears have evidently been hanging out somewhere else - perhaps visiting relatives in Yellowstone.

It wasn't all that hot out, and so one of the seals was more than happy to take a break from swimming around its aquatic home and visit with one of the zoo employees, especially if she was giving out food, as seen in the photograph on the right. Food is a big motivator at the Denver Zoo, and if I was allowed to bring in snacks for these animals (nothing fancy - Cheetos, some Pringles, maybe even a few tacos), I could get some great portraits. At first, I though the two women in the photograph jumped over the fence to do just that, but finally noticed the Denver Zoo emblem on their shirts. Then they left, and the seal went with them, which surprised me. Where did they all go? To a bar for happy hour? "Two women and a seal go into a bar, and..."

One of the elephants, seen in the photograph of the left, was having a dandy old time with that tire hanging from a post in its compound. He was pacing around the area, checking to see if the door to the elephant house had been opened so he could have dinner and watch some TV. Each time he went past that tire, he gave it a mighty wack. Perhaps he was not playing with it, but taking out all his frustrations on it. You try being locked up for life without a trial, watched by strangers all day long. And you don't even get to order off a menu.

The giraffes were all out and about yesterday afternoon, too, including the pair in the photograph on the right. The zoo installed a viewing platform a few years ago to allow people, for an additional fee, to feed the giraffes by hand. At first, there was a stand that sold the food out front, and everyone was allowed to access the platform and watch - or in my case, photograph - people feeding these animals. Now, of course, you have to make an appointment to feed the giraffes, and only paying customers are allowed to access the area. Progress at last, plus more income on the bottom line, which the Denver Zoo really stresses that it needs. There are signs throughout the zoo publicizing how much it costs to feed each animal (10 million dollars a year to feed a single lion, or something like that). And no, I actually don't research all these things to verify their accuracy - I am positive everything I say is relatively correct, depending on your definition of relative.