a trip to the zoo

[truepenny]

Today I dragged mirrorthaw to the Henry Vilas Zoo, where I took innumerable blurry pictures.

The high points:

• the ennui of the orangutan
  
• Cyber, the zoo's (breathtaking) new Amur tiger. (You can read more about Cyber here.)
  
• the tapir
  
• portrait of a rhinoceros
  
• the giraffe wants to see my credentials, please
  
• the grizzly bears, who just kept offering good shots.
  
• the Galapagos tortoise and its prey
  
• the buffalo
  
• the furry boulder--I mean badger
  
• prairie dogs engaged in a little mutual grooming
  
• the river otters
  
• and a random wild rabbit hanging out on somebody's lawn

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

When we were driving around in Cameroon, we realized that the giraffes had heard from a tour guide that they could see primates wearing clothes at certain spots--and then we appeared. We were studied.

[inizitu.livejournal.com]

The tapir? Is adorable. And your zoo lets you get much closer to the tigers than our zoo. However, the tiger at our zoo chats. I saw a small child engage in a good 5 minutes cross-park roaring with the beastie once. It was beyond awesome. Especially since the tiger ended the chat by diving into the pool directly onto his ball

Cutest killing machine on the planet.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

The Plexiglas viewing window is the best technology EVER. I've had the male lion at this zoo do the same thing Cyber is doing, where he's pacing so close his fur is brushing the window. And the otters do their kick-turns off theirs.

(The lions were off-exhibit today for breeding.)

[inizitu.livejournal.com]

^_^ Squee! Impending Cubs! =)

[marycatelli]

Did the giraffe get to see them? And did it then eat them?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I have no credentials for photographing a giraffe.

[shevabree.livejournal.com]

In 2000 my family went to the Atlanta Zoo and as we wandered we heard roaring. The Atlanta Zoo has both tigers and lions so we weren't sure which it was. Stop by the lions.. no roaring. Eventually we make it to the tiger exhibit and get pretty up close and personal through the plexiglass with the tiger. He does his pacing, looking glorious then he wanders deeper into the exhibit. And lo.. but there is a lovely female sharing space with him and they proceed to do what animals do.

I think this encounter at the zoo was part of what led my daughter to grow obsessed with tigers. To the point where she was a tiger for halloween 3 years running.

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

OMG!!! I went to that zoo all the time as a little girl, visiting my aunt who lived on nearby!

[almightychrissy.livejournal.com]

That is a seriously awesome tiger.

Also, and I apologize if my memory is completely skewed, but I am 99% sure that at Penguicon, on the "Writing the Other" panel, you described a novel where groups of (I think) four people live as one individual, and then there is a character who is a single person, and this character encounters problems. I thought I'd recalled the title, but when I got home it was lost and somehow I can't manage to get the right google or wikipedia words to find it again. If this book sounds familiar to you, if you could tell me the title I would be eternally grateful. If this all just sonds crazy, I'm very sorry.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a fascinating novel. Unfortunately, I've never heard of it before. Sorry!

[almightychrissy.livejournal.com]

Drat! Well, thank you anyway.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

First of all, thank you for the pictures; they made me happy.

And second, you continue to have a fabulous knack for titles.

[friendlydog.livejournal.com]

Dave Duncan, A Handful of Men (four-book series)?