Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Last week we went to the zoo. Thanks to very thick slabs of glass, you can get nose-to-nose with some pretty imposing creatures at the San Diego Zoo.





No sneeze guards provided when you stand beneath this one:


Luckily she wasn’t a hay fever sufferer. I love it when the animals wander over to survey the crowd. Here are a few more that looked as curious about us as we were of them:





I don’t know why, but looking at that last picture makes me imagine the voice of Stewie from Family Guy…What’s that you say? I look like Timon from The Lion King? Oh, ha ha ha. That is so funny! I’ve never heard THAT one before. Do you write your own material? Because that is really fresh.

As always, we saw plenty of animals snoozing. This inspired the kids to start singing impromptu lullabies like, “sleepy tapirs, sleepy tapirs…they’re ve-r-r-r-r-y tired. Sleepy tapirs, sleepy tapirs…they’re ve-r-r-r-r-y tired!”

The only slight disappointment of the day was not getting to see the elephants up close. The zoo just opened Elephant Odyssey, an enormous enclosure with two and a half hilly acres and a 120,000 gallon pool. Both the hilly acres and the giant pool were empty. It turned out the elephants were more interested in hanging out at the very back of the exhibit, where zookeepers tempted them with treats. Good thing I have a picture book idea that takes place at the zoo, so another trip there can count as research.

17 comments:

LW said...

I love lions and tigers and well not bears…
Not since we now have bears here in Ct.,
I am always worried that I will run into one while I am out on my walk.

However, I love going to Zoos…San Diego Zoo is on my must do someday list.
Next time I go to the Bronx zoo I will take some pictures just for you.

Love that picture of Mr. and Mrs. Lion.

Louise

Kelly Polark said...

Wow, what gorgeous pictures! I love the snoozing lions the best. I love going to the zoo and seeing the animals. Sometimes I get a twinge of guilt that they are in a cage. I like when they have lots of area to roam like in Animal Kingdom/Orlando.

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

great pics!

Nora MacFarlane said...

Love the pictures! I enjoy going to the Cincinnati Zoo. It's just 15 minutes up the road so we go a few times a year. My favorite time is in May when the zoo babies are in the nursery. So cute!

ICQB said...

Oooh, what great pictures - I see you're putting the new camera to good use. I particularly love the tiger.

And yay for zoo research!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

I love the expressions on those faces! You're really up close!

Ara Burklund said...

Awesome pictures! They look like they could be on the zoo website or a brochure or something. : )

Brenda said...

Great pictures! I love going to the zoo...

Stacy Nyikos said...

I LOVE the San Diego zoo. When my girls were younger, we went out there as often as we could. Course, we live in Oklahoma, so that was, like, tops, once a year. But still, it was awesome!

Lisa said...

Awesome pictures. Especially love the first one. I had been to San Diego Zoo, we are not exactly zoo goers but I believe San Diego is the best in the world.

Adrienne said...

Hi, Everyone. If you haven't ever been there and have the chance, the San Diego Zoo is definitely worth a visit! And great for the photo album - even a novice like me can't miss...

Louise - Don't the lions look cute and cuddly when they're asleep?

I'd love to see pics of the Bronx Zoo. Somewhere I have pictures of me as a baby there - I haven't been back since. I'm sure it's very different.

Kelly - Read the YA novel Life of Pi for an interesting perspective on zoos. :)

ICQB - I am loving my new camera (even if I keep pushing buttons and finding features I have no idea how to use...)
And yes, hooray for conservation efforts!

Anne Spollen said...

Those lions are unbelievably cute!

Zoos are great settings for picture books. Actually, zoos are great settings for lots of things.

And I can finally post a comment on your blog! I don't know why that was, but I'm glad it's not now.

(You can tell I'm a writer by the beauty and elegance of that sentence, can't ya? ; )

Mary Witzl said...

I love and hate zoos, in equal measure. I love being able to see the little animals, like those meerkats -- (they are meerkats, aren't they?) And sloths and bats and shrews and stoats and raccoons... I love seeing the big ones too, though they make me feel so wistful and ashamed of myself for enjoying them...

We loved the San Diego Zoo. I grew up so close to it, but we only managed to go there one time, almost ten years ago. Lucky you, being able to go back and chalk it up as research!

Angela said...

OH, I love Zoo pics!
these are great!

Adrienne said...

Anne - The worst part about that sentence is the news that my blog was behaving badly! I even turned off the word verification thing to try to make it friendlier...

Mary - I find it hard to watch some animals, like the gorillas. It seems like such an invasion of privacy. But overall in zoos like this one, I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

Angela - Thanks! :)

babYpose said...

Beautiful creatures, especially the standing one, so cute. Oh i love safari.

Rena Jones said...

Beautiful pictures! I see you're enjoying your new camera! I loved the lion pics. You were lucky and the glass looked pretty clean. Usually when I get there, it's all grubby from 3000 kids touching it. Thanks for sharing, Adrienne!