Hey - whadju lookin' at!
Hee hee. I feel like I am doing a presentation in grade school. But seriously – I did go to the zoo. The Cologne Zoo. And it is right in the city. It is actually pretty cool. I love zoos. And this one is pretty good – it has a really broad representation of animals and their habitats – if I can call them that – although not large in area – are still really well thought out for what the animals need.
A beautiful Siberian Tiger
Certainly I have seen many of the animals in their natural setting when I was in Africa, but I certainly didn’t get to see them so close and watch their behaviour for as long as I felt like. For instance, I had absolutely no idea that Siberian Tigers liked to swim. I was fascinated watching this tiger swim around in his compound. And I didn’t get to see a Siberian Tiger in Africa – obviously. But I took a video of him since I found it really neat. Take a look.
Arguing flamingos!
Of course my favourite animals to see are the Apes and Monkeys – they have so much personality. I mean snakes are neat but they just lay there and look at you. Whereas all of the primates are interesting. They hold the key to a lot of the mystery around what drives man. I think so anyway. I feel sad for the larger ones like the Gorillas and Orangatan that are unfortunately having to live out their lives here – but at least they will live longer since out in the wild – poaching is such a problem, especially when some cultures – like the Chinese – believe ERRONEOUSLY that their hands or testicles or something stupid like that will make a man more virile.
An orangutan looking a little bored - from what I could see - he does art - so he must have been between creations.
This one orangutan, although looking pretty bored when I saw him, apparently has quite the collection of artwork. I guess he must demonstrate and his work goes on display, but today when I saw him, he was just hanging out in his hammock. But the capuchin monkeys were a hoot. They had been given food in these plastic coke bottles and they were madly trying to get the stuff out. Take a look.
A Capuchin Monkey and a coke bottle
I have never seen a bird sit like this. A baby crane
Sad though it is that the animals are caged, these particular guys would otherwise be dead if they didn’t have a zoo to live in – generally they come from bad situations. But as I was wondering around I was also noticing what the zoo offers back to nature – it allows us to study and understand the animals to some degree (they are not in their natural habitat so that will skew some results) and it also provides a source for potential repopulation programs for the wild. There were a number of animals represented here that have been successfully reintroduced into the wild and their populations were improving.
A smiling hippo
If I could go back in time, I would have used my biology and love of animals to work in a zoo. I could still do this actually. Food for thought. Although I prefer them being free – at least making their life in the zoo as fulfilling as possible would be something I could do. I found studying their compounds quite fascinating. Animals are so cool. They make no excuses for who they are, they aren’t hung up about their looks and wanting to change them, and they don’t lie. How can you not love animals.
Meerkats - they always look like they are smirking.
There is no time like the present, if you fancy working in a zoo,go for it!! I too didn’t know tigers swam, love tigers – represent my personality or is that lions, with me being a leo? x Cu soon.
I think any big cats will do!!!
Glad that you shared your visit to the Zoo with us. I can’t remember the last time I visited any Zoo.
I love your pictures and I checked out your two videos.
Thanks for including a picture of a meerkat, which is one of my favourite animals, because they are sooo adorable and I love their posing and scurrying. I can watch them for hours as they are so entertaining. 🙂
One question, please…is the first picture of a lemur?
Yup – a blue eyed lemur at that!
I am glad that everything is going well, but, be careful in Oslo. Hopefully it was a single radical and not the tip of the iceberg.
Thanks for the birthday gift. Hope to see you when you return, maybe I will have a job by then.
Single radical – not at all the way Norway is. All is safe and good in Oslo. It is a great country. I don’t worry about those things. I refuse to let such matters affect my life – that would be giving them too much power.
By the way, I told Kali to see your sight as she loves Meerkats too.
Cool – there’s a song about meerkats isn’t there? If not, there should be.
Catching up on your posts – thanks for all the detail – love it. Sounds as though you’re still totally enjoying your trip.
I saw this on the news yeseterday and thought you might enjoy this clip about a chimp bottle feeding a baby tiger at a zoo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XYL7eb7KLU
Oh my god, that is just the cutest. I want to work with primates … !!!!!