May 28 -- Toledo zoo, part 2

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I think the zoo has two carousels. This one is near the big enclosure where medium-sized African plains critters are outdoors in good weather.







See the wildebeest, some kind of deerish thing, and some crowned cranes? (I'll say now that my documentation on the 28th was almost totally lacking. I only thought to record id info once or twice........)







Fences and more fences.





This area is large enough that a giraffe can run. We saw one doing so, a few years ago, which was very cool.

I always feel better when creatures who like to eat grass have enough space that there is actually grass available for them.







Heading back toward the bridge that crosses a busy street from one side of the zoo to the other, we pass the wolves, who felt it was hot and nap-worthy. This is the liveliest one. (through the fence, backed by more fence....)





The zoo has a couple of eagles who have been injured and are not capable of living wild.

I like the way you can see how his (?) feathers overlap like shingles to keep out the rain.





I think, on my way to the zoo, "I hope the hippos are swimming," or, "I hope the baby polar bear is up and about."

I never think "I hope a finch will show me his tail feathers," but sometimes it happens nonetheless.

This is one of my favorite images from the 29th.





The eye shadow, the puffy topknot in the strong light......





And now for something completely different...........

Don't you wish you lived in that white house, and could lie on your bed, just inside a second-floor window, and could glance up from your novel to see an elephant taking hay from a container way over her head?







The zoo has had a mother-and-son pair of elephants for a long time. Louie is seven, now. There is a new female elephant this year, and I believe this is she.

(I spent a looooong time cloning wire out of this image. An hour at least, I bet. Partly as an exercise in seeing how good a job I could do, and partly, well, just because. She had one of those very heavy cables right across her, and then lots of the lighter wire held by those almost vine-y looking dark things you can see in the first two images.)





This is a new enclosure. Louie will be isolated from the girls once he is big. I wonder how good it can be for him to grow up all alone. I know that in Africa they have found that young bulls do not grow up mentally balanced when they are far from any fully-adult bulls..........

The older elephant enclosure has at least some locations where photographers are separated from the elephants by moats. Not this one. All wires, all the time.

Louie, and, I presume, his mama. She can reach the hay; he can't, I bet. He was doing cleanup on the hay which hit the ground.







In a nearby area, rhinos. Moats. Yay.

I think these two must be very good friends. They are always hanging out together when we visit.







Wild ducks, living in paradise at the zoo.







Zoos really could make it *somewhat* better for photographers, without too much trouble or expense. There was a sort of structure over the people, just here, but it wasn't solid on top. If the people are in darkness, reflection off the plexi is vastly less........... A sheet of dark-painted plywood on top of the structure would go a long way toward easing photographic angst.





The intended subject above is a sloth bear. Here is the one who was on the other side of the enclosure. Love all those curled claws.



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