December 2 -- zoo -- part 1

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The gorgeous beginning of a gorgeous day.

Waiting for the bus that will take me to the zoo.  Enjoying the reflections.

On the way to the zoo.

Mountains in the distance, through the windshield of the bus.

There's a bus stop right by the zoo entrance.  Looking west toward mountains and Denver skyline in the distance....

Ok, I'm sensing a pattern here, in amusing ladies' rooms.........  Not that every ladies' room I visited in Denver was fun or amusing, but two were, and I believe they're the only two fun or amusing ones I've seen in my whole life........  That's Denver, 2, and everyone else, 0.

All these faces on the outsides of the doors.  Want to guess what's on the insides?

Yep.  :-)

I hadn't noticed on my way in, but the floor in the "lobby" of the restroom building was fancy, too.  This is something like linoleum mosaic.  Or inset, maybe, rather than "mosaic"......  Pretty cool.

December 2 was a good day for getting back views of canines.  African wild dog.  These guys have some seriously big ears!

The zoo was very sparsely visited on the 2nd.  My favorite!

One thing I'd never had happen to me at a zoo before was that the rarity of visitors meant that I was actually interesting to the animals.  Instead of being one more blob in the flood of humanity, I was an individual.  An apex predator.  Something happening nearby that might need attention.

More animals looked *at me* than I've ever experienced at a zoo.  This guy is paying close attention to me....  (I was 8 or 10' away.)

One of these dik-diks thought I was scary enough that departure was wise.  (Again, I was pretty close.)

These are tiny little things, no more than 18" tall.  This one is working on deciding if it should skedaddle.

I went in the building with the giraffes.  There was a keeper in there when I got there, but then it was just me and the long-leggers.  All four of them made eye contact with me.  Strange.  And kinda wonderful.



I don't know what this was -- a door of some kind.  Isn't it wonderful?  Love the positive/negative space.  Perfect for a black & white animal...............

It was right by the real zebras.  (Who were not the least bit interested in me.)  I wonder if a blessed event is anticipated.

I was surprised to see such a young equine in December.  Maybe zebra breeding dates are more impacted by weather (adequate food/water?) than by daylight......

I know zebras can be fractious and snappy (with each other and with other critters).  These two are surely having some sort of confrontation/disagreement/shakedown.......   (Note ears....)

The stripes around the neck of the one at right remind me of that rubber necklace we saw in the gift shop in the art museum yesterday!

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