Lions and tigers and bears!

Today was such a lovely day. I just couldn't bear staying inside, hunched over a computer filling out job applications.

So I went to the zoo.


Meerkat handles - too cute

I haven't been to the Houston Zoo since I was 8, and all I remember about it is the train (which they still have) that goes all the way around Hermann Park. I didn't take the train this time around, but focused more on the animals.


A natural redhead, you think?



This monkey was pretty calm until one man kept calling him a sloth; then he turned around and refused to let us take any more pictures.



a vulturine guinea fowl


Ugly head, but what beautiful feathers! like a short, balding acountant with a splendid tie. The birds in this enclosure had to cope with sharing the space with tiny antelope ground squirrels, sort of like chipmunks on uppers. They didn't so much run as bound back and forth like kids in a bouncy castle.  Cute, but much too fast to photograph.

The zoo has a lion named Jonathan. Johnathan likes attention. He picks the part of the lion enclosure closest to the people and poses for photographs. It's even on the sign "Johnathan loves attention."  He reminds me of a housecat I know.


Jonathan and his public

Johnathan's showboating was in direct contrast to the tiger across the way, who ignored everybody and refused to turn around.  There was a moment of expectation when he got up, but he simply moved from lying on his left side to lying on his right side, and we never got a look at his face; the big, stripey, tease.

I hope the next thing on the renovation schedule is a new or upgraded reptile house. I felt rather sorry for the alligators, they seemed so confined. Still, they have a good variety, particularly of snakes.  I hadn't seen one of these before.

A rhino-nosed something. I can't remember the full name.

I didn't see the whole zoo, and there was a lot more to see including the birds, the wolves, and the new African Forest exhibit. But I was tired and decided to go home before I got as cranky as this guy.



Grumpy the meerkat 

Have a good weekend!