So Good to Be Back to the Zoo

Aside from the poor crumbling roads and paths, it was really good to get back to the zoo for the first time this year. The best part about it was going with my best friend and his family and my wife. I am looking forward to a great season of animals and flowers and am going to try to take the time to let the camera sit around my neck for a few minutes and appreciate what I am seeing instead of just shooting the whole time. That said, when I am setting up lights for a flower photo I do have time to appreciate my surroundings.

Sometimes it is difficult to remember the size and wildness of these huge creatures just one small fence away from us. Had we seen these from a vehicle in Jasper a few summers ago it would have been more of a flight response that sitting here watching these hulks almost smiling at us.

"Soft kitty,
Warm kitty,
Little ball of fur.…"

No, I have never had the opportunity to shoot at the zoo at night. What an experience that I would be. I would be most grateful for the fences then and would always be looking over my shoulder.

The photo of this lynx was taken in broad daylight but a few tweaks to the exposure and white balance gave it more of a moonlit luck. Not unlike my albino python photo from Reptile World.

This bison calf was born just a few days prior. Amazing how quickly they are so independent and happy to be not a small distance away from their mothers just relaxing in the cool mud and manure.

I was impressed that both Fox's were out and very active when we were there. It must have been the comfortably cool temperature. The swift foxes, pictured above, had spotted something that we could not identify and were running back and forth at the front of their habitat looking for a way out.

The red fox could be found in its usual spot below the seeder.

I am looking forward to getting back to the zoo on a weekday when it will be a little bit quieter. It was not busy but if you are the people the more relaxing I find it and the better the photos I typically get.

I fear that this year a popular route for a friend and I to wheel, from the SaskTel sports center to the forestry farm will be off limits as the pedestrian path is always soft and muddy and significant portions of the road we used to go on have been turned to course crushed rock and gravel; not wheelchair friendly. I hope that there are some reasonable repair plans in the budget this year. I don't enjoy seeing one of my favorite places deteriorating like that.

Saskatoon Forestry Farm and Zoo 2012 - 7

Sorry for the lack of clarity in these nest three. Fences.

Definitely more meat on that bone than the ones we give Kiwi. But watching him chew was just like watching a larger version of our dog chewing.

Saskatoon Forestry Farm and Zoo 2012 - 1

This year has had a very nice start to the zoo trips. The hills are becoming a bit less challenging the more I visit, the plants are filling in and blooming and the zoo residents are growing in number.

We had to wait our turn a bit yesterday as buses of wild animals were set loose in the zoo. Their keepers had a very minimal hold on their reigns, if any. :)

This calf was one week old yesterday. Sorry for the blur due to fences. Just can't get close enough by wheelchair to shoot through the holes in the fences.

Some fine families of the cutest week old babies. How that little big horned sheep got up there at only eight days old, I'll never know.

A few days ago the Zoo Society reported on twitter that twin pygmy goats were born but as the mother was not very interested in them they were being kept under quarantine to be safe. Paprika's kid, pictured below, was doing just fine.

I normally keep to myself and think hard before I speak or write. Today I am choosing to write about something I almost spoke about yesterday.

As a friend and I made the round we regularly crossed paths with a mother with her young daughter. Their full sugar Sprite was disappearing fast from each of their bottles in the mid-morning hours. No, it wasn't water. i heard the hiss when they opened them. Whatever. Who am I to judge your choices for your child's nourishment and hydration?

We observed other impolite behaviours by both while among other zoo patrons who gave head shakes or dirty looks as these two carried on. It was when the mother encouraged the child to chase the peacock so she could pet it that I felt irritated to the point of wanting to speak up. They must have tried for five minutes to catch that poor bird.

The last thing I observed was the mother repeatedly throwing grain and shouting at the above pygmy goat to try to wake it up. I was ready to leave for the day so kept my trap shut.

It wasn't just the ignorant behaviour. Our poor zoo is crumbing in places. It needs some funding quite badly. The last thing it needs are fewer patrons because or other ignorant visitors or a lawsuit because a peacock harmed a child who was encouraged to torment it.

My apologies for the rant. Did it help anyone? Probably not. I just do not want one of my favourite, accessible, peaceful places any less inviting.

Tomorrow will be something far more beautiful than these words.