Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Zoo 1


Canadian Cougar. Not the cute little pussy cat you might think! I think this girl just wanted to show off the ivory.
The Toronto Zoo is laid out by "continent". There is Africa, with elephants and lions, North America with otters, beaver, moose, and antelope, South America with flamingos, tapirs, and Jaguars, and Asia with Snow leopards and Tigers. It is considered to be one of the finest zoos in the world, and a day spent amongst the animals (while watching other animals) is a fine day.
The Zoo is HUGE...we traveled from place to place by the "on again, off again" train. Most of the exhibits are as natural as they can make them. Most of the animals seemed to be content, though the tigers seemed a little agitated...pacing about, wondering if another of those ubiquitous Canada Geese would drop in for dinner.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hate zoos. This photo breaks my heart. Animals condemned to a life sentence for our amusement in enclosures that make them sick or crazy or both.

I know many zoos have improved their habitats for animals and a great many species owe their non-extinct status to the breeding programs of zoos, and nearly ever conservationist and passionate wildlife person out there first caught their love of animals at a zoo; but I can't stand them anyway.

Lots of photographers make lots of money photographing zoo animals, but I can't do it. It would be like making money from slaves.

STAG said...

The Toronto zoo is set up in such a way that the cages are to keep the people out. The environments are really big, and often you can't even see the animals. As you can see by the foliage in behind the big cat, they have lots of room to play.
The Toronto zoo is really big on getting animals back to the wild...they spend literally millions on such projects.
The usual problem with serious predators like this girl is that left on their own, they will eat somebody's kid or dog, and end up being shot.
I did feel a little sorry for that cougar....she really DID want to snack on the kid beside me. And the kid was obnoxious enough that I could see her point.

grin!~