A visit to the zoo (part 1)

Wow...I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last blog post.  Goodness, where does the time go?  Well, it all goes into my work, for the most part. I have a few topics I keep intending to write a blog post about, and then I just get busy with a gazillion other things on my to-do list and it never happens.  Well, today I am taking a few moments to share some pictures from a recent visit to the Moncton Zoo.  I don't often get out for those kinds of little adventures, so it was a nice change of pace to visit the animals.  

We went on a day that started out rainy and didn't clear up until quite late in the afternoon, which was ideal because there weren't many people at the zoo.  In addition, because it wasn't too warm, and there was a strong breeze, many of the animals were quite active and engaged, rather than just being hot and sleepy.  

I took a lot of pictures, so I'm hoping to split this across two posts, and I don't intend to wait a year to do part 2!

This interesting bird is a marabou stork, native to sub-Saharan Africa.  It's such an interesting looking bird, with a rather lovely greenish cast to its feathers.  It is very big, and the wingspan can reach  more than 10 feet.  The full height can be almost 5 feet.  Wow!

This is a Barbary sheep, which is native to North Africa.  This one was very photogenic.

Obviously, this is an ostrich.  The male ostrich has black body feathers whereas the female, like this one, is brown.  They are enormous, and their legs are so big when one considers how tiny many bird legs are.  

Here's a dromedary camel who was having a good laugh about something.  Probably me. 

The pair of lions was having a lovely time sunbathing.  They really seemed to enjoy the lovely weather.  It was about 18 Celsius (65 F) with mixed sun and cloud for my visit, with a strong breeze to keep the mosquitoes away.

A highlight of the visit was the baby ring-tailed lemur.  I couldn't get very close becuase they were at the back of their enclosure, interacting with the keeper.  You can see the baby on the mom's back in this image.

Here you can really see the fantastic tail of the lemur.

I also really enjoyed the red wallabies.  They're such an iconic animal down under, but it's exciting to see them up here!  They weren't very excited to see anyone - they were just enjoying a restful afternoon.

This Arctic wolf recently had surgery and you can see where her fur was shaved on the front leg.  She's recovering well.  What an amazing white coat.  

It was World Turtle Day on May 23.  I loved seeing these red-eared slider turtles at the zoo.  There were quite a lot of them in the enclosure, but I particularly liked this little group of three who had chosen to sunbathe on this rock.

The zoo also has an area that includes some domesticated farm animals, including pygmy goats, a donkey, some bantam chickens, some silkie chickens, emus, and guinea pigs.  This little guinea pig was particularly helpful with posing for photos. 

Soon, I'll post a second series of photos highlighting some other zoo residents.