Doogs & Littlewid's London Zoo Trip

    Doogs. Some lovely photos and a great commentary on your day at the zoo. I am chuckling about saving your battery just in case ..... we've all been there   

It sounds like you had a really good time and saw plenty, I totally agree with you about zoos and about birds in cages. It's a hard one to accept, and I know zoos are trying to improve enclosures (well UK zoos anyway).

Penguins and meerkats are both such appealing little creatures, both of which I could spend hours watching   

A really great selection of photos and thanks so much for sharing. It must have taken you hours to upload them all so    for doing it.

Lai

Some lovely photos from you both. The tiger looks very impressive, people do not realise how big, "big cats" are, especially the males; the size of their front paws are enormous and one swipe spells trouble!! The meerkats and penguins are always fun to watch with their antics and make good photo subjects.
Doogs you will have to remember to always carry a spare battery whenever you take your camera out, there is nothing more frustrating than having to ration the number of photos you can take.
I am very ambivalent when it comes to zoos, I do not like to see animals in restricted spaces and have not visited one in a long time. However I have been very fortunate in being able to watch a lot of wildlife in their natural surroundings but the majority of people will never have that opportunity. Their only chance to see the incredible diversity of wildlife from huge mammals to tiny insects is through zoos and wildlife parks. Children in particular need the chance to see the actual animals in real life and not just on the tv so that they can develop an understanding of the fantastic world we live in and hopefully be encouraged to conserve it. There is nothing better than seeing a real animal full size a short distance away from you!! Sadly some of the bigger mammals are not suited to a zoo environment and life can be very difficult for them, perhaps it is the price we have to pay for protecting them. If people never see real elephants or hippos they are not very likely to be interested in preserving them as they will never relate to them or properly understand them!!!

SM

Glad you all liked the photo's of Jae Jae, he is one very magnificent male Tiger for sure.

Safariman I completely understand where you are coming from with animals being in the wild but as you rightly say and I have said before, if it wasn't for good wildlife parks and zoos, many of us would never see them in the wild I have the means to go to Kenya but also I can't have the vaccinations, so for me it's wildlife parks and zoos........mind you I would simply love to go to Kenya or South Africa but that's why I enjoy all you safarigoers photo's.......so all please keep going so I can dream I am there when looking at all your glorious photo's.

Doogs your pictures are fantastic, so lovely and I knew you would be getting the eating ones of the Otters.....you are far braver and less weedy than I am    Love the photo of Jae Jae's paws, they are something else aren't they but then again the whole boy is just magnificent. You did good with the little Meerkats that were wriggling around, my photo's of them like that were a blur, definitely didn't do that right   

I agree about the female Lion, she was pacing around a bit, I couldn't make out if she was stressed or wanted the male lion to get up and move and she didn't want to move without him but at least she did eventually settle which was good. They did have more room to move if she wanted to but she was definitely staying put with him wasn't she.

The thing I liked about the zoo was that all the animals looked really healthy, not one of them looked thin or if something was up so that's a credit to the zoo and it's keepers.

I was far too busy watching the bird of prey show so you getting the owl picture is just fab    she was a fine Owl wasn't she.

Here are my last few pictures of the day. Not up to Doogs standard and the bird pictures are not fantastic, I so loved being able to see them but boy they were hard to photograph, just when you thought you had the right setting it was the wrong one, I have a couple of still shots but then they moved and then others were just right but then they flew off.......I suppose birds will be birds and I need thousands more practice but there were some really beautiful birds there and I loved seeing them but Doogs is right, the vultures etc did need more space I thought but then again they are being ambassadors for their kind so they are doing good.

Not sure what this little bird is ( I forgot to take a mental note of the breeds) but just so colourful and pretty.


This little one hardly ever kept still, it was just wriggling all over and was making Doogs and I laugh. I did manage to get one of it being still for about a second but I will post one of it wriggling at full speed, it was a crazy bird but so comical.
Standing still

Doing the Hippy Hippy Shake Shake - it goes at quite a speed

This little bird is lovely but as soon as you spot them they fly away and getting one of them out of the trees was not going to be possibility because as soon as you saw it, it was off, so here it is hiding

Am I too big for this perch?????

These two were so cute snuggled together but you were not allowed to use your flash and these two were in the shadow so the photo was dark, this is my only tweaked photo, I had to lighten it so you could see them sort of ok.

A couple more of my Meerkat photo's
little one

Plane watching

On guard


Doogs has the best ones of the little one but mum had such a relaxed attitude to him



Classic feeding time


Doogs I didn't realise you had reservations about going to the zoo, so thanks heaps for such a wonderful day. I really had a ball   

littlewid-x-

  Littlewid, lovely photos, thanks for sharing them.

Lai

So glad to see that you two lovely ladies managed to make it to London Zoo!!

Some fantastic photos taken and shared   That purple coloured bird is spectacular and a climbing tiger! Who knew?! Not me    

Some interesting points made about the pros and cons of zoos too, especially by Safariman. Yes, in many cases it would be better if the enclosures were larger; or quite frankly weren't 'enclosures' at all. But not possible, and of course this is the most accessible way for most of us to witness wild animals first hand.

This year so far I have been back to Melbourne Zoo and more recently to Healsville Sanctuary (where they were celebrating their 80th birthday; made me feel you again   ), where I had some great times.

"Did you hear the one about LW and Doog's visit to the Zoo . ."   Great meerkat pics too. I am happy for LW that they were there for her!

Mjukuu How exciting is that and that meant she was expecting when we were there Doogs A lovely write up and gorgeous pictures of our beautiful Mjukuu and her little one. Loved the video.

I feel another trip to ZSL London Doogs, the little one is a got to see before she goes off else where for the breeding program. I know that wont be for a while but how fantastic to see her whilst she is still little..........Are you up for another trip Doogs ........that should be a massive grin smilie

I am sure I will be visiting the Zoo, just let the weather get a little better and then ofskie to the Zoo.......would be fab if you could come Doogs

I get up dates from ZSL but need to make sure I sign up for the updates on this little one and Mjukuu

littlewid-x-

What a gorgeous name Doogs, I really love it and it does sound perfect doesn't it Thanks for letting us know. I am a bit behind with my updates and emails

Doogs I am sure she will be there for a while, so once you get things sorted on a personal level maybe we can sort something out to try and get to see her. No pressure and I mean that genuinely al I want to say is I am up for it if you are able to at some point in the year........we can take some little camping chairs and just sit there all day and watch them

littlewid-x-

Littlewid and Doogs, your photos, videos and stories at the Zoo last year are so lovely! I enjoyed them very much, the tigers, monkeys, meerkats, otters, giraff, penguines..., so many nice shots! I have much to learn from your photo techniques. Kudos! And thank you for sharing!

SC (SeeWildChina)

That's great news that you might both be heading back to London Zoo, Doogs and LW!! It means you especially enjoyed it last time. It's nice that you caught onto that update about the gorilla birth too; makes your trip there mean all the more. Alika is a cool name. Pronounce it like "A like her"

They really have grown haven't they. Thanks for the update Doogs. Hope LW has seen it

WS