Big Cats and Little Cats - Malayan Tigers and Fishing Cats at the San Diego Zoo

When we first arrived at the Malayan tiger habitat this morning little Conner was hanging out on a rock ledge, probably trying to figure out which of the people he had the best chance of catching.

After a while little Christopher came down the hill to see what was going on.

It didn't take him long to get bored, and he went up to the rock ledge to enjoy the view.

I'm told these guys are now up to about 60 pounds, which is more than twice what they were when I first saw them not all that long ago. As I mentioned in the previous post, we stopped here for about 1/2 an hour, wandered around a little and then came back so that we could be there when the keeper tossed some fresh meat to them. Conner seems to be quite the impatient one, here he is screaming at Rochelle to toss him a chunk of beef heart. He was getting really agitated.

Mom was right there of course, she doesn't miss any opportunities for treats. She'll push those little guys right out of her way too.

Time for a break - Conner's worn himself out. The misters at the top of the enclosure must have been on, his fur is all wet.

Mother and son. 

Mek might be moving, but she's not taking her eyes off the keeper with the tray of meat.

And now for something a bit smaller - this is Miri, the female fishing cat. Miri lives just up the hill from the tigers. She weighs about 20 pounds, which makes her about 1/10 the size of Mek. She's still just as aggressive though.

Miri is a really fun cat to watch. She seems to like sitting up high in her enclosure watching the people wander by. She reminds me of Aldo, who likes to sit in an upstairs window overlooking the street. When I'm standing at the fishing cat enclosure I'll sometimes hear people say that they think she's just a big house cat and keep going, but she really is special - webbed feet and all. If you want to see her don't wait too long, she's scheduled to move to another zoo in mid-October.

Click here to see more images of Mek, Christopher, Conner and Miri, and even a couple of pretty much unrecognizably blurry shots of Bullet, the male fishing cat, all from Saturday, September 24, 2011 at the San Diego Zoo.