The deep pool is right underneath the railing at the viewing area, I had to lean out quite a ways to see him, but even then you still can't see the entire pond because of the way the cliff is cut. Of course, if it was constructed in such a way that you could see it, then the tigers could probably get out. I don't think that would be such a good thing. All I had with me was my 300mm lens, which is not a zoom. That meant there was no way I could get the entire tiger into the frame at that close range. Oh well. None of these first 3 shots are cropped by the way, that really is all I could get.
One of their new toys is this big round thing that appears to be maybe a section of palm tree trunk. At one point Connor was playing with it, and it rolled down the hill. He went looking to see where it ended up.
A couple of us were joking that it probably rolled right into his brother Christopher, who was out of our view at the very bottom of the hill. We figured with Connor peering over the ledge like that it wouldn't take Christopher long to notice. We were right - it didn't take long at all.
Here are a few more shots of the 2 of them from this morning. This first shot of Christopher might be a bit out of focus, but I like the way he looks in this anyway.
For the first time in quite a while I saw one of the Snow Leopards up and towards the middle of the enclosure. Usually they are all the way at the top, and all I see is maybe a head.
On the way out I stopped off the see the Mandarin and Wood Ducks (and a bunch of Mallards too) in the little lake near the entrance. The lack of bright sun in the sky meant some nice reflections on the water.
I'll end this post with the first shot I took this morning, of one of the Mandrills looking deep in thought.
Click here to see a few more images from this morning at the San Diego Zoo.