San Diego Zoo - A Few New Images

I think I must have spent almost the entire weekend with a camera in my hand. On Saturday morning it was the trip to Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park with our local photo club (see the previous post), followed by an SCCX (Southern California Xterra Club) "mod day" in the afternoon (I didn't do any work on my Xterra this time, but did take some pictures). On Sunday I got to the San Diego Zoo around 11:30am, and wound up staying until almost 4:00pm - mostly hanging out the with the big cats. 

I started and finished the day at the Zoo at the Malayan Tigers, but didn't get all that many pictures, even though I spent the most amount of time there. Sometimes that happens.

Conner, one of the two cubs (I think they're calling them sub-adults now) spent most of the day in the upper cave napping on a bed of straw. I've heard that the floor in the cave is heated, and it was pretty cold out there today. Occasionally he poked his head up, or sometimes just opened an eye to see what might be going on.

Here's something a little different from what I usually have here. Even when the tigers are asleep in the cave it's fun to just watch, especially when little kids come by and get to see a tiger up close for the first time. Some want to get up as close as they can, others won't go near the glass no matter how much their parents tell them it's safe. Either way, it's always fun to see the reactions of both children and adults when they come around that corner and realize just how close they are to a 200+ pound Malayan Tiger - especially when they're not expecting it. (By the way, it's nowhere near that bright in there, but the little flash on my Fuji X-100 actually does work pretty well.)

I did get one shot shot of Christopher that I liked too.

The Red Pandas were out.

So was one of the real Pandas. 

From there it was on to Cat Canyon to see what the leopards and mountain lions were up to. Cold days this time of year are great for the big cats, they seem to be a lot more active than on warm days.

This Snow Leopard couple was right up front, almost too close. The hazy look in parts of these shots is from not being able to completely focus away the fence that was between us. We spoke briefly with a keeper who mentioned that they are trying to breed this pair. Hopefully we'll have some cubs pretty soon. 

On they way back to the tigers we made a quick stop at the lower bird pool, which is always nice in the late afternoon light.

Click here to see a few more images from this afternoon at the San Diego Zoo.