Animals at the LA Zoo

Going to the Los Angeles zoo.  How about you?  These are a few of my favorite animals. 

Meerkat. A distinguished gentleman keeping look out for predators.  He looks a bit like my brother-in-law.  That's a compliment. 

Komodo dragon checking out the visitors. 

My favorite on this visit.  The double-wattled cassowary.  Not every animal has wattles much less two.  We spent the rest of the visit comparing animal wattles to this cassowary.  The single-wattled turkey vulture, the zero-wattled rhinoceros.  And the multi-jowled R. M. Nixon.  Beautifully large bird. 

This gorilla was sitting a few feet from the window where people were streaming by. 

Grevy's Zebra lying down on the job.  Note the connection between the left side of the zebra suit and the right side there along the belly matter.  And the suit appears to be stretching there along the belly.  

Gerenuk's.  Cute little gazelle-like creatures. I could watch these guys all day. 

People and chimps all watching in the same direction.  What's not shown: two docents (?) tossing apples to the chimps.  You can see two chimps with their remaining apple bits.   

Concerned giraffe searching for like minded member of the opposite sex for fun and recreation and ... necking.  

One-humped Aldabra Tortoise.  They used to allow us to ride the slightly larger Galapagos tortoise at Como Zoo in St. Paul when I was a child. 

Indian Rhinoceros.  If I read correctly, this guy has cancer which has affected the horn. 

Animals with Their Backs to US

Generally to make an emotional connection to an animal photo, you need the face as part of the photo.  These photos had interesting features, but had no frontal picture of the face.  Still, I found them interesting -- the light on the skin/pelt/fur/muscles, the texture of the fur, the pose, the surrounding environment.

Gorillas can be gorgeous animals.  Here we see one walking at an angle away from us in the gorilla enclosure. 

Desert Big-Horn Sheep.  Beautiful back end. 

Beautiful giraffe.  See the light on the skin and the muscles under the skin. 

François’s Langur.  The back thereof. 


Hippo languidly underwater.  What I really like here is the sun on the rocks.  And a bit of the shadow.  I also worry about the hippo getting sunburn on its back that is out of water. 

Pink flamingos all a-gaggle.  The birds appear to all have a number.  Number 13 is particularly visible.  Perhaps those are genetic features.  The flamingo version of fingerprints. 

Views and Images from the LA Zoo

It's been two months since my last post.  Been busy.  Busy period not over, but I took some time out for a few picture posts.  This series of three posts are from the Los Angeles Zoo.  This first post is of images that are not animals.

This is a photo of one of the gorilla viewing enclosures.  The zoo did a nice job letting us get very close to the gorillas.  One set of window panes was cracked.  I like the shadows generated by the roof. 

Did I say no animals?  Well almost no animals. 

A photo of the LA Zoo special camouflage recycle bins.  Hard to spot amidst the greenery!

Someone working on the new LA Zoo Asian elephant exhibit. 

Directional sign with plant life in the background. 

Tree roots with Giant Eland stripes right of center.  I worry when I see roots like this.  What might they be planning? 

Combination spider web and sun deck at the zoo. 

Blogger insisted on rotating this figure 90 degrees from normal.  I tried uploading this picture right side up, upside down and rotated either way.  Blogger always rotated the right side up and down figures 90 degrees, and left the other two alone.  This is a picture of the gorilla enclosure, but without gorillas.