A Day at the Zoo

by Donna Andrews

I used to attend Mayhem in the Midlands every Memorial Day weekend.  Since the demise of that lovely convention, I've missed spending time in Omaha.  So I went back this year with a few friends and had a lovely time--especially during my visit to the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Because Dr. Montgomery Blake, grandfather of my series protagonist, is a world-famous zoologist and owner of a small private zoo, I take an interest in zoos. Although Caerphilly's zoo is a lot smaller than Omaha's, I like to think they have a few things in common--like having habitats instead of cages. And since the Caerphilly Zoo exists only in my imagination, I can stock it with any animals I choose.

Let there be meerkats! And bongos. And spider and squirrel monkeys. And--

Wait.  I'll show you.  Here are a few of the photos I took from my visit.

Monkeys!

The monkeys live on a faux banyan tree in the middle of a lagoon. They don't swim, so the lagoon is their cage.  But they can travel from the main island to smaller islands via a rope bridge.

 

Oh, to be as agile as the monkeys!

And their faces are incredibly expressive.

 

I kept looking for emus.  I could have sworn the zoo had emus, but I was having a hard time finding them. I came across the Cape Thick-Knees (although it was sitting so I can't testify to the shape of its knees).

 

I saw peacocks.

White swans, battling the koi for the food the visitors throw.

Black swans, also battling the koi.

Ducks and geese galore.

Wait--is that an emu over there?

No, it's an ostrich. And that was as close as I got to emus.  Ah, well.  I have a plan to get some emu photos.  More on that later.

Meanwhile I did see camels.  Meg's grandfather's zoo has camels.

I think Dr. Blake's zoo needs some cute baby camels.

Peccaries. 

And warty pigs

A sleeping bobcat

A sleeping cheetah. Well, he was sleeping, and doesn't look happy to have been awakened. 

The bongo

The silverback gorillas

And, of course, the meerkats. You've got to have meerkats in a proper zoo, right?

A lovely day at the zoo, but I keep thinking of animals I didn't get to see.  There's always next year.  And for that matter, there's always the National Zoo, which is a lot closer. Any suggestions on what animals I should look for on my next zoo visit?

Comments

[Eve]

My fave is white tigers.