Chester Zoo

14th May 2013

Having barely used any of my allocated holidays for the year (ending 30 September) thus far, it seemed appropriate to take a couple of days to extend the weekend into four, including the Tuesday that was my actual birthday (my 37th, since you ask).  The weather had been changeable, but it was set reasonably fair for our planned visit.  It also gave me the opportunity to try out my new-ish camera with the wildlife, whilst Daisy was now of an age where she could really start to appreciate the zoo (not least because she was walking, which she wasn't close to doing this time last year).

So here it is, then: Chester Zoo.

Daisy dutifully posed by a 2D rhinoceros whilst Lynne purchased the tickets.

As last time, we headed straight in and over the bridge, from which we got a shot of the elephants, of various sizes.  That's a really tiny elephant.

Into the monkey hut (it wasn't a hut, but that's what I'm calling it).  Some of them as we arrived were up to some amusing japes which had the crowd chuckling, whilst Daisy pressed her face against the window getting a view of one of the monkeys.

One of the features of Chester Zoo seems to be a selection of animals which look familiar but actually have strange names.  I'm not even sure of the name of this one.  Or these three.  They just mooched anyway.

Quite often when presented with an opportunity to spot a Spectacled Bear, they usually hide themselves away and leave us disappointed.  But not this time!

Faced with smaller, statue forms of the bears, Daisy was more forthcoming, saying hello and everything.

Behold, the two-headed beast with four horns!

A cute little thing, this one (name on next photo).  What amazed me here was that this was taken through a wire mesh with high zoom - after a while it just disappeared.  Most impressive (but entirely accidental).

And here's what they are.  It's an unfortunate sounding name.  Bet they were bullied in the school playground.

This was a lookout from which you could see a number of different birds.  Daisy, however, treated it as a fun adventure, mainly because it had two entrances/exits.

We were actually quite far away when I shot this picture, although we were closer earlier (when I got a short-range shot through a wire fence).

This is, I believe, a Sitatunga, which is a partially accurate name here, it seems.

We paused for a break and a drink, which turned into, not so much a rest, as a game of hide and seek.  When this ceased, Daisy wasn't happy, and sat down in a hilarious protest.

All the while, we were near an anteater enclosure, where we watched one of them frantically lick insects (I presume) from inside plastic bottles planted in the sand.

The hyenas were having a bit of a playful scrap.

It was all too much for this particular creature, who decided to have a sunbathe on a big rock.

Last time at Chester Zoo, I managed a couple of close-range photos of a rhino.  This is from quite some distance away so I was quite pleased that it came out so well.

That's your lot for now.  Plenty to come.

With a little free time whilst in Aberfeldy, waiting for Daisy to wake up from her long afternoon snooze, I thought I would revisit the Chester Zoo pages.  Now, where was I?  I think after seeing the rhino we went on the monorail, which served the purpose of taking us to the other side of the zoo, importantly where the main restaurant is located.  No photos of being on there, since I was busy looking after Daisy, but here is what it looks like from the outside.

As we came off the monorail, we found ourselves amongst lions, although there was no way of avoiding the wire mesh for this shot (and I'm not yet sophisticated enough to focus on the yawning lion rather than the wire mesh.

Having eaten lunch, while Lynne nipped to the ladies' room, Daisy decided it would be logistically advantageous for her to push the buggy.  She does like to join in.

Next up was another big cat.  This shot of the tiger is one of my favourites from the zoo visit, as it looked on at the bevy of photographers with a mixture of disdain and boredom.

Some vividly coloured flamingi for y'all.  (Ok, flamingi isn't a word, not even for the plural of flamingo, but hey it sounded good so I stuck with it.)

Otters milling around each other.

It was cuddle time for the gorillas.  (Or gorilli, if you like.)

One of them felt a little left out, which was seemed upsetting for him.

This shot of an okapi was another which seemed to showcase the better quality of my newer camera.

As for the previous visit, we headed out of the zoo via the giraffes.  We got a bit closer to where they wandered out of the big barn this time, as one of the smaller ones came quite close.

Heading round to the giraffes' feeding point, we noticed some bison.

I'm honestly not sure whether we are very lucky in seeing the giraffes feeding each time we are nearby their enclosure, or whether they eat at numerous times of the day and so it's actually quite likely to do so, but we're not complaining.  It seemed to be a new girl who had hung up these branches as the other, more senior, member of staff gently chastised her for not hanging the branches high enough, but neglected to actually do anything about it as they walked off.

That said, the lower-hanging-than-usual branches did give the smallest giraffe a level of leaves all to itself.

We still had time (before Daisy got too ratty) to pop through the butterfly enclosure.  I tried in vain for a while to snap one, but tracked this one whilst in heavy zoom and was pretty lucky for it suddenly to pop into view.  As you can see, I did not pass up on the opportunity, and this is a picture which my old camera just could not do with its 3x zoom (I think this was on about 20x).

With our day at the zoo nearly complete, some ducks wandered across our path.  Here is one.  Of them.

And that was that (save for an obligatory visit to the shop, from which Daisy was fortunate to receive a toy elephant - she'd been pretty cranky about going in the buggy, but this was largely due to being overtired).  Perhaps we will come back next year...

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