living childhood: "Thought breeds thought;: A Visit to Como Zoo and Conservatory

On Friday, we went to Como Zoo and Conservatory. It is a small free zoo and conservatory in St. Paul. It is beautiful and we've loved going to it over the years. This Friday we met some friends and hung out. Our first start was the rain forest room. My camera did not defog while we were in there as you can perhaps tell!!

Then we visited the primates. These Francois Langur's put on quite a show. The room building is dark with only the exhibits lit so I took these shots at 1600 iso and shutter speed of 1/40th a sec. So you have to look for the blur racing through the cage. He would take off and bounce off the glass right in front of the kids.

In the shot below, he went straight towards K. As you can tell, he rather scared her.

I took loads of really neat photos of this polar bear - the polar bear exhibit has recently been redone and is much nicer for both the bears and the viewers.

Two bears. In the shot above, you can see the reflection of a brown bear in a nearby enclosure. They have some bears as part of a rescue from a flooded area at the Teddy Roosevelt Park in Minot, SD. I tried getting a shot of the bear but he paced rapidly and I never found a good angle for him. I am rather partial to reflection shots so I thought this was a fun way to get him - looks as if the polar bear were dreaming.

Pregnant lioness.

Cougar, puma, or mountain lion - which do you prefer?

Snow leopards.

Of course, the wolves were hiding in their den.

Siberian tiger.

Mugshots for giraffes.

Check out the tongue.

All the kids - we were asked if we were a daycare. No, we just all home school our children.

Yes, it does say 'No Climbing.' But the children were there and on it before we got there so we went ahead and arranged them for a photo. Not good, I suppose. :(