Zoo Trip #51: Bristol Zoo (Thur 30th July 2015)

Since last August I have revived the practice of trying to visit a zoo or wildlife centre once a month. I missed December and June but have managed fourteen trips altogether, so have succeeded on average.

My Marwell Wildlife membership entitled me to some free visits to other zoos, mostly too far away to be practical, but last November I went to Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire, and yesterday managed a trip to the rather more local Bristol Zoological Gardens, after I had gone to pick up a couple of purchases from Richer Sounds nearby, and this was my fourth zoo trip in one month.

Bristol Zoo's star exhibits are their Asiatic lion brothers Kamran and Ketan, who were both born on 9th November 2012.  As the zoo site says, "The Asiatic lion has unfortunately been declared the most endangered large cat species in the world. Asiatic lions are from India, where there are thought to be only 350 left in the wild."

Being a sunny afternoon during school holidays, and as it isn't a very large zoo,it was rather overcrowded and rather too warm, and I had to abandon an attempt a visit to the fur seal pool as it had unfortunately coincided with their feeding time show and was crowded out.

Although it wasn't my most enjoyable zoo visit, I did have sevaral close encounters with the lion pair, literally inches away from one of them as he sauntered up to the glass pane. Was it Kamran or was it Ketan? I have no idea. Here is one waking from a lazy slumber, his brother lying nearby behind him.

I took a couple of Smokey pictures late on Wednesday night, but when I tried to copy from the card to backblip the following day, something had happened to the card and the card reader couldn't get to the files, and when I replaced it in the LX-100, neither could the camera, so I couldn't even re-format it. Luckily, everything else had already been backed up.

L.
31.7.2015 (1724 hr)

Blip #1626 (#1876 including archived blips)
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #1955
LOTD #860 (#981 including archived blips)

Bristol Zoo, 31 July 2015 (Flickr album)

I've also now completed these:
Marwell Wildlife, 23 July 2015 (Flickr album).
Calne Bike Meet, 25 July 2015 (Flickr album)

Zoo Trip series
Bristol series
Taken Through Glass series


Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Hooton Tennis Club - Kathleen Sat On The Arm Of Her Favourite Chair (2015)

One Year Ago:
Marlborough