Just look at my tail!

On Friday night, my son L had a gig in Easton (in fact, in a pub called the Sugar Loaf in which blipper Snapjax might remember playing pool a century or so ago?). 
As we were both up fairly early, and feeling quite perky, we decided to go to Bristol Zoo project, somewhere we’d both wanted to visit for ages. For me it was his birthday treat. 
The Zoo Project is a work in progress, hence its name; gradually being built up into a conservation zoo, where visitors see endangered species being bred in order to restore numbers, in lovely spacious enclosures. At the same time they have set up protected areas in the countries where the animals’ homes originally were, staffed by local people. Plus an educational function there as well as here. It is run by the same organisation as the old Bristol zoo in the city, but with a different emphasis. 
I’ve shown the lemur as the main blip as they’re so photogenic. Their original home, Madagascar, is one of the most damaged and destroyed environments. 
In the extras are endangered subspecies of giraffe and zebra.  I assumed the giraffes were a breeding couple, as they’re spent most of the time touching and swaying their necks together, but they were two young males and its an activity which establishes who is stronger, and can lead to violent fights in the wild. Then one of how lovely the trees are on this site, out in the countryside north of the city. 
The exception to the endangered species policy is their colony of meerkats - which they openly admit they have because they’re adorable and everyone wants to see them. In the first one, two young ones are ‘playing dead’ which is a strategy to hopefully put off predators, which ingeniously means if they are attacked they’re in a better position to leap up using all claws and teeth to fight off the danger. In the second, one is in the familiar lookout position, watching all around for danger. 
The highlight of our visit was a treetop walkway through a large forested area, where they are attempting to provide an environment for the animals who would have lived in Britain 8000 years ago. We saw a lynx resting, partially hidden in the undergrowth. And a grey wolf (really! so excited to see it) far away tucked into the shade under a tree. Neither blippable.  The bears (European bears, who still live wild in a few places in mountainous areas in Scandinavia, the Carpathian Mountains and the Balkans) have not long woken up from their hibernation, so are quite active, not interested in sleeping, and not concerned about hiding. I can’t explain how happy I was to see them, wandering around their huge space, doing as they pleased. When I was small we went to London zoo, where I remember a solitary bear in a small concrete cage, endlessly pacing back and forth.  It was SO cruel. In the first one you can see just how big his claws are, and how strong. We were puzzling why we think of them as cute and cuddly, and so many children have teddy bears.  Maybe it’s the adorable small round furry ears. In the second, she is wandering around, exploring her space, stopping for a drink, looking like a bear in the woods. We both felt so happy to see them.