National Zoo - 21 Feb 2006

I *love* zoos. Ooh, how much fun it is to look at the animals! The National Zoo is one of the best I've been to, in large part because it was free, but they also just had a lot of cool exhibits and nifty animals, like pandas... and I'd never seen a hippo up close like that before.

I should note tend to take far too many pictures when I'm in them. The single biggest reason why this whole batch of pictures was delayed so much (nearly four months) is because I had to cut down this batch of ~350 pictures... Let's hope I really get finished, so I can finally show off all of the neato animals we got to see.


Images
Panda-In-A-Tree
This is the zoo's baby panda bear, Tai Shan, climbing a tree.
Panda-In-A-Tree, II
The point was to take a nap.
Panda-In-A-Tree, III
The branch was just *barely* strong enough to hold the cub.
Panda-In-A-Tree, IV
But it was cute to see the baby struggle for the good show-off spot...
Panda #2 - Mei Xiang
This was the baby's mother, happily munching away on her leaves.
Panda-Watching Crowd
There were a lot of people there, many with cameras better than mine. There was also a Beth there with me.
Panda Nap
Awww...
Coming Back Down
He didn't fall! Be impressed!
Panda #3 - Tian Tian
This is the baby's Dad, lounging around in the adjacent cage.
Giraffe
I really need a better lens the next time I go to a zoo, so I can get better close-up shots.
Elephants Playing
Heading out for a quick walk.
Elephants Playing, II
They seemed happy to be wandering around.
Elephants Playing, III
I need to hang out with Danny more, so I can play with these guys...
Capybara
That's a big rodent. Is it bad that it seemed friendly?
Nile Hippo
This was the first animal that we got to be really close to.
Nile Hippo, II
And man, was it huge!
Nile Hippo, III
It made scary noises, too...
Nile Hippo, IV
Beth and I were, of course, absolutely fascinated.
Nile Hippo, Showing Off
Those are big teeth!
Nile Hippo, Showing Off Again
I'm absolutely positive that he was posing for the camera.
Shut Again
Hodling your mouth open is hard work when there's no food involved.
Going Under
The hippo went off to ignore the world for a while.
Pygmy Hippo
Aww, that's so cute!
Pygmy Hippo #2
Okay, so they're still huge, but not compared to the regular Nile Hippo.
Feeding the Anteater
Yes, it's a statue. I pose sometimes!
Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin
I tried to get good shots in the primate house.
Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin, II
At least in a few cases I was able to figure out the names of the animals.
Primate House
I didn't do a very good job of dealing with the lighting, or the animals names.
Toucan
Or at least it looks like a toucan, kindof.
Something Nocturnal
I don't know what it is, but it's fairly cute.
Groundhog
Zoo-worthy?
Some kind of Shrew
I wish I was better at identifying animals.
Sengli
These guys were really cute big shrews. I like this shot.
Otter
Well, it looks otter-like, anyway.
Leopard Cat
At least I think it's one
A Monkey
I can't tell which one it is. Oh well.
Degu
At least I think they're Degu. They look like gerbils.
Gorilla Past the Glass
This was the best shot I could get of the large gorilla that was sitting just on the other side of the glass. *sigh* I tried.
Gorilla
If you turn your brightness up, he turns out well... (I should do some post-processing.)
Silverback Gorilla
A decent shot, but his back was (obviously) turned.
Orangutan with Popcorn
A good snack for everyone!
Orangutan with Popcorn, II
He was definitely enjoying his treat.
Patagonian Mara
I figured out their name! Hooray, National Zoo web site!
Iguana
Or something like an iguana, anyway.
Blue-Tongued Skink
I really have to get one of these again.
Blue-Tongued Skink, II
Beth tried earlier this summer, but we couldn't afford it at the moment...
Snakes
I can't really identify them well, but they're reasonable pictures at least.
Snakes, II
Sometimes I even get action shots.
Snakes, III
This is a copperhead, anyway.
Gecko
You will not sell me insurance!
Large Snake
Some kind of python, likely. He's gorgeous, at least.
Bearded Lizards
I like these guys too.
Bearded Lizards, II
Maybe we should get one of these too...
Another Python
Another gorgeous snake.
Large Iguana-Thing
I'm sure it's not an iguana.
Pair of Turtles
It actually looked like a two-headed turtle at first.
Crocodile
Hanging out with the turtles. (Maybe it's an alligator, I don't remember.)
Komodo Dragon
For some reason, my komodo dragon pictures end up in textbooks sometimes.
Komodo Dragon, II
They are nifty creatures, at least.
Freshly-Molted Lobster
This lobster had just molted a couple of hours before...
Old Exo-Skeleton
That's the old exo-skeleton. Isn't that *cool*?
Current Body
One more shot, to show off the difference.
Blue Crab
That's a pretty guy...
Draw The Crab's Picture
...and apparently he wants his picture drawn. Hmm. I didn't know that they were that smart!
Cold-Water Invertebrates
Look! That man is an invertebrate! Are all zoo-keepers invertebrates? Have they no backbone?
Self-Luminescent Jellyfish
It would have taken a lot of work to get a perfect shot of these guys; I wish I had had the werewithal to really try.
Octopus Thing
He was cute!
Mollusks
I don't know what these guys are called, but they're nifty.
Big Hermit Crab
They get big? I didn't know that.
Spider
I like that they had a spider section of the house.
Spider, II
The webs were really impressive... not that Beth looked too closely.
Old Lobster Exoskeletons
Showing off what happens to the old stuff.
Tarantula
Big spiders are cool-looking.
Scorpion
I'm less fond of these guys, for some reason.
Horseshoe Crab
It probably isn't a horseshow crab, but oh well.
One Last Lobster Shot
The lobster was just too cool to ignore.
Butterfly House, I
I tried to take a few pictures in the butterfly house. I always do.
Butterfly House, II
But my heart is never really in it...
Butterfly House, III
...probably because I can never identify them later anyway.
Is a Cow a Tool?
Yes. Duh. (They thought that livestock was exotic in DC. Ha!)
Caracal
That's a pretty cat...
Sad Tim
Why is Tim so sad?
Why Tim Is Sad
The Tiger exhibit was closed! No cats!
Inside the T.Rex
Don't swallow him, giant head!
Tigers
Okay, so the tigers were around.
Tigers, II
They were just being lazy. No shock there.
Taking the Hog
No, Beth, you can't have that!
Cute Ground Hogs
Not that I understand why there were multiple statues of ground hogs, mind.
Fat Lynx
This guy was significantly over-fed.
Fat Lynx, II
And you could tell that he was happy about it...
Fat Lynx, III
The zoo-keepers were trying to make him get exercise by putting his food all over the cage. He didn't care; he's just slowly go over to it over time...
Soulless Ground Hogs
The eyes. The EYES!
Rays
Stingrays are always neat animals to watch.
Rays, II
The water was really good for pictures.
Rays, III
They're pretty, they move weirdly, and you can sometimes touch them.
Under a Ray
I didn't get a good shot of the underside of a ray on our cruise last year, so I was happy to get this shot.
Big Fish, I
These guys were from the Amazon.
Big Fish, II
The signs indicated that these ones could feed a family for a week... and the others could feed a small *village*.
Big Fish, with a Scale
That's Beth's hand there. That's a big fish!
Big Fish, III
There were also turtles.
Big Fish, From Above
They don't look quite as impressive from above.
Beetle of Beetles
For my little brother, the ex-entymologist.
Beetle Inscription
"The beethle outline above is Chiasognathus Granti (Grant's stag beetle) from Chile."
Playful Seal
It was starting to warm up a bit, so the seals were definitely having a good time playing in their setup.
Tired Sea Lions
Nap time!
Bald Eagle
Is this Little Stephen?
More Fat Lynx
Continuing to slowly, lazily stalk his prey.
More Fat Lynx, II
...and by "prey", I mean "balls of meat".
More Fat Lynx, III
Oh, the life of a fat zoo animal looks fun!
Otters Playing
The jump-off-the-side game is endlessly fun for them, and lots of fun to watch too.
Otters on Land
They don't look quite so graceful as they waddle along...
Tim at the Zoo
Can you tell that we were getting a bit tired?
No Comment
Beth was shocked, and wanted me to take this picture. I just hope it doesn't make it into the Google Archives, so I'm keeping the key words down.
Back to the Hippo
Once we'd seen the rest of the zoo, we decided that we wanted to check out the hippos once more.
Hippo, Side
Those are big animals.
Hippo, Back to Lunch
That's a nice close-up shot of the guy.
Hippo Eating
Yes, I got too many pictures.
Hippo Eating, II
I'm even having a hard time choosing what pictures to drop.
Hippo Eating, III
I should get one of these guys for Christmas.
Hippo, Re-Entering the Water
He actually took some time out for some diarrhea first.
Diving Hippo
Only a hippopotamus will really do.
Snorkling Hippo
I really don't want a stupid doll, or tinker-toys, or anything like that...
Relaxing Hippo
I just want one of these guys to play with. I'd certainly enjoy it.
Best Hippo Shot
This was the best hippo shot I got, I think.
Last Hippo Shot
Okay, time to stop taking pictures of the giant guy.
Elephant
There were other large mammals in the large-mammal house.
Elephant, II
I believe it was a whole family of Asian Elephants.
Elephant, III
This is the old, wizened head of the family.
Elephant, IV
And this one was the cute baby.
Emu
I've seen plenty of these in my life, thank you. They're more fun when they're out of their cage.
Scimitar-Horned Oryx
These were neat savannah beasts. And they're extinct in the wild, apparently.
Cheetah
Wandering around the cage, looking for something useful to kill^H^H^H^Hdo.
Cheetah with Dinner
Mmm, the slowest food imaginable...
Sleeping Cheetahs
That's a nice little cat-house.
Zebra in the Distance
It was going to be too much effort to get closer, and we were getting really tired of walking.
What's For Dinner?
This was an excellent exhibit. You stand on a scale, and find out what animals would you eat you on the African Plains. I'm a young zebra!

[ ,,^.,^,, ] Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@killfile.org)
Last Updated: Wed, Dec 03 2008
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