Ah, the zoo.  Every time I go to Calgary to visit my sister we go to the Calgary Zoo, which is a fantastic zoo.  It’s been even more fun since I acquired my Canon DSLR.  I feel like a faux-nature photographer, able to take photos of animals I haven’t seen in person or may never get to see.  For the past two weeks my sister has been in town, so we decided to go to the Woodland Parks Zoo in Seattle, so I got my nature photographer on.  Above is a grey wolf.

These two grizzly bears were awesome.  They’re brothers, the bear in the forefront was very active, walking around, drinking water.

Both zoos have a butterfly exhibit.  Calgary has had theirs for several years so the butterflies are plentiful.  Woodland Park’s is brand new, so it will need time to breed more butterflies for a fuller room.  Still pretty, though!

Le lion.

Those who know me well know that I am terrified of primates, mostly gorillas, chimpanzees and baboons.  They scare the crap out of me.  I do, however, love orang-utans.  They are solitary and generally docile.  I mean, look at this guy’s face.

Usually when my sister and I are at the Calgary Zoo, the red pandas are hiding and/or sleeping.  We got a little bit of action from this adorable guy, who climbed the tree branch and promptly fell asleep.

Finally, my favourite animal at the zoo – the tiger.  Calgary has Siberian tigers.  Shown here are the Malayan tigers that Woodland Park has.  They’re so striking looking, and I love that the guy in the bottom photo has spotted something delicious.