Wild Things! -- Part I

My husband and I took advantage of an exceptionally warm and pretty February afternoon yesterday and went somewhere we haven't been in a very long time -- the Jackson (MS) Zoo!

I've recently discovered that I enjoy photographing animals, and have written a couple of posts featuring photos I've taken of cows' faces. But it didn't take me long to realize that you can take only so many photos of cows and they all start looking alike. That's when it occurred to me that the zoo is literally a photographer's treasure trove of animals just waiting to be captured with a camera.

I hope you will click on the photos to enlarge them to see the faces of these fascinating creatures ... some are hauntingly beautiful, a few are comical, and a couple look rather menacing.

We began our adventure by visiting with the Giraffes, and it appeared that they were mother and offspring (I didn't notice if it was a boy or girl).

The mother was quite friendly and
seemed to enjoy having her picture taken ...

She's so precious and looks so innocent ...

My favorite animals at a zoo are the cats ... and these 300-pound guys are Sumatran Tigers. They are three brothers from the same litter and are three years old. There were two fences separating us, which was very frustrating to the photographer (me) at times ...

Water aerobics, anyone?
Check out the claws!

While we were visiting, the tigers' keeper came by to feed them and they became quite animated ...

He looks like he's thinking,
"Just a little bit closer!"

I asked the keeper if he ever went inside the fences and he said, "They would eat me in a second!" I couldn't imagine that because they looked so sweet and cuddly, but that made me thankful for the two fences between us and them.

Our next stop was to see the Cougar ...

What a face ...

While researching the animals for this post, I discovered that "cougars are excellent jumpers. Using their long tails for balance, they can achieve leaps up to 20 feet from a standstill." I'm glad I didn't know that when I was taking his picture.

He was yawning in this one, but looks like he's growling. Check out those teeth! ...

We disturbed the Amur Leopard's afternoon nap when we walked up, but he graciously posed for a few pictures ...

For brevity's sake, I'm going to end this post here. I hope you enjoyed seeing these beautiful animals and will return tomorrow for Part II of our zoo adventure. The best is yet to come ...

Sincerely,