Great Blue

A lot of folks looking for lions got a surprise when they saw a great Blue Heron wandering about the lion enclosure. Luckily for the bird, only sleepy Lusaka was in residence. The heron stayed for more than half an hour, trying unsuccessfully to fly out at one point. The bird walked along the edge of the water until it was within view of the place where Lusaka still slept. And then went back in the other direction, eventually flying up to a spot overlooking the enclosure before at last soaring off over in the direction of Rock Creek, watched by the now awake lion.

A short time later the two new lionesses traded places with Lusaka. Nababiep, born January 2004, and Shera, born in November, 2004, came out and put on a good show for the zoo visitors. They are quite playful, unlike the three young tigers next door who - at least this morning - only wanted to sleep.

Last week, the female Clouded Leopard, Mook, escaped from her enclosure apparently chewing her way through the fencing. She was noticed by a keeper to be sleeping a few yards away from her enclosure and the zoo was immediately shut down while they tranquilized, captured and returned her to the interior of the exhibit. Currently the Clouded Leopards are off-exhibit.

The two young Golden Lion Tamarins which were born in mid-November seem to now be more independent than not. Previously, they were always seen clinging to one of their parents or siblings. This is the family group that has been allowed to roam outside the past couple of summers. A sad situation however is in the enclosure right next door. The male Asian Small Clawed Otter died recently and left behind his long time companion. When I was in the house today, I was surprised to see one of the keepers sitting in the otter enclosure with his hand resting on a blanket and the remaining otter clambering back and forth across his arm.

(This is really dated December 30 but I wanted it to appear in 2007 instead of all by itself in 2006.)