Saturday at the Zoo

What fun! Our friends L&M from Kingston came to visit us this weekend, and aside from shopping and just hanging out, all that they wanted to do was go visit the Toronto Zoo, to which neither TC nor I have ever been. I loved it! The day was perfect, a little overcast so it wasn't too warm, but warm enough that we didn't need sweaters. All of the animals (except for the cheetahs) were out and about, including...



...the Greater Kudu. Check out those horns! Sidenote: Is there a Lesser Kudu?



Hippos are such massive animals! And apparently they're quite deadly if you happen to enter their territory. We arrived as the keeper was giving a little schpeel, and I think he said there are about 300 people killed by hippos each year. Crazy!



Isn't he (or she?) beautiful? I've never seen a giraffe before, and I was really struck by them. They're so tall and graceful and gentle-looking.



They were feeding the elephants when we got there, which was neat. They're rather comical - their eyes are so small in relation to the rest of them, and yet their ears are huge (not to mention the obvious nose thing).



This beast of a thing (a Great Indian Rhino) looked like a cross between a rhino and an armadillo. It had what looked like hinged armor plates all over its body.



Is that not the picture of contentment? The lions were pretty sleepy when we saw them, so they just kind of laid there soaking up the sunshine.



This guy came up to the fence and posed for this picture - what a showboat! :)



The Great Indian Rhino's less armoured, though massive, cousin, the White Rhino. Apparently they're called White Rhino's not because they're white (as you can see), but because the native name for them, which translates roughly as "square-headed" sounds like the english word "white".



I think tigers are absolutely gorgeous. You can't tell from the picture, but he's (she's?) actually sitting on the top of a hill in the middle of the tiger enclosure, surveying his domain.



These fish are called Lake Malawi cichlids - all beautiful blues, yellows and silvers.



Does anybody else watch Meerkat Manor? If you do, you'll understand why the highlight of the zoo visit for me was seeing these little guys. They're smaller than I thought, being about the size of very small cat. But still very, very cute!



And of course we got to see some local wildlife too :)