Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

cattitude and I went to the Stone Zoo today because he wanted to see otters.

The otters were fun, but otherwise the visit was disappointing, in part because I walked more than was good for me this particular morning. The zoo is small, but the nearest bus stop is about 3/4 of a mile from the zoo entrance.

My disappointment was less because the zoo was small than because the individual enclosures for the animals are too small. The jaguar is wearing a path in the grass of his enclosure, and no peregrine falcon should be sitting in that small an enclosure. The snow leopard area seemed okay if not large, as did the otter enclosure; both of those at least have a little variety (running water for the otters and an almost-vertical rock face for the snow leopard). The zoo does have some unused space, and some space they're using for non-animal-related rides or seasonal displays, so it looks like they could improve animal living conditions without reducing the number of species they're keeping.

Most of this I just posted to baaaaabyanimals, but I like them enough to put them in my own journal as well.

Four baby otter photos, taken about ten days ago:

( small otters, large images )

( and a tapir for Timprov )