A Surprise at the Zoo

I used another of my free tickets to London Zoo to take my good friend Pat along yesterday. It may be the 5th or 6th time this year that I've been there, but it's so different each time, they've all been great new experiences.



The baby meerkats were so fast asleep that no amount of nudging by the adults could get them to wake. I'm not the only person who was concerned that they might be dead. They had adults lying on them, in the top picture, but they only awoke when they were ready. Then one fell down one of the holes and couldn't get out. It scrabbled unsuccessfully, then started to jump up and down like something from a comedy show.
Finally it managed to scramble out to much applause from the entranced crowd.






















The biggest surprise, though, came from the lions. The large pool separating them from the public was green with the duckweed growing in abundance thanks to the hot weather. Where it meets the wall, one of the lionesses was gazing intently at the water. I could just make out some movement, and thought that maybe an insect had landed there thinking it was grass, and was fluttering about enticingly. Then suddenly the lioness plunged into the water up to her elbows, muzzle in the drink, and came up with a large fish in her jaws! She disappeared off to eat it, refusing to give it up to the other, larger lioness, or even to the male, who had a look at the pool for himself, then slunk away to sulk. The last picture, through the reflections on the glass, shows the lionesses, the one to the left savouring her kill, the other apparently still hoping for a part of the snack.