Lions and tigers and bears... OH MY!

 I was part of a group of people that recently had early access to the Denver Zoo. Now, I have mixed feelings about zoos... A few in the country are excellent and provide opportunities to see animals that we would soo otherwise. On the other hand, almost every zoo out there doesn't have sufficiently large enough enclosures for the animals - including this one. However, this is a discussion for another day.

I ended up taking almost 500 shots this day but like taking photographers of any animal, that's how many you take to get a few good ones, if you're lucky!

Not all the "cute" animals get the great shots - this Cinereous Vulture was huge!

                                           

It's spring and this baby mountain goat was having some fun!

Who doesn't love (African) penguins?

  

This Mandrill wasn't eager to have its picture taken but patience paid off. 

A sea of pink!

This Northern White-Cheeked Gibbon clearly hadn't had enough coffee yet.

This Sarus Crane was beautiful awake or sleeping.

The zoo visitors aren't all human.

Sadly, I'm not sure what type of bird this is but they were stunning.

The giraffes are always beautiful.

Zebras are amazing studies in black and white.

And nobody passes up the lions.

Now, be like this lioness and head on over to tina-parkhurst.pixels.com! I'll be adding more images from this trip over the next several days. Thanks!