Last Saturday, my mother-in-law has a tradition of taking my daughter to the Nutcracker in Indianapolis. It’s a very involved thing, including a pre-performance tea with the dancers. This year, they invited my wife, as we were planning on being in town for the first night of Hannukah. I suggested that my father-in-law, also an amature photographer, and I go to the Indianapolis Zoo.
When we got there, there was a California sea lion being very loud.
I mean, very loud.
He got in the face of a harbor seal. I thought it would be a confrontation.
The harbor seal barked back, causing the seal lion to leave. Otherwise, the harbor seal was rather zen-like.
The keepers came out and fed the seals and sea lions. I really like watching the interaction between the keepers and their charges.
One grey seal was paralyzed, and a decision was made to amputate the lower flippers. She seemed to get around fairly well, however.
Indianpolis’s zoo has a significant aquatic section. They had some rays floating around.
The rockhopper penguins perhaps inspired Bobak Ferdowsi.
Judgemental walrus disapproves.
The Asian small clawed otters were rather noisy.
And scattered away.
I liked watching the staw colored fruit bats hang out together.
The Alaskan brown bear slept. Look at those claws!
They had an enclosure with a raven and a bald eagle. I wonder what they talked about.
As we moved to the Plains section, we observed some southern white rhinos telling secrets, probably talking about us.
When we were at the Wilds, we learned that Rhinos use a common latrine. You actually could see it in Indianapolis (though I realized when I got home I neglected to take a picture of it).
I need a price check. Anyone got a bar code reader?
In the Desert Biome, they had a blue iguanas and a radiated tortoise.
Breeding rare iguanas is one of the specialties of the Indianapolis Zoo.
I decided to play with the macro feature on one of my lenses in the snake area. So, I was able to get quite close to a northern copperhead.
The Florida pine snake was somewhat plainer.
Finally, I took a good picture of the eastern massassagua rattlesnake.
Only three cats. I think this is an amur tiger.
The signs did not specifically say they had an amur (or Siberian) tiger on exhibit, but it did speak extensively of a field project about the largest member of the cat family.
I said this female lion had “bed head.”
Her mate took offense to that.
Such a handsome cat. I was trying to describe something specific to my father-in-law, and couldn’t think of the word. I started with “he’s so…” Someone standing next to me chimed in with “incredible.” Fair enough.
The only small cat was a cheetah.
The Indianapolis Zoo appears to have partnered with the Cheetah Conservation Fund. The signage had a cartoon image of their founder, cheetah expert Laurie Marker, explain the efforts to save the worlds fastest land animal.
The cheetah was the only small cat at the Indianapolis zoo.
I had a good time at the zoo, and shooting with my father-in-law.
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