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We went to the Cincinnati Zoo last weekend, to see their annual Zoo Blooms. Thousands of bulbs are planted in the fall. Unfortunately, given the mild winter we had, the blooms had mostly come and gone by the time we got to the zoo.

There were a few.

The reptile house is the oldest zoo building still in use in the United States. They are in the processof giving it a new roof, restoring it to its original color.

We went to Night Hunters, where the pallas cat just glared at me.

The fossas just lounged.

Got a decent shot of a clouded leopard from the side.

The black footed cat was lounging, too.

The fishing cat was having a snack. Not sure why his side was shaved–it was like that the last time I was there.

I’m playing with my lens a bit. For the full on nocturnal houses, I use a 50mm lens, opened up to f/1.8. I stopped it down to f/2.8, to see the results. I think it may work, though I’ll need to practice a bit more. This would allow a broader depth of field. There are many lenses that can do f/2.8, which was another reason for trying it. More experimentation required.

The caracal is so pretty!

I think we were boring Tecumseh.

The lion was already asleep…

…as was the bear with his blankie.

The giraffe, meanwhile, had a snack.

One thing we saw: they’ve named the cheetah run after Cathryn Hilker, its founder. I think that’s awesome–she is one of the reasons we (as a planet) have cheetahs today!

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I went to the Cincinnati Zoo over the weekend. I’m becoming quite the regular. As I got hung up waiting for Mitt Romney’s motorcade, I missed the day phase. I was actually OK with that, as it gave me ample opportunity to test out my Night Hunter camera settings and processing. The fishing cats do come out a touch blue sometimes.

But there are spots where the difference is practically the same as with light.

I am going to make more of a conscious effort to post (if not take) only pictures which are somewhat special. I still want to go there and practice, as I want to develop techniques for when the zoo is not a few miles away. Plus, sometimes I do get an different view. Case in point: the caracal’s ear tuffs seem to have a bit of a following. This shot looked a little better than my last one, though similar.

Also, there seems to be one animal that chooses to do something different each visit. Today, it was the ocelot.

Ocelots are among the best tree climbers, able to so straight down head first. This branch wasn’t even close to a challenge.

I was actually able to get some neat shots of neofelis nebulosa, the clouded leopard.

I was particularly proud of how this shot came out–it was the combination of a good pose by my subject, and the techniques I mentioned earlier.

Cats have a knack for finding a perfect, just-their size spot to take a nap. The clouded leopard is no exception.

The pallas cat camouflage seemed quite effective today.

In other pallas cat news, I think I figured out that the two pallas cats in the CREW area I mentioned last time were actually pallas kittens, only a couple months younger than Beso and Luna. They are the first ones born as the result of artificial insemination.

Based on the litter boxes in their enclosure, I’m pretty sure they’ve moved from that spot.

The cougar was having a relaxing Sunday.

I went to see the giraffes, who were inside, making them smarter than me for a thirty-degree-day. I’ve never seen a giraffe laying down before.

While looking at the giraffe, I heard a dog bark from the Cat Ambassador area. I walked over a bit, and am pretty sure it is Pow Wow, one of their Anatolian shepherds. I waited a few minutes, and was rewarded with a cheetah siting and watching! The statues of Angel, their first cheetah ambassador, and Carrie, her cougar friend, were near the cheetah.

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It’s been a mild winter in Cincinnati, and yesterday was a particularly lovely day. My wife and daughter had a four-day weekend that I didn’t so they were out of town. I decided to visit the zoo right at opening, to catch the Night Hunters in day phase.

I did get some good pictures of fishing cats.

Do you think my mentioning sushi to them caught their attention?

I’m always amazed with their eyes.

I’m not the least bit surprised they like to play in water.

I wanted to try different settings on the camera, and some new software to process it, to see if I can get better pictures during night phase. While not as good as full light, I think the outcome is not bad.

The bobcat was very interested in what I was doing, standing right at the front of his enclosure.

Another handsome cat!

There are fennec foxes next door to the fishing cats. I’m not sure what they were looking at.

The caracal was just relaxing.

The one of the reasons the lights are still on is that the keepers are puttering around–a few enclosures are being cleaned. The sand cat was up and close to the glass.

Why? There is a door right across from their enclosure the keepers went in and out of. Presumably with their breakfast!

The black-footed cat just glared at me…

I swear I didn’t do anything to upset him!

The clouded leopard was up, saying, “OH HAI!” Clouded leopards are moving up my list of favorite cats.

Stretch!

The pallas cat is native to central Asia. I know many who follow this blog are fans.

They are roughly the same size as a house cat, though a lot…fuzzier. They also have longer tails to help provide balance as they climb over the mountainous terrain.

The Cincinnati Zoo is known for its conservation efforts, particularly for small wild cats. Their Center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Wildlife performs research into efforts to protect species. Last summer, they were able to have the first Pallas cat kittens born though artificial insemination. I walked back to their area for the first time yesterday. I didn’t see the kittens (their enclosure was marked–they might have been in some of the places set up for them to hide). Their parents, however, were quite visible.

So very fuzzy!

As I walked away from CREW, I heard the lion!

Listen!

Humans sleep with teddy bears. A polar bear demonstrates what bears sleep with.

The wolves certainly enjoyed the sunny day.

I also spent a good chuck of time watching the cougars.

They are also known as pumas, mountain lions, Florida panther, catamount, shadow cat, 10.1, red tiger, deercat, mountain devil, king cat, Mexican lion, mountain screamer, silver lion, sneak cat, and, most recently, 10.8.

Streeeeetch!

When I looked through my photos, I was amazed not at how many I took (I often take hundreds), but how many different animals I got good pictures of. In particular, I took a lot of pictures I normally don’t take pictures of. I developed a new appreciation for Pallas cats, and enjoyed a great day.

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I’m not quite sure why it took me so long to go see the cat ambassadors at the Cincinnati Zoo. Yesterday was the first official show we got to see. They made a few tweaks, but it was fun.

For starters, they talked about training a house cat, and the difficulty in that…all while a house cat demonstrated its skills. Looking at this, I wonder if Luna has a second career?

One of the cheetahs sneaked out prior to the show.

One of the new additions was not a cat, but a porcupine named Quilliam.

Cleo the serval demonstrated their impressive leaping ability.

My best picture was of Minnow. Fishing cats are my second favorite type of cat. You can see her diving in after a fish (follow her eye line to where it was thrown in to the pond).

She got it!

Two cheetahs ran. First, Chance took off!

It’s easy to talk about the adaptations that allow a cheetah to run at 70 miles an hour–long, flat tail, big nostrils, a springy spine, and semi-retractable claws. However, you also have to stop. Cheetahs have “brakes” in the form of skid spots up their legs. Chance demonstrates his ability to brake to catch the lure.

Sarah, the world’s fastest cheetah, ran second. She was able to catch the lure half-way through her run. The lure seemed to catch her as well–the line got wrapped around her leg. This wrapped up the show as the trainers had to get her to walk her way out of the line.

Still, she is a beautiful cat!

We went to the awesome cat house mediocre Night Hunters exhibit. Still can’t get good pictures there. I got a tip that if I go early, they are still in “day” phase. I’ll try that some time. Still, I got a picture of a pallas cat, with lots of processing.

And this overprocessed ant hill tiger (black-footed cat).

In non-cat news, Illusions the manatee will be released into the wild soon.

For some reason, I think there people are either hippo people or rhino people. I’m a rhino person.

It’s also “Halozooween,” so many animals, such as the polar bears, got pumpkins.

And kids, such as my daughter, were running around in costume.

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The Cincinnati Zoo just had a pallas cat triplets! I know there is a following of pallas cats among my followers.

The Cincinnati Zoo is a leader among small cat conservation, research, and breading. These youngsters are the result of a new artificial insemination procedure that allows for less material to be used–especially useful for small cats. More information about this research can be found in this post.