A wander around Chester Zoo

As members of Bristol Zoo, we can get free admission to Chester Zoo. It sounds like a great idea, and we talk about going, but it never seems to happen. That was until a couple of weekends ago, we were due to be in North Wales over the weekend, so we took the Friday off work and headed up the country for our trip to the Zoo.

The journey took about three hours and it was fairly uneventful until our windscreen was hit by a stone on the M56. It didn't seem like a very big stone, but within a minute the chip had turned into a three inch crack and by the time we got to the zoo, the crack was over a foot long! We rang the glass company from the car park, but as there was nothing they could do for a week (!) we did what we'd come to do; explore the zoo.

The main reason for the trip was because I'd seen that the zoo had a baby elephant. The elephants were the first species we saw when we arrived, and not just did they have one baby elephant, they had two! I spent ages just watching them before I remembered that there was a whole lot more zoo to get around.

Next we moved onto the butterfly house. I love butterflies and spend a lot of time in the butterfly house at Bristol Zoo, but there the butterflies rarely settle for long. Here, they seemed to be lounging around. I watched a guy photographing one with his lens only centimetres away from the butterfly, but it wasn't bothered at all.

 Next we went to see Napo, the jaguar, who had only recently arrived at the zoo. I'm not sure where he'd come from, but I'm thinking somewhere warmer by his body language.

We then carried on round to see the tigers and lions, who both seemed to be enjoying the sun.

We moved onto the cheetahs next who, one by one, each came out and posed elegantly for us whilst we photographed them. They can obviously recognise a photo opportunity!

The spectacled bears were our next stop, they were on good form, exploring and climbing trees for food.

We finished our trip with a detour to see the elephants again before heading home. Unfortunately there were a few species, such as the rhinos and giraffes which seemed to be tucked up inside on a cool February day, but that just gives us an excuse for a return visit, hopefully with no car related disasters next time!

Enjoying the spring sunshine at Bristol Zoo

As we woke up yesterday to beautiful blue skies, it seemed rude not to go out and make the most of it. We've been members at Bristol Zoo for a few years, which means we can go for just a quick wander round, without feeling we've not made the most of the entry fee. We both took our cameras, Andrew took his macro lens and I took my zoom lens. The photos below are my favourites out of all the photographs we took yesterday.

At present there is only one lion on show at Bristol Zoo, Shiva. She had cubs before Christmas but they are currently being hand-reared behind the scenes following their father's death in November. The last two cubs, born in late 2010 have been transferred to other zoos as part of a breeding programme.

 

Despite the sun, it was a bit of a chilly day so we spent some time in the reptile house. Trying to spot the chameleons always passes a bit of time and the apparent smiles on the faces of some of the lizards amused us.

  

The red pandas are apparently one of the most popular animals at the zoo, which astonishes me, as they're normally out of sight or, as they were yesterday, thirty foot up in the air tucked up in a tree!

 

 The capybara is like a giant guinea pig, he seemed pretty displeased that there was so much mud between him and his food!

The meerkats had a huge crowd around them, partly as it was feeding time. I particularly liked the one who looked as if he was hiding behind a stone, worried about being crept up on!

The butterflies are both impressive and incredibly difficult to photograph. Although we got a few images, they really don't do them justice.

 Look out for more photos when the lion cubs are on display as I won't be able to stay away!