at the zoo

after a leisurely and surprisingly interesting stroll i arrived at the biggest (any kind of) zebra i've ever seen. follow me on the striped safe zone into the civilzed wilderness of dc (please now click on the play icon of the video).












there i was greeted by some green colleagues of the unusual zebra.


















finally a living animal.


















the mascot of the zoo and most advertised attraction. the giant teddy, i mean, panda. looks wuschelig kuschelig cuddly but a volunteer visitor enlightener told me that after the baby grew to more than 150 pounds, no keeper went in anymore. once the door was accidentally left open. luckily the keeper woman could place a phone call before panda baby came running (it just wanted to play).

the baby itself is a miracle. the enlightener summed up the many info panels papered right and left inside the tunnel for humans to supplement their windowshopping. in a nutshell. china gave president nixon two giant pandas in 1972 in exchange for a pair of u.s. animals that i don´t even remember. the teddys tried hard to produce a cub but died in the 1990s without offspring despite even harder human hope and help in form of artificial insemination, constant monitoring, and the birth of five butterstick-sized babies, who died at the same size.

after the united states didn`t get their own precious pair going, china gave it a second shot with two new teddys. this time on loan only though. new chance, new luck. a peaceful mountain arrived, that is, the new millenium pandas had a baby boy in 2005. this is who i got a picture of, i believe. he was mostly noshing away on bamboo leaves to sustain his mountainess.














after wasting a bunch of rather fuzzy pictures through scratched glass in the dark panda den tunnel i just had a couple of shots left to photograph my favorites. as my camera battery was exhausted, so was mine. luckily the zoo is free to visit again and again.