I went on a photo safari at the Houston Zoo on Saturday with my friend Rob. The tigers are one of the main attractions for me so we used a strategy that has worked in the past: get to the zoo right after it opens, go to the tiger enclosure first, and camp out there until the tigers are released into the exhibit for the day. This worked like a charm. One of the zoo keepers came out before the tiger was released, and dumped a small pile of raw meat in the grass in the middle of the enclosure. We got to hear the tiger roar right before they let him out! He ate all the meat, and then lay down and licked the grass to get the last little bits. As you can imagine, licking raw meat out of grass means you also get a big mouthful of grass and dirt along with the meat bits. The photo above is the tiger spitting out dirt.
The weather was pretty good while we were there - overcast and cool. I was very pleased that the scratched and smudged glass panels on the lion enclosure had been replaced, so I got quite a few good shots of the lions. I had a hot tip that the otter in the Children's Zoo pegged the cute meter, so we went over to check him out, but he wasn't swimming in his little river. He was curled up inside his hollow log, with just his nose poking out (a lot like Andie when she's curled up under a blanket). Adorable, but not a great photo op. The rest of my pictures from the trip can be viewed here.
