Lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my!

Guess what we did on the way back from Broullee? That's right, we finally went to Mogo Zoo and it was pretty cool. The some of big cats and the bears seemed a little sad. The Sumatran Tigers, for eg, were in a comparitavely small enclosure. Not, I believe, actionably small, and I know that hunting animals don't need huge amounts of space if they're being fed regularly, but it just looked to me like they might want to have a bit more room.

As for the rest of the zoo, it was pretty cool. Lots of Red Pandas. I mean, lots of Red Pandas! And man small, cute primates. Like Cottontop Tamarins and Emperor Tamarins (which Carmen is pretty sure are plotting to take over the world. You have been warned). Very cute. And it's possible Carmen is right, although the fact that their attention span appears to be somewhere between mine and a hummingbird on a whole bunch of crack means that we're probably safe. For now.

Also cool to watch were the Meerkats. Disney really got Timon's character design perfect. They do look that cute and intense. And neurotic. :)

However, the highlight of the visit were the Saimangs. Apart from the fact that they were interacting exactly like a human family - complete with middle child making the youngest child's life difficult and picking on him - there was one of them (the oldest child, I think) who made everyone watching jealous. As is usual with primate enclosures, this one had a large collection of ropes and poles to climb over. It also had a large square of netting that was slightly raised on four poles (two short-ish ones at the front, two long-ish ones at the back) where there food was placed and the oldest child was lying back on this netting like a hammock, with his arms stretched out across the back of it. He looked very comfy, like he was just chilling on a couch, but what made it perfect was that he was also eating a carrot that he was holding with his foot. All the time he was doing this, he was looking at the crowd of humans watching him and obviously thinking: "if this was a beer, you'd take two steps down the evolutionary ladder in a heartbeat". And he was right. I have rarely - if ever - seen any creature looking more comfortable or self-satisfied. :)

On the way out, I got myself a soft-toy of a Sifaaka (a kind of Lemur) and all in all it was an awesome day.

Shame about the sad bears, tho.

Oh, and I totally want one of these as a pet. So very, very, very cute!