This past weekend, David and I went on a photography trip to Land Park and the Sacramento Zoo. We hadn’t actually planned on going to the zoo, but it was there, so we went.
Since I always have completely opposite opinions on everything, I both love and hate zoos. My love for the zoo comes from seeing animals that I would otherwise probably never see in my lifetime. Actually feeling the presence of a snow leopard is so different than reading about them on wikipedia. Seeing the gazing eyes of a Siberian tiger, the thoughtful face of an orangutan, or the munching crunchings of a giraffe who is eagerly devouring a carrot, is what it’s all about.
The part that I hate is that in many zoos, there is simply no space for the animals to live. How can a zebra exercise when their habitat is only 50 feet? They need to run across the plains! How can a burrowing owl (pdf) soar above the skies when they are in a cage the size of my bathroom? They can’t, and that hurts me to see. Animals need space to be themselves, just like we do as humans.
Anyway, here are some of the beautiful creatures at our zoo. You can select them and they will open into full size.
And if you’re interested in seeing what the flamingo’s did as soon as we walked up….view this video:
