The Lion Sleeps Tonight

During winter break Kaefer and I met with our friend Denice and her not even two-year-old daughter to visit the Sacramento Zoo. We were lucky to have chosen the only sunny albeit chilly day in a row of rainy days that descended with heavy force onto the North Bay and the Central Valley in the first week of the new year.

Sacramento Zoo is a very small zoo. It has some beautiful enclosures like the ones for the red panda and the giraffes. The ones for the big cats are definitely too small and some others made me just very sad. There is certainly still a lot to do. Animals in captivity is sad in general, but sometimes unavoidable. I still prefer to see them in the wilderness.

However, Sacramento Zoo also has a great partnership with UC Davis in veterinary training. UC Davis is the only university in California with a veterinary medicine department, and one of only 30 veterinary schools in the entire US that are accredited. UC Davis partners with the Sacramento Zoo in the field of zoological medicine, and when you're lucky you can even watch surgery on an animal (we weren't). As the daughter of a veterinarian I was fascinated with this medical location.

But we were here to watch the animals. Our first longer stop was when we came to the giraffes.

One of them stood very close, licking the fence. Of course we were wondering why she did that and were joking that she just needed some iron.

Instead of my big DSLR I had brought my Canon PowerShot SX40 which has a very long and powerful zoom lens. I was very happy I had decided to bring this camera - I think you easily believe me.

When the Kiddo was getting a bit louder, the giraffe turned to us to find out what the commotion was all about.

I love the expression on her face!

There were five or six more giraffes around, a few of them youngsters. One was very busy chewing on a leaf.

A juvenile one - I guess an equivalent to a teenager - was trying to bite down onto some loose branches.

While we were still watching the giraffes - they were quite entertaining - we heard the loud roar of a lion. And not only once! So we marched over to the lions, and there he was, standing on a rock in the center of his enclosure and roaring. His wife, however, was not impressed by him at all.

Did it hurt his pride?

I don't really think so. He just turned around...

put his head down on his lovely little paws...

and fell asleep.

We enjoyed the lemurs of whom I don't have any photos and then went to a café right across from the flamingos to take a break and find some shelter from the cold.

When you go with a teenager to the zoo expect some silliness!

Whereas the little ones like the Kiddo are just cute.

Of course we had to go to the gift shop at the end of our visit. It has the typical gift shop stuff, but this t-shirt cracked me up!

And here's my favorite version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Smile and enjoy.