Seneca Park Zoo - Big Cats

 
Since the next two days are supposed to get brutally cold we decided to go to the Seneca Park Zoo today. It was around 20 degrees, and we just bundled up and it was fine. Since we don't plan to do much the next couple of days I'll spread these pictures out. Today... here are some big kitties.

Let's begin with the snow leopards. They were pretty awesome. I know they are fearsome predators, but when we came back past their enclosure, they were both asleep, the female was in a green turtle-shaped sandbox filled with straw. She looked pretty much like a really big house cat.They seem to get along fine now, but we understand they did not get along at all when they were first put together.



I didn't realize how long their tails are.



The lion enclosure was harder to get pictures without wire, but I managed a few. The male climbed on this rock where there were pieces of food for him to find.



He had two females with him. Here's the best picture of one of them. Later, he spent quite a while sort of growling. It sounded more like he was getting ready to barf, though. Kinda funny!



We thought we weren't going to see the tiger, but she was pacing around when we came back past her cage. No way to get rid of the wire for her.



Lots more really cool stuff. It's a small zoo, but I saw several animals I'd never seen before. Stay tuned for tomorrow.

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Royalty

 
We did a whole lot of things today. I'm saving a bunch of the people stuff to do all at once, so I'll show you a couple of regal critters.

The University of Northern Alabama is in Florence, and their team symbol is the lion.



What, you want the real thing? Oh, OK.



This is Leo III and Una, brother and sister who live on campus. I could only get a good picture of both of them through the barred section, but trust me, their habitat is very nice. The weather was really warm and they were more interested in sleeping than giving us a good show. I was pretty impressed with Una's paw.



Later in the afternoon we went to find an eagle nest that Loretta knew was at a local park. We had no idea if it would be in use. It certainly was. Dad was on watch duty while Mom was off looking for dinner.



We only know this because there were a number of people there with cameras set up, waiting for the daily feeding schedule. They said the birds were quite regular. But Mom didn't show up before we had to leave. However, I did catch one of the little ones waiting for her.

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