Glamour shots of animals in captivity

We went to the zoo last week! 

I'm always wary of zoos. They're invariably hot and smelly, not just because of the masses of children and other people that are there, but like animal smells too. They're also a complete lottery as to whether seeing the animals will be depressing or impressive.

Thankfully Seattle is a granola enough city that it treats its zoo animals fairly well, from what we could tell by the enclosures. 

I brought my camera along, and we had a Poor Man's Safari shoot as Lia and I wandered around the various exhibits. Exhibits sounds like they're just stuffed. Cages? No better. Habitats!

I'm not going to insult your intelligence by listing every different kind of animal in the following photographs, but one I will highlight for its name alone: the Cock of the Rock. A funny name, and even funnier if you take a second to imagine it's what the Rock's cock could look like.

I was a big fan of the shots I got of these white wolves, who conveniently positioned themselves in a beautiful sunbeam, ripe for a glamour shot.

I was a big fan of the woodland creatures on the whole. There's just something cute about them.

Especially this otter cuddle puddle.

There were a good number of impressive birds, and I've never been much of a twitcher or birdwatcher, but figured it certainly couldn't hurt to my repertoire of old man hobbies, such as wearing heavy cardigans and drinking a lot of tea.

Ducks count. Not sure if it was supposed to be in there though.

If you're not into birds, what else did we enjoy? Let's see...

Tag yourself on the following tortoises.

There was a very photogenic and amenable gorilla, which was fun to shoot.

Not like some people shoot gorillas. I strictly mean cameras. I may have an ego, but it's not large enough or fragile enough to need to kill a powerful creature to feel good about myself. I can't understand that. And now you're thinking how caring and sensitive I am, huh? It's a gift.

Plenty of other good primates too.

And that's the lot! Thanks as ever for suffering through my holiday slideshow. Hopefully you too squealed with delight at the otter cuddle puddle.

I tried to take photos of the rhinos, which a sign at the zoo entrance proudly declared "had arrived!" but they were a bit far away, and in awfully unphotogenic enclosures. I did admire how their tails fit so perfectly between cracks in their butt armor though.

Other underwhelming animals: the tiger didn't want to come out, the lion was facing the wrong way, and the bears were very sleepy in their meadow if I'm being honest. 

But with a little patience and luck, we got to see this jaguar, and that... was really neat.