ZooMontana

Last Tuesday when I had my dental appointment and lots of time to kill before going to the HOG meeting, I went to the Billings Zoo. I got a new camera for Christmas and figured that this would be a great opportunity to take photos with the new camera.

Fortunately it was a warm day, about 25 degrees above and the sun was shining. I made my way to the zoo. I went in the afternoon giving it time to warm up. I was the only customer there besides a school group. Had the place to myself.

The paths are cleared fairly good, just had to be careful in some spots. It was a bit on the cool side walking around the zoo, there was a very slight breeze and that made it cold. Not all the animals were out, but the ones that were were active. It was nice to see them active, usually in the summer when I go it's so hot that they are just lazing in their enclosures.

The grizzly bear,siberian tiger and the river otters were the most active animals. The zoo has three orphan grizzly cubs that I was hoping to see, but they weren't out. Just the adult male bear was out. He really wasn't too active, walked around his enclosure and then he scratched his back on a tree stump. He wasn't too concerned about me.

The siberian tiger was another story. When I was near his enclosure, he hunkered down on the ground, his tail started swishing. I got some photos of this and then continued on my way. The next thing I knew the tiger got up and climbed a tree. That was a bit uncomfortable until I saw that he couldn't climb up high. What a relief. That tiger did follow me to the glass enclosure where I could see him very well.

The river otters were very cute. They came up to the glass enclosure played right there for me. They would get up on their hind legs and acted like they wanted me to pet them or something.

I saw the grizzly, tiger, otters, gray wolves, red pandas, wolverine, big horn sheep, raven, and the bald eagles outside. By this time my face is pretty cold and I made my way to the entrance and inside the gift shop. I needed to warm up. I looked at the inside animals and took some photos of them. Only one didn't turn out, too much glare coming off the window.

I was at the zoo for an hour and a half and enjoyed myself. I do want to go back in the spring and see if the other animals are out. The zoo is getting another animal. They are working on a new enclosure and the sign reads "Andy is Coming". Not sure what kind of animal Andy is, but it will be interesting.

My photos are posted on my picasa site. I did have fun playing with some of the edits and figured out one that I would use quite a bit.