Being members of ZSL, we visit Whipsnade several times each year, sometimes just because it is a pleasant place for a casual walk. Sometimes the animals are uncooperative when it comes to cameras but usually something of interest occurs. We broke retirement rule #1 to make our latest visit on Saturday afternoon when the place would be crawling with families. However, there having been very few sunny days this year in Britain, we felt justified in applying the sunny day override.
Perhaps because it was warm and sunny, most of the animals we saw at first seemed lethargic. This all changed at Whipsnade's new cheetah enclosure (where, it should be noted, they have repeated their design mistake regarding observation points and sun position). The elephants were taken past on their walkabout causing the cheetahs to become very alert and active. I don't understand this because there is no way a cheetah is going to attack an elephant.
We lucked out again by arriving at the giraffes just after they had been given some browse and they were out and about improving their photographic backdrop as well as position with respect to the sun. (Animal houses and fences in zoos are never appealing backdrops.)
The star turn, however, was Whipsnade's latest new addition, a meerkat enclosure. These lovable little critters had been provided with a reasonable fake termite mound which they were using to good effect as their observation post. For once, Whipsnade had arranged for them to be on the correct side of the sun with respect to the photographing public, too.
| Cheetahs | Giraffes | |||
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| Meerkats on Parade | |||
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