Columbus May 28

I went with family members on an after-hours tour of the Columbus Zoo.

A moose, the largest deer, can fold itself pretty compactly.

A puma, probably Goldie or Poppy, one of three orphaned because of fires in California in 2020.

A pallas' cat, or manul, pauses during scratching.

A markhor makes a leap.

Splooting, red panda style

Katy, a koala mom

Katy and Kora

Manul

The manul, or Pallas' cat, is one of the smallest wild cats.Three were born at the Columbus Zoo in 2022, and I found the two sisters playing February 23.

This is part of their habitat. I didn't know what they were looking at.

Some sisterly grooming...

... followed by hunting-bite practice.

There was a lot of practicing that day.

To me, the one on the left looks like part of a painting in which the artist blended the cat with the background.

Pallas' Cats

Three Pallas' cats were born at the Columbus Zoo April 7th. The mom is Tiina (yes, two i's) and the dad is Moose.

Mom and one of the kids

A sibling is up there. A tail is barely visible in the fork at the end of the branch.

I hoped for a pounce, but it did not come.

 

One of the kids

Columbus July 31

I was heading toward boredom with the Columbus Zoo, but I think that's because I've been going around noon. On my most recent trip I arrived at 8:00 and was rewarded.

This is Brian, a greater one-horned rhinoceros

This is a sloth bear, which someone on Instagram called a "lips bear." I had not heard that name, but the bear is also known as a "labiated bear" because of its long bottom lip.

Two sloth bears were outside, one male and one female. They apparently don't get along and there was some grunting at one another. I don't know which is which in these photos.

A Pallis' cat, of which I'd finally gotten a decent picture in May, was running around its enclosure, going so far as to come to the glass.

The baby Asian elephant's mom, Phoebe, spent quite some time throwing dirt on herself before she began eating from the net above her.

Phoebe's boy played with his ball. He's about age seven weeks. His name, Frankie, was announced August 26.

A blue-and-yellow macaw. I think it was trying to move to the wooden structure to the left but gave up. In my limited experience, zoo parrots would much rather climb than hop or fly to go somewhere. They use their beaks to hang on, but the tree branch is fake so it probably could not get a good grip. Or the bird was just stretching its leg.

 

At last

I've hoped to get a decent shot of the Columbus Zoo's Pallas' cat since 2018 and Mexican beaded lizard since 2019. They're often hidden or barely visible.

This is typical of my handful of photos of Pallas' cat in its dimly-lit enclosure. July 16, 2019

 

May 17, 2021. Right after I took the picture, the cat ran to a nearly-hidden door in a dim corner.

At first, the lizard was bathed in red light. April 8, 2019

Then I got a shot from behind. December 28, 2020

Finally, I saw its face in normal light. May 17, 2021.

If you click to see a large version of this picture and toggle between it and the previous one, you'll see the lizard stick out its tongue. I am at the tail end of middle aged, and this "flipbook" kind of thing has always and will always amuse me. So there.

I don't have a particular interest in this cat or lizard. I just want at least one good image of every animal I come across.