Zoo Trip #25: Cotswold Wildlife Park

It is just over a week since visiting the Cotswold Wildlife Park near Burford, but it has taken that long to wade through and process all the pictures I took in the limited time I have had on the computer, and choose my blip from the finished set. It had been two years since my last visit (mainly because they don't have a reciprocal arrangement with the zoo I was a member of) and many more since Christiescruffs had been, and we spent a memorable five hours there.

We had good views of most of the animals we particularly wanted to see, although the amur leopards and wolverines were a little elusive. Highlights included the various kinds of lemurs in the Madagascar display, the baby crocodiles, the red pandas, the giraffes, the lions ... I could go on. However, I think we were agreed that best of all were the Canadian timber wolves. We did two circuits of the zoo and first time around only the lone wolf pictured above was in evidence, but on the second there were three or four resting on the ground or a roof, or padding noiselessly across their open enclosure.

When I worked in London I would sometimes walk across Regents Park on my way home to avoid the rush hour and would occasionally get exciting glimpses of the wolves in the zoo there through the railings, and I think this is the only other location in which I have ever seen these lovely animals.

I try to make my blip represent the most memorable aspect of a day, not necessarily my favourite photograph, and so this pensive wolf wins the day, tempted as I was by a close-up of a Mongolian Pallas cat. I got other sharper shots of this wolf, but I prefer the expression on this shot.

I have linked below to the finished set of about two-thirds of all the shots I took, and also to the shortlist of the final fifteen considered for Blip.

L.
26.9.2012

Blip #788
Consecutive Blip #000
Day #910

Alternatives:
Pallas Cat
Red Panda
Meadow
Kookaburra
Asiatic Lioness

The Final 15 (Flickr set)
Cotswold Wildlife Park, 19 September 2012 (Flickr set)

Lenses: Pentax 17-70mm, Sigma 70-300mm

Zoo Trip series
Cotswold Wildlife Park series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
The Howlin' Wolf - Little Red Rooster (1961)