the King

A stay in Chester would not have been complete without a trip to the zoo. It is so much bigger than I remembered it. I still cannot make my mind up whether I agree with zoos or not, after a safari in Africa I say no, today I said yes. This zoo is so educational, the number of school children there enjoying and learning. The breeding programmes. It's a tough call.
Anyway we enjoyed it and where else can I get a photo like this one of Iblis an Asiatic lion. At this moment, all wild Asiatic lions are living in just one forest in India, the Gir Forest. A few years ago their numbers had declined so much that there were less than 100 individual lions remaining. Now the majority of them are living within a protected reserve and numbers have increased slightly to around 400 but this is still awfully low, and itself probably justifies the need well managed zoos. 
I can't help myself adding a few extras, I particularly enjoyed watching the mother and child Greater One Horned Rhino playing together in the mud (this Indian and Nepal rhino is red listed as vulnerable).