Mexican wolf

Tuesday
The forecast had called for cloudy skies, but a high of 61F, so we thought it might be a good day to go use our membership at the Cincinnati Zoo, so we reserved our slot yesterday. However, the morning started out quite foggy, not just cloudy, and the temperature struggled to reach about 55, so it wasn't as good a day as we'd hoped, but we still had an enjoyable day. The animal chose to spotlight today is the Mexican wolf. Also known as "el lobo" the Mexican wolf is the smallest subspecies of the North American wolf. Mexican wolves were wiped out in the U.S. by the mid 1970s, with just a few existing in zoos. In 1998 however the USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service) released 11 Mexican gray wolves back into the wild in Arizona. Although the numbers have grown slowly, they remain the most endangered subspecies of wolf in the world. Whenever we have been to the zoo before, they have always been hiding in the far corner of their enclosure, and I had never had a good view of them before. As we approached their enclosure, we could hear the sound of tree work being done close by, so I thought they would again be hiding out of the way, but on the contrary they (there's 3 of them) seemed quite interested in what was going on, and were more active, and came far closer than I have ever seen them! Their markings are quite beautiful, and they were wonderful to watch. I also got a couple of decent shots of the Malayan tiger and snow leopard - see extras.
Step count: 7,284