Heading back south in late March we had been stopping here in Memphis and visiting the Memphis Botanical Garden so this pass we added the Memphis Zoo. Unfortunately, while we have a zoo membership and they recognize the letter of the reciprocal admission program I remember they were not really with the spirit. We get half off the admission, well that's full adult admission not the senior rate which is basically half off anyway, and since we are not full local members slap a parking charge onto that. The zoo was nice but like in Columbus we don't play that game very often so I don't remember coming back yet.
Keeping with the Egyptian theme of the city's name is the entry courtyard with this reflecting pool and obelisk. I am not sure if the inscriptions really conveys a story or is just decorations.
From a distance and at the low resolution of these pictures it looks like the wolves are in petting distance. Actually there is a wire mesh that the standing wolf is almost leaning against that I was almost able to blur out of the picture. While the enclosure is rather large it offers multiple viewpoints and opportunities for mostly natural looking photographs.
The Grizzly enclosure featured two rather young cubs who were rather large.
In the manner of most siblings they spent most of our visit squabbling over possession of this high rock. Later we came back and found the looser sulking away and the winner in the classic King of the Hill pose.
Further along I caught the Sandhill Crane in the middle of a display with an obviously badly healed left wing. Although it is early spring I think this was just exercise rather than any formal ritual. Also since it is early spring the greenhouse flowers transplanted outside were welcome color.
Here at 3:30 in the afternoon the otters seem to be congregating in the expectation of feeding time. Obviously it would never do to be late. In contrast I apologize for the obvious zoo background but this is my first Panda picture and he never woke up during our visit.
Here is one of the success stories zoos like. In 1865 the French missionary Pere David sent several of these deer from the last known herd in China to several European zoos and a small herd ended up thriving on an English estate. While the Chinese herd had been wiped out by flooding they were reintroduced from the European stocks in 1985. Now called Pere David's Deer they are adapted to more wet and marshy ground than other deer species.
Trying for another success the zoo has a Fly River or Pig Nose Turtle found only in the Fly River of New Guinea. Besides totally aquatic it is also unique in having soft skin rather than a hard shell.
For now most of our trips bypass Memphis so I don't know when we might get back here again.