It is quite a contrast that in the north a winter visit to the zoo finds most of the residents huddled inside. Here at the San Antonio Zoo it is rather reversed with so many of them active relishing the chill while they try to find shelter in the summer.
Lions and tigers and bears Oh! My! I don't remember seeing any of them and I don't have any of their pictures so the bronze lions will have to do. I do have several photographs from the reptile house which was a warm shelter on a rather cool day. The big snake is obviously a constrictor of some type but does not match any of the pictures I found of anacondas and pythons seem to have more of a "piggy" type nose.
The Fishing Cat was constantly on the prowl and just did not want to stand still for a photograph in contrast to the Fossa who was content to make a nest in the straw. The Prevost Squirrel mostly just huddled on the branch but I had to return several times to catch him in a good pose.
The Clouded Leopard normally finds one of the highest spot in the enclosure and sleeps or just peeks over the edge. It was rather unusual to see him curled up at ground level much less awake and watching us.
Much like snakes and spiders, a lot of people have a very visceral reaction to the Spotted Hyena which was probably one of the major competitors and dangers to the ptoto humans like "Lucy" evolving in Africa. They are known as very good hunters but can drive cheetahs and even lions off and steal their kill.
The Addax is known for almost never needing to have a drink getting all it's water needs from browsing and having an extremely good internal recycling system. Since I do not have all of my photographs properly indexed I am not sure where but later I will have photographs at some other zoo of a new born Addax which was really fun to see.
Taking a break back in the reptile house Oh! My! what big teeth you have. This Nile Crocodile seems to think feeding time is very close. Crocodiles have a pointy nose and teeth always visible among other differences described in this link.
Much smaller but looking ferocious with a mouth full of leaves is the Chuckwalla.
The Green Tree Monitor looks like he belongs in a commercial. The pale guy on the rocks is a Desert Iguana. The pair in the branches are Standing's Day Geckos.
Back outside the Dama Gazelle has the white belly while the Speke's Gazelle has a brown belly. All of the gazelle breeds are very similar and I usually cannot tell them apart except for the signs on the enclosure. Experts also get confused and sometimes a DNA test is needed to tell them apart. Then there is my buddy the Wart Hog in his normal pose of studiously ignoring me.
Again it is rather unusual to find the Cheetah out in the open and awake looking around. The Wild Dogs somewhat resemble the Hyenas although they are distinctly different and look much like a German Shepard we had at about 140 pounds that could put his paws on your shoulders and look you in the eye.
Mixing locations and without clear size comparisons here I have the Capybara as the world's largest guinea pig at about 140 pounds being stalked by the Storr's Pygmy Monitor which may be all of two ounces.
Finally finishing up this visit is a Cassowary who is in fact rather large stalking a Western Diamond Back Rattlesnake which is a local resident. Although it was rather cool we did enjoy the zoo very much and we will be back again I think with more focus on birds.