2025-08-18 Zürich Zoo
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We went to the Zürich Zoo.

We started in the Australian section where they have a bunch of
wallabies. You can enter the enclosure. There were three wallabies
chasing each other, grunting. We suspected it was related to
intercourse but when they stopped there was just short attempt at it
and then they all preferred to drink water instead.

This is the red-necked wallaby, Notamacropus rufogriseus.

A wallaby eating salad. The pink pouch is very visible. Wallaby head
with backlight, showing the long whiskers.

The same enclosure also has emus, Dromaius novaehollandiae.

An emu head with backlight, showing the delicate feathers around its
face. A super fluffy young (?) emu head.

We went on to see the guanaco, Lama guanicoe.

A wet guanaco who's been standing in a water spray to cool down. A
super cute young guanaco with huge black eyes.

Next we saw some strange birds with strange, featherless heads. It's
the northern bald ibis, Geronticus eremita. These used to be extinct
in Switzerland but now they're back. They migrate south and so for
rewilding, people had to adopt them and then fly with them across the
alps with some ultralight flying vehicles. These days they fly to
southern Spain instead, I heard. You can find some pictures about the
project on the Swiss radio and television site.

A bird with black feathers and a bald red head with patches of grey,
with orange eyes and a typical long, bent ibis beak

We went to see the great cats because the zoo has a new setup wherein
the tigers, lions and snow leopards move between enclosures every now
and then. This keeps them more active because they smell the presence
of the other great cats that were here before them. But as usual, the
cats were asleep during the day.

A lioness' paw. It big!

There's also an "insect forest" where you can step into a room with a
bunch of branches full of stick insects and the like.

A green, leaf-like insect with plenty of thorns. This is the
Heteropteryx dilatata. Sadly, I was unable to find anything about
this insect on the zoo site. It's very large, green, and its wings
look like leaves that it keeps close to the body. A big beetle seen
from below. This is Mecynorhina ugandensis.

When we went to eat a snack at the Altes Klösterli restaurant, we had
a view at the back of the gelada enclosure, Theropithecus gelada.

A female monkey sitting in front of a male. She has a bright red patch
of hairless skin on her breast looking like a very strange, red
necklace. The male monkey has superb hairstyle, a bit like David
Bowie in The Labyrinth.

The elephants are great. There's a young one with its mother and its
aunt, all Asian elephants, Elephas maximus.

A tiny elephant between two huge adults. The two sisters seem to like
each other, pressing their faces against each other, while the little
kid disappears behind them.

The rhinos are nearby. These are southern white rhinoceroses,
Ceratotherium simum simum. Closing time was approaching and these
were the first rhinos to come back into their enclosure from the
outside, where they mingle with some antelopes and giraffes.

The first rhino is looking into the enclosure and seeing humans on the
other side, so it stops and tries to evaluate the situation. The head
of a rhinoceros with a very, very large horn.

Outside, more rhinos, antelopes, ostriches and giraffes were still out
and about.

These are reticulated giraffes, Giraffa reticulata and South African
ostriches, Struthio camelus australis.

The heads of two giraffes with their huge black eyes  The head of an
ostrich with its grey feathers.

Nearby, the super cute meerkat, Suricata suricatta. One of them is
always on the lookout.

The lookout is standing upright and looking at the horizon and the
sky, not at the people. A meerkat baby!

And finally, on the way out, we walked through the Masoala hall. So
beautiful!

The Masoala hall, from one of the two towers. A green jungle below. A
picture showing the walkway above the tree canopy connecting the two
towers, with me standing there in the greenery. A passion flower
growing on a handrail.

The greatest moment was when we approached the bottom of one of the
two towers. I walked around the corner and was looking at two red
ruffed lemurs, Varecia rubra.

Two super cute lemurs with bright yellow eyes, black heads, red fur
and black paws that look more like hands, and a long tail held up like
a question-mark. The lemurs climbed up a stone wall and walked around
me. The lemurs disappear into the jungle.

And then, we left!

A very bright green gecko, Phelsuma grandis

#Zoo #Animals #Photography

2025-09-12. Urgh. Just heard that the baby elephant died. 😭

2025-09-12. Urgh. Just heard that the baby elephant died. 😭