Western Plains Zoo, December 24-25, 2005

This grey kangaroo was so soft; he felt like a plush toy. He also took a big liking to the Snook's bootlaces.

See? One of the keepers actually drove up while we were in there and joked, "Hey, no feeding the animals!"

He even had a go at my sneaker!

There were a number of feedings and keeper talks scheduled throughout the day. Here we are at the otter display. I have no idea what I thought otters ate, but it was pretty gross when the keeper chucked them each a dead baby chicken. Here's the Snook doing his imitation of the little fella behind the glass, biting the chicken's head off.

I mentioned the bikes. See, Western Plains Zoo is so big that you can't really walk around it. There's a 6km circuit that you can drive around in your car, and every now and then there's a place to park and a couple of exhibits grouped around it. The other options are to rent a bike or an electric car. As the day was cloudier (and thus less hot) than expected, we decided to rough it on bikes. It was so fun! I tell ya though, it's hard using coaster brakes when you haven't for about twenty years...

Here we are waiting for the cheetah keeper talk. (I know he's doing something crazy with his eyes. He's incapable of making a normal face when I take a picture. He's like Calvin, always pulling faces.)

These little boys were waiting with us too. One of them told me solemnly that although the cheetah was the fastest land animal, the peregrine falcon actually travels much, much faster. They were cute.

This was a bit of an experiment. Snookums had brought along some mini-binoculars, which we were passing back and forth because the cheetah was waaaay back in the enclosure. I suggested he try to take a photo through them. This is the result. Pretty neat, and I also like the iris effect!

We're posing on a big cement elephant next to the pachyderm enclosure...