Woodland Park Zoo

 a meerkat

On our last day in Washington (and before overnight flights home) we drove around some of the neighborhoods in Seattle then went to the zoo.  The zoo was really nice - med/small in size but really nicely laid out with wooded paths and animal enclosures that were large and natural feeling.  In some cases you couldn't even see if there was a fence (there was usually a hidden moat).  We spent several hours there, sometimes the people watching was more interesting that the animal watching. 

I really liked the wolf exhibit, which was strategically placed next to the elk. They were surprisingly active - the whole group circled the perimeter, sniffing the fence line and marking their territory.  We only saw all this because we'd parked ourselves on a bench in the shade by the grizzly bear exhibit and after a while we saw that the wolf 'territory' was immediately behind our seat!  We got a nice close up view of them moving around.

The tiger and snow leopard were taking a nap.  Do cats ever really do anything else? Look at the size of the tail on the snow leopard!  It's huge!

Giraffe, eating a snack.  

 A kimodo dragon.  I hear they're mean, but I guess when you have claws like that, it's hard to be nice.

 

This is a Steller's sea eagle, and is slightly smaller than a bald eagle.  They live in Russia (and probably other places).  The sign said they're endangered and there's a breeding program.  I thought they were beautiful.

It was sad to leave the Pacific northwest and go back to hot and humid Charleston, although I did miss Steve and Seca.  The work conference was excellent, so I'm really glad I got to go.  There were hundreds of excellent talks, and it was fun seeing old friends again (and meeting some new ones).  After a week with 4000 other fisheries scientists, it's really clear to me how small a field it really is, and that I do like it.  :)

*I posted more trip pictures on Flickr, link here.