Paid a visit to Marwell Zoo as I’d promised I’d take Phoebe somewhere nice for the day and because I haven’t been to the Zoo for a while! 🙂 The weather was chilly and we had a brief wet spell but managed to visit the indoor animals during that time. For me a couple of animals stood out although all of them have their place in the grand scheme of things ie the planet! 🙂
These little fellas spend most of their time foraging for food or when held in captivity staring at us expecting something. They are very comical characters and from looking at their cage apparently they are allowed to run free when it’s warm as they don’t apparently stray too far from their home area.
The Sand Cats are one of the smallest of the wild cats and are very similar to domestic cats especially this lot who were quite content sunning themselves and having a short snooze!
The Tiger, the most majestic of the big cats in my mind. This fella seemed again quite content sunning himself and waiting to be fed. Although it’s very nice to be able to see animals first hand I’m still not too sure keeping them in captivity is still the best idea but then again if in the wild they are subject to hunters. With the population of some species reaching the critically endangered mark it is good that organizations such as Marwell are breading and releasing endangered species back into the wild.
These guys are amazing to watch and again very comical. They live in groups of up to 30 and work as a team sharing the workload of keeping guard and babysitting! When on sentry duty, the meerkat stands on its hind legs using the tip of the tail for support. At the sight of trouble they will scamper away into tunnels to hide from the danger. Again another of the sun worshipping gang who enjoy a good spout of sun bathing when it’s around!
These guys were also another of the majestic big cats although I did notice that with all of the big cats they didn’t seem entirely content in their captive environment. I say this as I did notice that they seemed bored and kept pacing up and down the concrete right next to the caged fence. Kinda wished we didn’t keep anything in captivity but again I supose with the dindling numbers due to hunting we need to keep some safe so we can repopulate them back in to the wild. Somehow with the way of the world this might take some time.
Still it was an enjoyable day and made me think about things. Defosting on the other hand took some time when we got home although the stew I’d prepared in the slow cooker helped move things along.
The complete picture set for the day is available here and again details of Marwell can be found here.