tiger standing tall

Male Malayan tiger, looking for treat on log. @snowleopard and @betsy were with me minutes earlier, but missed this because a roaming tiger is too boring for them and they would rather rush off to see a construction site with no animals!

@Arizona Docent I'll have to agree with them on that! I assume this is from the July trip.

@The_UltimateBea "I'll have to agree with them on that..."

I mean seriously, what is the matter with you people?
Yes this is from our visit on Monday morning, July 10, when the three of us met inside front gate before opening. We had a short time together but at this point split up because, as I implied, the other two members of my party do not have the sense to appreciate the beauty of an active tiger (which I will point out polls consistently list as the world's favorite animal). I caught up with them briefly after this, but @betsy immediately left us to waste valuable cat-watching time on some silly primates!

Very funny @Arizona Docent ! I do admire your dedication to the felines of the world, but there is no way that a tiger is the world's favourite animal. Any zoo with Giant Pandas usually has an enormous line-up of patrons waiting to see some slumbering blobs, plus other popular animals include elephants, koalas, polar bears, penguins and gorillas all ahead of any stinky old cat. In terms of how long visitors will spend at an exhibit, quite often that situation will involve primates or water-dwelling animals like dolphins, manatees, penguins, sharks, otters, etc.

I too admire your dedication, @Arizona Docent. You may have to visit again because there is now Melanistic Amur Leopard on exhibit. She is in the Asian Cat exhibit now but I heard she will be moved to Africa Rocks at some point. I know, I know, Amur Leopards are not from Africa!!! And, they weren't just some silly primate, they were Bonobos! There are only 88 bonobos in zoos in the United States.

Melanistic amur leopard?!!!! I have heard of one or two in Europe and we had some debate on the forum because I didn't think the Amur race occured in a melanistic form, but my friends across the pond assured me it had been tested and was legitimate. I wonder where they got this one from? Any ideas?

@snowleopard Actually the tiger is the world's most favorite animal (probably). I have seen at least two polls where dolphins and pandas were lower on the list but tiger was number one. Of course you never know how accurate polls are or how large of a sampling they took, but I do specifically remember seeing that more than once.