The last Monday in August means one thing to British residents – a Bank Holiday, and not just any Bank Holiday but the last public holiday until Christmas. Which means that come hell or high water (sadly all too common at this time of year), the day must be marked. And that's how I got roped into joining two friends two friends at Bristol Zoo. Even though I don't live in the UK and therefore don't suffer from last-holiday-till-Xmas syndrome.
What with it being a grey, overcast Bank Holiday Monday the zoo was rammed. The car parks were full, as were most of the side streets, but we found a small space just big enough for Badger and went to join the zoo queue. At £14.50 (€30/US$23) each, it was not exactly cheap and so we decided to see everything to get our money's worth.
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| An owl butterfly |
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| Butterfly on green |
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| A meerkat on sentry duty |
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| My new favourite – mongoose lemurs! |
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| Sad-looking De Brazza's monkey |
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| A handlebar-moustached Inca tern |
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| Red crested turaco |
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| A Victoria crowned pigeon |
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| One of the many lizards |
We started off with the birds and the butterflies before making our way to the meerkat enclosure. It soon became evident that it was 'Lovers and Fighters' day. Virtually every species we saw was either coupled up or having a punch up! We saw mating turtles, locusts and grasshoppers, as well as moody meerkats, petulant penguins, stroppy seals and grumpy gorillas. But the most dramatic fight of the day was still to come.
It was raining pretty heavily but N wanted to see the fruit bats (aka flying foxes). They are kept in a large enclosure containing an indoor shelter. The whole enclosure is surrounded at the top and sides by wire netting. Visitors to the zoo actually walk under the netting into the same space that the bats are in! There was a sign on the gate saying "Warning – free-flying bats". We didn't know just how free-flying they were!
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| A fruit bat in the indoor enclosure (© R A Hill) |
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| Not my photo but it's pretty much the same scenario (© Crumpets in Camelot) |
There was one bat clinging to the netting near the entrance to the bat house. Obviously I wanted to take a photo. N gallantly held an umbrella over my head while I concentrated on trying to focus the camera. Suddenly MK squeaked and jumped back. Even though I wasn't sure what was happening I jumped back a couple of feet too... just in time to avoid a plummeting bat!
From our vantage point a few feet away we looked up and saw a menacing-looking bat pulling itself along the ropes outside the building. Evidently it had taken offence to the other bat's attempts to get into the house and had, ummmm... battered it.
The victim, meanwhile, lay dazed and confused on the ground. Naturally I took a few photos (all from a safe distance of course) while it glared at us, wondering why we weren't helping it. Then, using its scarily large hooks, it dragged itself along the ground, clawed its way up the netting and started making its way slowly back to the building...
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| One battered and slightly dazed fruit bat |
With the main event over we exited stage left and went to see the elusive red panda which, despite the torrential rain, was hiding out in a tall tree. Suddenly it seemed to realise that it was raining and it started to make its way down the tree and towards the shelter. It paused just long enough for me to get the perfect photo. Except that I didn't because by the time I'd got a good view point, the panda had disappeared into its perspex-fronted house. To add insult to injury it then pushed its face right up against the perspex giving me one last fleeting photo opportunity – I swear it was sticking its tongue out and going 'ner-ner-nuh-ner-ner' – before disappearing from view. Had I have managed to take a picture I suspect it would have looked something like the picture below:
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| Ha! You can't hide from everyone, red panda (photo to be credited when I find out where I sourced it from) |
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