During our Christmas Eve visit to the zoo, we mostly ran around and played, but we did check out a few animals along the way. We enjoyed watching this beautiful tiger napping (and waking up) in the warm afternoon sunshine.
For anyone in the Bay Area who may be interested, I noticed this morning that Groupon is offering a 50% off membership deal to the Oakland Zoo. You can view the deal here…. Groupon Oakland Zoo Deal. Enjoy!
hike.wander.wonder 
What a beautiful animal! Your photos are just great, too! I’m sure you had a delightful day. I know and feel some of the same mixed feelings about zoos, but I feel “mixed” about a lot of things. Sometimes I think that supporting the zoo is also a way to better care for animals that need our funds to survive. Maybe that’s a weak justification…I seem to live in a lot of the gray space!
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Yes, I agree with your justification, too. And I, too, have mixed feelings about a lot of things. It gives me and my husband an infinite amount of material to contemplate together!
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always love the zoo!
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🙂
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Zoo’s are not all bad… When would you see a tiger and get this photo? Never in the wild… Lovely creature… We ran a 5k last August for our local zoo and the tigers…
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I agree. That’s why we’ve maintained a membership to the Oakland Zoo for the past four years. We visit frequently. Also, the animals are well cared for at the Oakland Zoo, and the enclosures are quite large compared to many others zoos I’ve been to. Unfortunately, as many animals in the wild are reduced in numbers and/or becoming extinct, preservation in zoos may be the only continuation of the species. Also, zoos may take in animals who were abused by others. These tigers at the Oakland Zoo are a good example. They were saved from an owner who had abused them ( http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-tigers-tale-Oakland-zoo-rescues-4-sisters-2326551.php ).
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Though I have a dislike of zoos, at some point in 2013 I shall visit my town zoo in Colchester to take photographs of animals that I would not normally see in real life.
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I feel conflicted about the whole concept of zoos, too. I suspect my son does, too, as he avoids looking at the chimpanzees (he always runs by the enclosure without looking). Perhaps a bit too close to home and disturbing that they are locked up in a cage? I don’t think it’s a fear thing. Yet, he truly enjoys checking out the reptiles, amphibians, and insects…
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Have you asked your son about his feelings about the chimps?
My position is that every living thing should be liberated enough to express its full nature. No zoo is likely to ever be able to allow a full liberated expression of the nature of any animal it keeps. Hard as it may be, I consider an animal better off dead than restricted in its nature.
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Yes, I have discussed this with my son, but I haven’t asked him outright. I try to refrain from putting my thoughts into his head, so he can form his own opinions about things (well, most of the time..). He’s actually quite sensitive and very articulate (probably from being an only child communicating a lot with adults), so we’re usually pretty clear what he’s thinking. But the evasion of the chimpanzee enclosure is a bit of a mystery to me.
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