I discovered that our Doorly Zoo crowds have largely disappeared into the school year recently when I wanted to try my new digital camera on some of my favorite creatures. Consequently, I had a fine time on a sunny autumnal afternoon, and here are some of the results. First, the Antarctic penguins in the aquarium in their icy setting, fresh snow falling on the king or emperor penguins of the March of the Penguins documentary fame (the movie filtered in that glowing orange of their collars), the gentoos and, my favorites, the rockhoppers with their feathery crests. They're behind glass. In the foreground can be seen the torpedoing swimmers zooming through the water.
Next I'll include two of our four bear types, Ursus horribilis, its scientific name aptly as intimidating as it was to me hiking in Montana mountains, and the smaller Ursus Americanis, less aggressive than its international brothers or its larger cousins. The grizzly is distinguished not only by its great size, extending down to its 3-5" claws, and exceeded only by the polar bear--the huge Kodiak giants are actually one of the brown or grizzly family--but also by its shoulder hump and, with age, the white-tipped hairs that give it its nickname, grizzled or grey-haired. Physically and mentally formidable. One of the most volatile animals we have. The American black bear has a reputation for being far more passive so that camping guides suggest fighting back and having a good chance of scaring it off--unless, of course, it is feeding or is a mother with cubs--although climbing a tree to escape it is no good. It's one of the animal kingdom's best, fastest climbers. In recent years as the black bear population seems to be growing rapidly, especially back East, this bear has been taking back some of the territory humans have monopolized, bunking down under porches and in back-yard sheds. Becoming more familiar with humans and, like coyotes, finding dumpsters and garbage cans easy lunches, black bears have become much less docile, though one's chances with them are at least 100 times better than with the grizzlies. They're the ones caricatured in children's cartoons and Disney movies. 
I can't fail to show my zodiac sign from the Asian zodiac, all animals, as the U.S. Postal Service's Chinese New Year stamps have demonstrated. This one was immediately alert to the sound of my camera. I couldn't get one of our famous albino/white tigers, being fed, or the new triplets born to a three-legged mother, the too-cute cubs hiding behind a big dead tree from the hordes of children gathered at their window.
I can't resist finishing with the most playful adults, I think, of all the animals, caught in their favorite milieu in a photo I'm fond of for the light effects. I'm as fond of otters as I am of wolves!
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