| Giant panda Gao Gao is 14 yrs old and weighs 180lb. He is the
father of Mei Sheng and the newest cub Su Lin ('a little bit of something
cute') who was born 2/8/05, now weighs 9.29 pounds and measures 26in long.
San Diego is one of the few zoos in the world to have bred giant pandas.
They have a complete team devoted to the study of these animals. They also
grow most of their food (bamboo) on site. |  |
 | Koala bears are
another breeding success at the zoo. They have now bred over 60 and loan
many of them out to other zoos. |
| Spectacled bears come from Borneo and appeared in several
enclosures along with Bornean sun bears. These are also in the zoo's breeding
program. |  |
 | The largest bears are
the Alaskan Peninsular (Kodiak) brown
bear. These are very rare and even larger than the grizzly bears, though
this one looks quite cuddly as it relaxes in the sun. |
| Polar bears are not what you would expect this far south, but the
zoo is very successful with them. Polar bears do experience warm weather and
sunshine naturally, though for rather shorter periods than San Diego
provides, but northern waters are always cold, so they keep their pool specially chilled. |  |
 | One of the unique
features of the enclosure is that you can see under the water and watch them
swimming. (The glass is five inches thick!) |
| They are very graceful under water and very playful. They are
truly huge animals. |  |
 | This was really close
to the glass and you really get a picture of just how big they are. They are
also very fast and when they dive the resulting splash is spectacular. |
| You think of cats as domestic or lions and tigers but there are a
whole bunch which are just a bit bigger than a domestic tabby but quite
deadly, at least to their prey. |  |
 | I think this is a caracal,
with its pointy ears. They stayed still for such small periods of time,
being constantly pacing around, so I was lucky to get this shot. |
| Another pacer was the tiger. He has quite a large enclosure but
seemed to prefer pacing up and down along the ledge where the glass is when
we were there. |  |
 | There are several
leopards including this Chinese leopard which is a beautiful animal. |
| More unlikely for San Diego is this snow leopard lying out in
the sun. They are seriously endangered but are another species the zoo has
successfully bred. |  |
|