Another lovely visit to Col today. Got there first thing and went straight to my boys. Raj came over and gave me a kiss, but then went back to his wrestling session with Tiga (who now walks and sits like his dad as well as looks like him!). They wrestled for ages. Sat watching them for about an hour then left them to it. It was lovely to see the boys interacting.
The baby capuchins are now HUGE. I can no longer tell who is who! One of them was grooming Fabio (dad) while the other was in a hammock playing with a bit of cardboard and shredded paper. The two mums were grooming at the other end of the enclosure.
I sat with Melina (female amur leopard) for over an hour. She was calling Sayan (male) next door who was calling back. She is such a stunning animal. Got some beautiful pictures of her lying on a log looking right at me.
Chimps: Billy-Joe rocking quite a lot because the place was full of noisy school kids. She moved herself to the back of the big play room and sat with her back to them all. Talia was full of beans and kept poking at people and running off with a big play face. Tumba joined in much to the annoyance of Tombe (alpha male) who kicked off at them. Tekita (mum) came over to Talia but she ran off and started poking at Tara who decided to play chase with her. Kora (lowest ranking female) seems to have been over groomed again and is pretty much bald bless her.
Sat with a young spider monkey for over an hour. He's such a lovely lad. Hand raised and living with another hand raised youngster. He came over to the window and started chattering to me and putting his belly up against the glass for me to tickle his tum...I did my best through the window! Every time I tried to walk away he kept calling at me so I kept going back! Hopefully he will remember me next week.
There were no volunteers in the lemur walkthrough today (gutted) so I had to leave with the train! Luckily we got there just as a keeper was doing a feed and talk. Baby is definately a little boy and they are thinking of a Madagascan name for him. He's ever so alert and steady on his feet now. Got lots of pictures of him. The next youngest ring tail, Lexie (who is a complete hooligan but ever such a cute one) kept trying to bounce on me so had to keep moving. She also tried to suckle from her mum (who is also mum to new baby) but she was pushed away.
New aardvark baby is soooooo cute. She was asleep when I got there but woke up to push the others out the way and snuggle back down in the middle of the group.
Also saw the new rock hyrax but they were towards the back of their enclosure. They're lovely, a lot bigger than I was expecting.
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