Well, for the second of my animal posts this week, here are a few shots of something a little larger than a kitten! I have always been fascinated with wildlife, from a very early age. I have been to Kenya a few times on some amazing photographic safaris, but unfortunately it’s somewhat of a luxury, and not something you can really do every year – so, I have to settle for second best, and go to the zoo instead!

Last Friday I took a day out and headed on over to London Zoo. I went primarily to visit the new £5.3m Gorilla Enclosure, in search for some shots of their silverback … very disappointingly, I didn’t find out until I was there that there is no silverback anymore, as he died last year … which is very sad. What I found instead were three very sleepy females (and about a million parties of school children !)

One female ventured out for about 3 minutes, to take a drink from one of the bottles of fruit juice that the keepers lob over the fence, and that was my chance to grab a few shots, in between getting bashed about by the excited school children!

I love the closed eyes in this first shot, as if the drink is everything she was hoping for … pure pleasure.

… and then looking about to keep an eye on everything …


… including me, which was a little unnerving!!


Apparently there is a new silverback coming at some point, so I shall be back soon to see what he looks like!