Boys will be boys

Give a boy a nice grooming and turn your eyes away for a second, and odds are that he has found a deep mucky pond to play in. This tiger cub is no exception, especially after having discovered something moving in the water. And no, tigers are very un-catly in this aspect; they love water and are excellent swimmers.

How to eat cardboard

I don't know if Copenhagen Zoo forgot to feed the tigers that week or if this cub is just trying to figure out what is possible to eat. The cardboard didn't end on the menu that day though.

Learning to be a tiger

The tiger cubs in Copenhagen Zoo seem very playful but don't be fooled, like all other cats the playing is actually a way to learn how to be grown-up. So this tender bite won't be tender when the cubs are older.

Is food coming?

When the other animals in Copenhagen Zoo are fed, the tigers get a bit restless as their superior sense of smell kicks in. Especially when the leopards get their treats the tigers wish to join in, but unfortunately for them (and luckily for the leopards) there's a five meter wall between them.

Bullying?

This might seem like a case of bullying but in fact it was very playful. The tiger cub's mother was playing with one of her young ones with the father watching and napping on the sideline. Even though it looked a bit violently, neither mother nor cub were hurt in the fracas. So this time, no bullying in the Copenhagen Zoo, only a caring mother and her cub.

A rude tiger

Even animals can be a bit rude like this tigress at the Copenhagen Zoo, sticking its tongue out at me. Luckily there was a fence and a moat between us or else!

A sack a day

It's the strangest things that the tiger cubs in Copenhagen Zoo likes to play with. Here the zoo keepers have hung an empty sack in a tree and the cubs just love to rip and tear it. Needless to say it didn't hold out for long. Imagine what they would do to your couch...

To be active

Like their human counterparts the four tiger cubs in Copenhagen Zoo are very active, playing with each other, the grownups or the "activity things" that the zoo keepers have put in their yard.

Don't get any closer

The Amur Tigers are the biggest cats in Copenhagen Zoo and in the nature. In nature the tigers are solitary creatures, but here they have managed to have a family group with both male, female and no less than four cubs. This one had its eyes on me and hadn't it been for the moat and the fence I would probably have been on the menu.

Let sleeping lions lie

I know the idiom normally says to let sleeping dogs lie, but I'd rather wake up a dog than these lions. To many guests at Copenhagen Zoo the lions are boring because they seem to sleep all day. The male lion is said to sleep up to 20 hours a day, so it's no wonder that this position is the one people remember best from their visit.

Lovely smell

The lions have a terrific sense of smell, making these freshly cut branches a very interesting thing to investigate and mark for the male lion.

Spoiling the fun

At Copenhagen Zoo the zookeepers often activate the animals by hiding small pieces of food so that the animals have to work to get it out. In this case small pieces of meat had been hidden inside a red rubber ball, making it very interesting for this lion cub. It didn't take long for the mother to turn up to spoil the fun though, as is often the case for both lions and humans alike.

In the lion's den

In the lion's den the young cubs are often in for some rough handling by the elders. Most of it is play but from time to time the cubs annoy the father a bit too much and then retribution is swift. In the next couple of days I'll show you more photos of the big cats in Copenhagen Zoo.

A lot of feathers

With a whole raw hen on the menu for this Amur leopard there's a lot of feathers in its cage, but it obviously enjoyed the small challenge of ripping it apart. A little macabre for us civilized people who have forgotten that the meat in the supermarket actually came from a living animal, but a good eye opener for the attending kids. Especially as they weren't on the menu this time:-)

More birds of prey

Some more photos from the bird of prey show in Copenhagen Zoo that I told you about yesterday. As you can see on the second photo the public get really close to the action. The birds literally fly within centimeters of the spectators and the two falconers do their best to position themselves so that the birds get close to everyone on the stands.

Birds of prey

Several times a week the Copenhagen Zoo has a show with birds of prey, where the public get close to the birds and are shown how they are trained. An excellent show if you happen to be there at the right time. At this show two birds were shown, an owl and a Harris Hawk. On the last photo the owl and its falconer are staring at a third and wild bird, probably a buzzard, which happened to fly over the nearby park during the show.

"Feed me"

The parrot in Copenhagen Zoo seems to need something to eat. Doesn't they feed their birds? Actually I think it was in the middle of building a nest and was using its beak to climb around in the three.

Pink and noisy

The flamingos in Copenhagen Zoo is a strange breed that I'll never truly understand. This large flock of pink and noisy creatures reminds me a bit of the teens I teach in both noise level and peculiar behavior.

Chicken on the menu

The storks in Copenhagen Zoo often have chickens on the menu. It did chock some of the watching mothers (but not their kids) that animals actually eat each other.

The wolf pack

When I've visited the Copenhagen Zoo this pack of wolfs has not been the most active of animals. Either it's because they prefer to be active at dusk or they have seen it all and are bored to death about it.

Big wet eyes

Unlike the polar bears in Copenhagen Zoo, the brown bears next door have excellent conditions to play around in. This bear looks like it is begging for even more space though.

Playing with polar bears

The polar bears are Copenhagen Zoo's largest carnivores and the ones with the smallest area to play in. But there's good news for the bears, as the Zoo has planned to renovate and enlarge their enclosure along with building a cliff for the Arctic birds. It will be finished in 2012 so the bears have to be patient.

In the pool

The penguin from yesterday really likes to bask around in its pool along with a few dusins of its friends. Here it's training its backstroke.

To be observed

In Copenhagen Zoo you have fine opportunities to observe some of the swimming creatures from below. Maybe this penguin thinks I'm the one that's behind glass and that it's the free one?

A bit of sunshine

This baby-seal from Copenhagen Zoo really enjoyed a bit of sunshine. It was actually sleeping on the top of a rock in this position for at least an hour, so it either got a perfect spine or a very good chiropractor.

Leave me alone!

"Leave me alone", this chimpanzee from Copenhagen Zoo seemed to think, when she saw me with the camera. She actually went into hiding the moment after, leaving me with only this shot.

A primate with a beard

The emperor tamarin from the Copenhagen Zoo has got an impressive beard, that would have been the envy of many a human male in the 19th century.

Finding something interesting?

This baboon from the Copenhagen Zoo seems to have found something interesting. I wonder what. But she's cute anyway:-)

Lion or monkey?

This golden lion tamarin from the Copenhagen Zoo is actually more of a monkey, or rather primate, than it is a lion. Kept behind glass in the primate house it doesn't seem to have much space but it seems to thrive nonetheless. And it likes oranges:-)

Food variation

This black-handed spider monkey from the Copenhagen Zoo looks like a kid caught doing something naughty and with good reason. The zookeeper has just given him a scolding for picking up some paper - and eating it. Well, I guess even monkeys need some variation in their diet.