Pictures from Barcelona Zoo

Of course I had to visit the zoo while I was in Barcelona ... it's supposed to be a good zoo and it has a reptile house. :-) So I just had to go there. The weather was wonderful, warm and sunny, almost more like summer than spring. Aw. Here are a few of the many many pictures I took. :-)

Like many zoological gardens, Barcelona Zoo is infested with peafowl. It was quite extreme, in fact. They were everywhere. Photo ops galore ... ! :-D

There were daisies growing on one of the lawns. Daisies!! In the middle of March! These people don't know how good they have it, I tell you.

The preserved skeleton of a whale that washed up somewhere in Spain a few decades ago. Mmm, whale ...

There were quite a few turtles in the reptile house, and one of them was ... in a really good mood. He kept trying to mate with one of the females - if indeed it was a female - and she was SO not interested. :-D I'll be uploading a video of it on Youtube soon. Something to look forward to. ;-)

One of the elephants was having its feet cleaned by one of its keepers. You may not be aware of this, dear reader, but foot rot is the leading cause of death in captive elephants. It's a very dangerous condition, so proper foot care is essential for pachyderms in captivity. Barcelona Zoo's elephant keepers were taking advantage of the lovely weather to carry out this chore outdoors, so visitors could see it. Smart. I was pleased to see that they practice protected contact, at least while in sight of visitors. What you see in the photo is testimony to how used this animal is to this procedure ... standing still while the feet are tended to may become boring for the elephant, so another keeper served as a distraction with a bucketful of tiny treats (radishes, strawberries, goodies about that size). The elephant - as you see - folded its trunk away on the top of its head and stood with its mouth open waiting for treats to be inserted. :-D As Homer Simpson would say, FOOD GOES IN HERE! :-D