Oregon Zoo in January

On January 11, David and I went to the Oregon Zoo for lunch and the afternoon. It's nice being members, because we don't have to worry about making the most of our admission -- we can just go and hang out. Kind of like when we had passes to Disneyland, only then we still had to drive for 45 minutes and pay $13 for parking.

The view of the misty hills through the restaurant window.

The Pacific Northwest exhibit in the wintertime.

When I looked at my photos later, I realized I had only taken pictures of 4 different types of animals. The beaver was very active:

I was amazed by how this cougar was sitting. And I wonder how it would go about getting down....

The Zoo recently got some new wolves from the Minnesota Zoo. The grey one is an adult female (Cheyenne), while the brownish one is a pup (Yahzi). It was so much fun to watch them watch the people. The pup got a little agitated, as did I, when a group of noisy teenagers showed up.

Of course, the highlight of the visit was Samudra. We hadn't been to the Zoo since he was born on August 23. He and his mom (Rose-tu) were hanging out inside on this chilly day:

Imagine: he was even smaller when he was born, but he still weighed over 200 pounds!

He likes to pick up food with his trunk, just like his mom.

I'm amazed by his eyes. They look so much like the eyes on many Indian paintings I've seen. It's interesting how the animals of a region will often look somewhat like the people of that region, or at least the stylized images of the people who live there. I've noticed this with Chinese and Japanese dog breeds as well.

His little pink foot!

Mmm, milk!