Zoo update

I'm so glad I went to the zoo in Ranua today. It's an arctic zoo so you won't find any elephants there or anything. I got the best picture of a bear I will possibly ever take. There it is on the right. It was really great because although there were tons of cars at the zoo, there weren't many people following the paths while we were. First we saw an otter, it was curled up in such a cute ball of fur next to its mate. It was asleep, though, and even though we came back to it after seeing all the other animals it was still asleep. Next I saw a beaver, but it was asleep too, same problem. A mink was really active and didn't seem to be afraid of people, I got some nice video footage of it. It was black, and had great looking fur (which I suppose is the fashion, since it's a mink) and it was immensely cute.

After the 'rodent house' there were owl enclosures. I got a nice pic of a snowy owl and a tawny owl, they're on my flickr if you wanna see. But there was this amazing golden eagle which had built a massive nest and was staring at the people looking at it. It was huge, I had no idea how big they actually are. I also saw hawks, waterfowl, pheasants, partridges, wild boar (they were funny :D), the bear above, wolves, a wolverine, all kinds of deer including the bambi kind, mooselets/elkettes (they weren't fully grown), foxes, musk ox and reindeer. The reindeer were just having dinner when I got there and there was a family speaking Sámi right next to them which made me laugh, it's the most stereotypical place you could find a Sámi family :)

We also got to see the polar bears being fed, there's a pic of one named Valeska on my flickr. It was funny, because the bear named Valeska was playing with a ball and trying to drown it by backflipping her head onto it. The bear she was with really didn't want to get wet and just avoided the water at all costs. There was a male bear in the next enclosure laying totally relaxed on some rocks and only woke up to go and munch an apple that the guide threw him. I didn't think they'd eat apples and oranges, I thought they just ate meat. Oh well :)