All that had to cross my mind yesterday was to think of how long it’s been since I’ve been to the zoo and I was out the door so fast that I got there before they were open. Oh, they’d let you in, but you couldn’t leave the entry plaza. But soon I was looking at the orangutans, of course, but I honestly had a very hard time spotting ‘our’ baby. Mom doesn’t hold him in quite the same way these days, he is expected to hang on for dear life as she moves around their enclosure. I saw an especially small baby who was all over the place playing, including as high as he/she could climb, and I finally had to ask a keeper if the newest baby was allowed to play yet. She said that he wants to, but Mom doesn’t let him, so far. And I finally remembered to ask about the contest they held to name this little guy. With a grandmother named Dee Dee, and a mother named Randee, I’m not surprised that the winning name was Riplee.
I only got a couple of shots of little Riplee’s face.Randee got up in response to one of the keepers tossing pieces of fruit to the group. There were some really great catches.I didn’t notice any squabbling when one caught a piece, he just got to eat it and the rest tried for the next piece.What I thought I saw was this orang race over and pose when she spotted this photographer. He had cameras the likes of which I hadn’t seen before, plus he was accompanied by a keeper, so I suspect he’s an official photographer. I’m telling you, she was posing.And this one also took up this position in response to seeing the photographer. Posing for sure.This one is very small, especially to see her all over the enclosure, but she sure seemed to be having fun.It’s more fun to have a playmate of course, and these two were inseparable.If we had opposable thumbs on our feet maybe we could also do this, when we are young at least.I thought this was a loving mother’s face when I took this picture, but then they unfolded themselves and the one I thought was the mom hitched a ride on the actual mom.I wish I understood their relationships to know who is who, they had me fooled.Even as I took this picture I thought of all the times that someone came up to us in the supermarket in our dental office neighborhood and started trying to show Charley the tooth that was bothering them. He liked to go out to one of the corner bars after work to relax for a little while, but he was picky about which ones to avoid for exactly this reason.I did walk the zoo of course, but I just can’t stay away from the orangutans for long. In looking at this scene I told myself that we might see a scene like this if we were in Africa. I wasn’t noticing the man-made structures at that moment though.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 