Day 140: Buff Cheeked Gibbon

We were only at the zoo for a couple of hours but we saw so much!  I can tell it's been over a month since we've been because so much has happened.  We saw the new 18 month old rhino (who really does look small compared to the big guys!) who has come here to hang out with another male rhino until he is old enough to go and settle down with a wife and kids.  We saw the baby tapir who is adorably stripy and spotty and bouncy.  We saw the baby penguins, some of which are almost as big as mum and dad already!  We saw a nest that the blue-crowned laughing thrushes have built and appear to be sitting on *fingers crossed for chicks*.  And we saw the baby buff cheeked gibbon.  This is not the baby!  It's sod's law that you never get the photo you really want and if I'm honest it would have been the baby tapir first and the baby gibbon second - I didn't get either really.  But this one didn't seem to have any problems posing and I managed this shot through the reflections - my only regret being that I have slightly cut off the top of it's head.  Oh well - lets face it - animals are not the most cooperative and neither is the weather - either it rains or it's so sunny there is too much contrast to cope with!  (contrast was mostly the problem today with the baby gibbon and the baby tapir)  This is a great shot though and I love the reflections in it's eyes and the lovely soft background.

Honestly though, the best thing was seeing the Bali Starling.  We haven't seen it in months and it was a particular favourite of my dad's and mine - my dad had named it Bob - not that we had any idea if it actually was a male!  We were kinda getting to the stage where we thought Bob had gone off to another zoo, particularly because we didn't want to think about the other possibility.  But today there in the next enclosure along from where he used to be was not one, but two Bali Starlings - and they were nest building!  I really, really hope Bob and Dorothy have chicks - although I hate to think what my dad will name the poor things! ;-p