Kudos to St. Louis for their zoo. We were out there a couple weeks ago and spent half of Sunday seeing the animals, and watching other people seeing the animals. Many of the residents are separated from the visitors by glass, allowing one to get face to face – I find it as interesting to watch the people in these situations.

The Hippo Tank

The Hippo Tank

Hippos are surprisingly graceful underwater, which this young lady is finding out – unflinching as the behemoth cruises by.

The chimps calmly take in the animal sights. They must see thousands of visitors up close every day, yet somehow seem to remain interested in the parade.

Eye to Eye

Eye to Eye

This older male seemed interested in the toddler, but I couldn’t tell how he felt about the older brother’s tongue antics – though it was simple to tell who had more life experience at this point.

Chimp to Chimp

Chimp to Chimp

In addition to allowing the camera to see both the observed and the observer, the reflections also afforded this real-time morphing between remote cousins.

Reflections

Reflections

By just hanging there, these two monkeys managed to get their neighbors riled up to a full howling fit. I’m not sure why 20 people outside the windows didn’t have the same effect.

Spying on the Neighbors

Spying on the Neighbors

Finally, I played with one of the penguins for awhile. We did this routine for about 30 seconds before I started the camera rolling.