After visiting the San Diego Zoo I decided to pay a visit to the Safari Park where I heard the animals are in a more natural environment.
The two were very different experiences.
I did enjoy the zoo, they have a wider variety of animal species, but I enjoyed the safari park more because the animals seemed happier to me. There was not a moment when I felt sorry for the animals like I often do at a zoo. Here the animals had a huge open area to roam about and they were all happy and healthy.
To compare, the zoo has 3,700 animals in 100 acres. The safari park has 2,600 animals in 1,800 acres. It is a much bigger place where the human visitors are confined to a small area, we are the ones behind the chain link fence, and the animals are free to roam in a large oasis.
I absolutely loved it.
I made these images of African Lions in “Lion Camp.” Please click on any of the images to view larger versions.
I made each of these images using the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L lens that I rented. They were processed using Nik Silver Efex Pro.
Coming up next on the blog, I finally get to see some happy elephants and they were having such a good time that the onlookers were actually cheering!
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Great images Anne!
Thank you very much Steve!
Anne, these are just superb! I’m partial to his big yawn; love it! 🙂
Thank you very much Erin! I always like the yawns too!! He was having a sleepy afternoon.
Beautiful pictures Anne!
Thank you very much Kelly!
Anne these photos are spectacular – I love the way you’ve processed them!
Zoo’s are fun and it’s definitely cool to see all the animals, but I do agree with you, animals in zoos don’t look happy. I can imagine that a place like this that has so much more land and less animals is a much better environment than a zoo.
Thanks for sharing the photos!
Thank you so much John, I’m glad you enjoyed the photos. I really did enjoy my day at the safari park. It is so nice to see a place where the animals have the space they need and it really shows when the animals are happier.
Love the Lions – the B&W really works well!
If you haven’t titled them yet then how about Wise, Watchful, Weary, Wry & “What the hell was that!” 🙂
haha, Love the titles Jennifer!! I think I will use those 🙂 Thank you very much for that.
Great lion photos and so much better than zoos. We have a smaller version of this in Winston, Oregon near where I live. It’s called Wildlife Safari and has one of the most successful cheetah breeding programs in the country. You should check it out when you’re in the neighborhood. I’ve had some great photo days there.