Henry was a happy, lucky family pet. Whoever stayed,was generally there because they wanted to be there... Perhaps I shouldv'e told the "filming wildlife with my cousin" story: )

Henry sounds really wonderful, I would have loved to have met him.

You have probably seen Bringing Up Baby, but on…

are you telling me Henry was big enough to forgive and forget?

Oh, hang on, I see, so you cut his claws and teeth off?

So the zoo – like all zoos, of course – will be a simulation intended for animals. Zoos, in other words, are a particularly bizarre form of trans-species communication, attempted on the level of architecture…

Has anyone noticed that cows often congregate around the milking shed .I see they don't need help to get there. I wonder if they want human contact?

Simple. Feed. A lot of farms, certainly the one I grew up on, give a bucket of meal at milking time.

There was…

It's selective breeding that has made their udders full to bursting and painful if not milked. Kind of like the que for the…

Especially notable for the polar bears; although granted in 30 years they'll only exist in zoos.

Somewhat ironically, the polar bear's natural habitat is rapidly becoming more and more like the climate at the Auckland zoo. His old zookeeper should go teach whoever is trying to save them what their…

I appreciate the improving conditions in zoos, particularly wrt space, but the main thing that bothers me about them is that for a lot of animals the climate is completely wrong. Especially notable for the polar bears; although granted in 30 years they'll only exist in zoos.

Don't worry about…

some of the big game beasts. Pridelands is big, but not very big for a running animal.

Pridelands? As in The Lion King?

Do they do The Cycle of Life, a la peacocks and tigers?

Though come to think of it, the Disney version of the cycle of life never…

My last visit to the zoo just before going overseas was pretty good, especially the cheetahs......but…

As I recall they had quite an audience.

But even if you don't like the concept, you'd have to acknowledge that Auckland Zoo is a huge advance…

I'm always amazed by people who don't like zoos.

I'd always taken zoos for granted, but then one day I started thinking about exactly what zoos are for and I got a little bit creeped out.

There are arguments that some animals in zoos are there because they are endangered…

I love the way you can go right up to the young male tiger

In San Francisco, tiger comes right up to you!

On the topic of leaving dingoes to eat their young, it's the same attitude as the whole Knut the baby polar bear thing in Europe. To intervene or not to intervene. It's the same in the zoo as in politics and economics.…

I'm pretty sure Wellington Zoo do this on occasion...

You've just got to be able to hide really, really well at closing time.

The keepers at the Wellington Zoo take the cheetahs for walks, that's definitely worth seeing. I made a YouTube video a year ago that shows it very…

I watched a dingo giving birth in Taronga Zoo once. As the pups emerged, the other dingos were waiting ready to eat them.

Lol. Great family trip to the zoo that'd make. Children crying. Pregnant women traumatised, men with wide eyes. Everyone walking 10 metres away from the dingo enclosure…

I'm pretty sure Wellington Zoo do this on occasion...

Since a lot of the animals are nocturnal you get to see (and hear them) them during their waking hours which is apparently awesome

Indeed...the Singapore zoo puts on a night safari where one can be driven through the zoo or walk. Well worth it...great atmosphere.

Went in search of a keeper to report this. "They do that", he said, and sauntered off in the other direction, for a fag.

Unlovely animals. The…

We once visited Antwerp zoo (pre-kids) because Brussells was so damned boring, and Auckland's is much…

Oh my god, the pacing. The PACING. They still haunt me.

I have memories of a 1st form zoo trip flashing back here Danielle.

Everything bad about zoos is rescued by them having otters. Most wonderful animals in the world, ever, and forever, by a mile.

Oh my god, the pacing. The PACING. They still haunt me.

Have you seen Ardman's (the Wallace & Gromit people) Creature Comfort? If memory serves, it set interviews with the inmates of an old people's home against animated zoo inhabitants. It won an oscar.

and gosh, here it is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_Comforts

Who knew teenage girls could be so bloodthirsty? Oh. Right. Everyone.

too many mad polar bear in concrete bunker memories

Oh my god, the pacing. The PACING. They still haunt me.

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