Al Ain Zoo

Al Ain Zoo

And while we are on the subject of wild animals, here are a few images I took earlier this year at the Al Ain Zoo.  It is a very nice zoo and well worth the visit.

This year's National Geographic Photo contest winner was a picture of a tiger in a zoo.  No, I am not comparing myself to a Nat Geo photographer!  The story and choice are very interesting - but yet, is it really that surprising?

The photographer visited this lion many times, so got to know his subject and perhaps was better able to anticipate its behavior than someone just passing buy.  It is a really nice image of a lion shaking off water after a bath.

This is not the first ever impressive image from a zoo.  There is a lot of other amazing zoo photography out there to be discovered.  For example, a French photographer, Nicolas Evariste, and a German photographer, Wolf Ademeit, have both done amazing black and whites of zoo animals. They are so good that they look like they were shot in a studio.

Perhaps the more controversial question to address is not why Nat Geo chose a winning picture from a zoo, but the reasons why the animals are in the zoo.

Sitting proud at Al Ain Zoo

Mother and baby rhino at Al Ain Zoo