Firstly I apologise for the delay in this post – Summer at work has been super busy so I had no time to organise this one, I hope you won’t have to wait too long for the next post! I was super lucky to be able to make multiple visits to Edinburgh Zoo over the Spring months – with most things in Scotland not opening up until the end of April the Zoo was one of the few things that we could do, and I for sure took advantage of that! I took an unbelievable number of pictures on my various visits so decided to group everything together in this picture-heavy post. I think there is a picture of almost everything, hopefully you’ll find something you like (for sure if it’s panda pictures you’re after!). I wouldn’t normally start a post with a picture of a toilet block, haha, but this Spring amazing murals have been popping up all over the zoo, including this cool one on the toilet block in the car park – with a panda on it I had to take a photo! You can also spot a rhino, some birds, penguins and small monkeys around the site too^ Now head on to check out all those photos:
Tian Tian
Of course I have to start with my favourite Tian Tian – and in April I was lucky enough to see her outside for the first time in the ‘new’ enclosure. She moved in back in the Summer of 2019 and I’ve finally been able to see her making use of her outside space, it was great! One afternoon I took the above photos while viewing her indoor spare, she’d just gone outside and as there is a window from her inside space looking into her outside space, I managed to see her through that. She was a little far away but it was lovely to see her just relaxing back against a ledge, she really was quite adorable and I was delighted that I’d finally seen her outdoors here! I got even luckier later in the week when I went back one morning and saw her not through glass this time – she was having a good wander around the hillside that the enclosure is on, there are quite a few areas of her outdoor enclosure that can’t be seen from the viewing points, so it took a little patience but she would eventually re-appear. It was just an absolute highlight to see her enjoying her outside space. And even better, she walked over to her pool and had a roll around it in, I couldn’t believe my luck that I was getting to experience seeing that in person. I got some very nice videos of her outside, and had hoped to be able to upload them already but my video editing skills are lacking, one day I hope to share them!
Yang Guang
Yang Guang of course never fails to be adorable for all the photos I’ve taken, and in fact he was outside almost all of the time on my visits – he really seems to love his outdoor enclosure! He always leans up against a tree/log/rock to enjoy his bamboo and seeing him lounging like that eating never gets old. I got some pictures of him outside through the fencing alongside his indoor viewing area which I quite like the look of, however during the Spring they have removed some of the fencing, so when he is sitting outside facing the building it’s now much easier to view him face on as often it was a back-only view.
And more!
As always, I also have plenty of pictures of most of the other animals at Edinburgh Zoo too – so you can now enjoy a selection of what else you can see if you visit! I had a great time seeing one of the Binturong close up, he/she was having a great wander around the outdoor enclosure and came right up to the glass several times – the Binturong enclosure is to the right if you are facing the Sun Bears, and the outdoor viewing window is up around the left corner after the indoor viewing window. There were also a lot of babies/young animals to be spotted: koala, chimpanzee, penguin eggs and then also chicks on my later Spring visits, otters and finally a hippo. It took a few visits to gather all of these photos, but I got so lucky with some of them – with the otters it was completely a ‘right place at the right time’ moment, I can’t count how many times I visited in April to try and see the triplets without any luck, but once they got a little older they really came out more often and I’ve seen them countless times since, they’re wonderful animals to watch as a family and so playful!
