A visit to Chester Zoo

I was visiting my eldest daughter in Liverpool as the weather was so good we decided to visit Chester Zoo (top tip: buy the combined rail, bus and zoo entrance ticket from the Merseyrail ticket office for a discount and to bypass the queues)

As you enter the zoo, the first animals you see are the Elephants.

This young one was touching the large elephants tusks with its trunk as they were standing face to face

We then had a walk around to the Giraffe enclosures, where the family group were enjoying the sun

The younger Giraffes were racing around the area like spring lambs (2.5m tall ones!)

In the butterfly house there were a wide range of beautiful butterflies, but this one that landed on one of the walls really caught my eye

After this we took a stroll along to the land of the red ape and saw some of the magnificent Orangutan, these lovely animals radiate an intelligence and serenity that is a privilege to witness - I took a few portraits of them, both of these are females, the larger one had a babe in her arms - due to the crowds I couldn't get a clear picture of the babe but it was lovely to see

The big cats were magnificent and I loved the male lion who was walking around his compound 'gruffing' whilst the lionesses just watched looking rather bored

We finished our visit by the Rhino, it was amazing to see a mother and young one playing chase running around the compound, in and out the having fun in the sun, the mother was amazingly agile and light on her feet considering she must weigh a couple of ton

I would highly recommend a visit if you are at all interested in animals and conservation