He looks as though wistful at your departure, Jeff. Occasionally, in zoos, I find a critter or two who studies me as much as I study them. In fact, a visit to the Minneapolis Zoo, in the 1980s, found me standing inches from the glass enclosure of a nocturnal leopard. Possibly drawn to a straw hat I was wearing, he leaped from the ground to a large tree branch, and from there to the glass inches from my nose. Surprised the hell out of me (that I managed to keep my equilibrium and not jump ;o). The more time one spends in a zoo, the more often we interact with the animals, and the Lied Jungle, my favorite area in the HDZ, is a place the visitor can spend an entire day. You are lucky to live so close, in Omaha, and your excellent photography shows us how well you represent it. Thanks loads from another HD admirer: it*s like being there again myself.

-nik