Visit to the Highland Wildlife Park! What a wonderful place, I had such a good day out. The park is fantastic, with some of the biggest and most natural feeling enclosures of any zoo I've been to. It helped that it was good weather, and the backdrop of the Cairngorms was stunning.
I love the theme of this park- animals native or once native to the Scottish Highlands and animals from similar environments elsewhere.
The highlights of the trip was definitely the takin, wolverines and the snow leopard cubs. The Arctic Foxes were very cute too! Oh, and POLAR BEARS!!
I got some pretty good shots of the tigers this time, or at least specifically of Botzman and his son Aleksander. It was their turn to be in the main enclosure while Dominika and the two female cubs were in the off-show den.
I'm rather fond of Botzman. He's quite a gentle tiger - I'm not saying I'd want to climb into the enclosure with him, but he's very chill with the cubs and - according to a keeper I spoke to - actually better at parenting than Dominika. That's him in the last photo; you can see he's got a distinctive sort of 'golf club' stripe above his right eye.
"Five critically endangered Scottish wildcat kittens have been born at the Highland Wildlife Park. Keepers have said they are doing 'extremely well' and are 'getting more confident' every day"
The Princess Royal this morning opened the Rural and Veterinary Innovation Centre at Scotland's Rural College, 9 Inverness Campus, Inverness, and was received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Inverness (Mr. James Wotherspoon).
Her Royal Highness, Chancellor, University of the Highlands and Islands, this afternoon attended the Integrated Land Use Conference at Glenfeshie Estate, Kincraig, Kingussie, Inverness.
The Princess Royal, Royal Patron, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, later visited the Saving Wildcats Project at Highland Wildlife Park, Kincraig, and was received by Mr. Fergus Laing (Deputy Lieutenant of Inverness).
Her Royal Highness, Patron and Honorary Member, Grand Antiquity Society of Glasgow, this evening attended a Dinner at the Trades Hall of Glasgow, 85 Glassford Street, Glasgow, and was received by His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of the City of Glasgow (Councillor Jacqueline McLaren, the Rt. Hon. the Lord Provost).