Regular Midwest Guest readers remember that I’ve
written about the Detroit Zoo’s Arctic Ring of Life exhibit and its fabulous
aquatic environment before, including yesterday’s post about seeing a
relatively rare session of polar bear play.
Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to take a lot of
polar bear photos that day, and the kids visiting the zoo during their winter
break seemed especially enamored with the polar bear frolics.
One young man even appeared to be imitating one of
the bears’ graceful movements as he watched her swim.
Be sure to check out yesterday’s story, Polar bears
play at the Detroit Zoo, for more photos and the complete story about Talini
and her polar play pal.
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for
creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts
across the Web.
© Dominique King
Beautiful!!! I'm going to take a stab at painting the first pic. This way I can practice water.
Posted by: ac | March 06, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Oh, I have such a love for polar bears, and to see them playing... they had some at the Dallas Zoo when I was a little girl, and they always looked miserable. I am sure they are much happier in Detroit! :)
Posted by: Angela Nickerson | March 06, 2009 at 01:47 PM
great colors!! wow!
Posted by: jessiev | March 06, 2009 at 03:58 PM
These pictures are amazing.
Posted by: Susan | March 06, 2009 at 04:00 PM
they look so cute underwater, it makes you forget they're not really so cuddly. i like how you could see them so well. the polar bear at san diego zoo has this underwater viewing window too, but the times that i've gone, i never get a glimpse of it.
Posted by: Carolina | March 06, 2009 at 05:41 PM
These photos are gorgeous what a magical place to take kids too!
Posted by: Peace Mitchell (Australia) | March 06, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Great pics.
Our Zoo IS A TREASURE!
Posted by: JimmyK64 | March 09, 2009 at 06:07 AM
AC-I've never tried painting an underwater scene! The only photo of mine I used for an art project was a lighthouse photo I used for a colored pencil class. Good luck with the blues!
Angela-The Detroit Arctic habitat certainly seems to be a better environment for the animals, especially the swimmers like the seals and bears, than the cramped quarters with a small pond that they had here before.
Jessie-I've always loved the blues you see in the tunnel, especially on a relatively sunny day.
Susan-Thanks! The exhibit is pretty amazing, I just hope my photos do it justice.
Carolina-They do look cuddly, but you do occasionally get a flash of a glimpse of their huge teeth--a reminder that they might not be so cuddly in the wild.
We only had fleeting glimpses of the bears swimming during prior visits here, so seeing them play this way was a relatively rare treat.
Peace-The kids were pretty entranced by the bears that day. I loved how excited and absorbed in the bear ballet they were as we all watched that day. Better than any video game, eh?
Jimmy-Yup, our zoo is a treasure. Detroit really does have a lot of great things going for it :)
Posted by: Dominique | March 09, 2009 at 06:55 AM
My kids love watching polar bears swim!
Posted by: Linda | March 11, 2009 at 01:20 PM
Linda-
Your kids would have definitely loved seeing the bears the day we were there. As you can see from these photos, the kids were pretty spellbound with the entire thing!
Posted by: Dominique | March 13, 2009 at 07:41 AM