Suegha, great tiger documentary on bbc 1 right now.

And you are in here?

Moss

I have been watching some tiger docs with Richard Attenborough - are these the same ones? They have been fab!

Tigs,

On my foray into frenchness these past weeks I found myself at Beauval zoo.

It was interesting.

My girlfriend took me there (about two hours from her home) Beauval on Wiki

Beauval's home page

Anyway, the best features, for me, where the abundance of white tigers, especially the 6 or 7 white tiger cubs, and the white lion couple, with one baby white lion.

I've asked my girlfriend to send me the pictures we took on her camera, so I'll post them here when I get them.

I was of two minds when I went though.

I loved seeing the tigers and the lions, but I felt sad that they were in enclosures (albeit beautiful natural and large enclosures, no concrete in sight)

As I got around the parc though, there were presentations and educational thingies, where the employees tell you the stories behind the animals and the mission behind the zoo, and admittedly this changed my mind in some regards; like the fact that there aremore tigers as a result of zoos, than there currently is and would be in the wild today. Including two of only 5 remaining species of tigers, that would have been wiped out.

We watched the feeding time, which was impressive.

In the run up to the feeding, there was a machista display between a white lionness, and a regular Lionness.

There was a seperation fence between them, but WOW! it was impressive seeeing these two creatures up on their hind legs roaring at eachother.

The conflict led to the male tigers roaring a bit. They didn't move from their respective prone piositions, but they made some token gesture ("yes dear. ROAR. You see, dear, I'm backing you up.")

The tigers were beautiful though the champion for me was the baby(white) Lion Cub, who sadly wasn't being taken care of by his mother, and thus had to be kept in the zoo's Nursery until he's older, and hence we could only see him through glass.

THere were also baby Jaguars and plenty of other wild cats.

The hyena, however, truly are Heinous. I couldn't stand them.

Until I get the photo's, here's a heartwarming Lion story.

I've put in here, just a summery of the story, however it's a brand new upload, that includes an interview with the two protagonists of the Christian the lion story (yes, OZZIES) 35 years later and loads of photos that I've not come across before

It'ss pretty good for an american show.

Oh, and also check out the 1966 film about ELSA the lionness, BORN FREE. (available on various download sights or through usual channels) it's beautiful.

Thanks for the thoughts matey. Although I too dislike the idea of big cats being in captivity, the conservation of these species is maintained by so many good establishments who help maintain the species - they would be extinct if not for their efforts.

My wife does much work with organisations who do wonderful work. It's a sad fact that 100s, if not 1000s of animals, fish and their habitats are endangered.

It's a sad world we live in...

Kayo - you wee bugger - That lion vid made me cry.

Yes good vid ( and we have learned from Patsy more about Kayo.......results all round )

I beg to ask, what have you learned of me?

Anyway, my GF tried sending me some pictures last night, here's the first two to get you going.

(She's not very adept at computers, so I don't know when I'll get the other ones -there's loads, including the cubs.)

(photos taken by me at the Beauval zoo in St-Aignan, France)

What beautiful creatures - can't wait for more...

Hi me young 'un K.O.

Good "Fred" BTW and hope you enjoy France.

As for the first photo, try and re-size it like this

As for your second photo, well I am gob-snacked and how you managed to get "White Eyes" into the White Tiger as opposed to "Red Eyes".

Keep posting the photos or just send them to me first for a quick edit .

Yours truly

Win in BKK, but going down south tomorrow

^ that's much better Win, thank you.

I love the massive paws in that pic.

Yeah, the white eyes look pretty spooky huh?

That latter one, with the majestic posing tiger, I actually zoomed in right between the fence of the enclosure. You can just see the grill at the bottom of the photo, but I'm pleased with how it came out.

TIgs,

looks like I'm going to have to keep you waiting til my GF comes back with her camera to the UK

btw: that reminds me, Suegha, I recently watched a dvd of a film called Two_Brothers

If you haven't already heard of it, I recommend it. It's beautifully shot, by Jean-Jacques Annaud, and it's a great "family" movie.

Sounds interesting...

If you want to watch that film about the tiger brothers - better get the tissues out - it will tear your heart out.

Also i was always and still am a strong person for the Elsa fund. Born Free was one of the first books i read and that little video showed

a big cat giving the same cuddles that Elsa did but the good thing is that they have been put back in the wild where they belong- Sorry i get riled up about these sort of things.

^

Sorry i get riled up about these sort of things.

yeah, I do too.

Elsa's Story is a beautiful one. That Born Free 'film-of-the-story' had me laugh and shed a tear, as did the JJAnnaud (fictional) film, for that matter.

These cats truly are some of the most magnificent living creatures and of course Elsa was the first cat to be succesfully returned to the wild, as it had never succeeded prior to her.

Patsy, when I went to this zoo, I was really skeptical about it. Maybe I got lucky and went to a "good" zoo, (or maybe not) but in any case I left there feeling a lot better about the concept of "tigers in captivity". From what I've discovered, frankly, the tiger (all species) would be extinct if it wasn't for zoos.

And yes, I've also discovered since that many zoos do far more outrageous things than I'd even been afraid of (including inbreeding, - and the culling of genetic defective births that often result - and over-breeding and many horrendous things, but on the larger scale, we have more tigers and at least three surviving sub-species now, which 30 years ago were on the verge of extinction.

So I dunno. Mixed mind, for sure, but happy to live in a world where we do still have these magnificent creatures.

two more for you tigs

more coming in a week or so

Magnificent, truly awesome!

Just for Tiggs, Kayo and all nature lovers in Bedlam

A lovely Seahorse.

That actually made me laugh. If you could hear me cackling and it is quite late in the morning here in Swissland. but had to watch the tennis. and then whatever

I did in fact laugh at loud upon seeing that.

cheers.

Sea horse - funny!