I recently spent a day at the Berlin Zoo with the family. They have a great ibex enclosure, a huge pyramid of stones. Lots of animals were standing, sitting and walking around and all over it. One guy, however, clearly kept watch, standing on top. He snuck his head around the left, the right, the left, and had he been a little more cautious (or less obviously skylined against, well, the sky) it would have been very hard to notice.
That place is a great look-out, and this guy had clearly been well-trained…. he is, after all, a Siberian Ibex! I guess the ex-KGB still has creatures in all places 😉
Here are a few more pics of these beautiful animals.
cute young
another watchman… erh, watchibex.
cleaning horns. That shelter sure has suffered a lot of horn-cleaning, from close-up the wood looks very worn in many places.
A view of part of the stone pile that’s Ibex Heaven!
It is really a cool enclosure, especially because there is a stair to the right of the wall you see on the right, so visitors can look up at the animals, but also get to the same height or above most of the area. This allows the animals to stay on top (i.e., where they feel safe) if things get too noisy, but when things are calm visitors get a nice close view.
dinosaurpalaeo 