On the 29th August it was Karla's Birthday! She is now nine years old, and Riziki turned nine on the 5th July, so now in their middle ages the pair spend most of their days sleeping in many different positions according to their mood!
They were sleeping on the platform to get away from the soggy grass as it was a tad wet yesterday, Karla very swiftly then retreated indoors to get away from the rain whereas Riziki soldiered on outside as it really did chuck it down. So much so that I decided to stay under the tree in which I was stood until it calmed down before I went back to the Zoo staff room!
Karla is getting a bit fluffy around the neck and rather porky, this is because she is on the pill at the moment as they are fairly well represented at the moment, so this seems to have a little bit of an effect, and when she gets up close, she is getting a little bit of mane! Riziki though never fails to amaze me, and normally spending so much time up the top with Zuri and Safi whenever he is up at the fence, I am always in awe of how tall he is compared to Zuri.
As I say to the visitors Riziki is more like your typical wild lion, tall, lean, bold face, with a rather mean look sometimes. We are certainly very lucky to have two male lions that are such a great comparison.
I hope you enjoy this rather small set of photos mainly of Karla, she was doing a bit of posing I have to admit!