Top Photo: Adeyha makes an appearance.

In a recent post I mentioned that our new resident male has taken to sleeping the day away in his enclosure’s man-made den. I’ve been hearing reports from various staff that he’s been seen out and about in the enclosure near the end of the day, four, four-thirtyish.

I decided to follow the scuttlebutt and check it out for myself. Sure enough the first photo I shot of Adeyha, and the first time I’d seen him outside of the den since October 27, was 4:01 PM Tuesday afternoon, the fifth day of December.

Our female, Oak, has always been fairly easy to spot as she picks locations visible from the enclosure’s overlook, walking the ridge at the back of the enclosure, reclining at a top right vantage point, or along the fence on the extreme right side of the enclosure at ground level.

Walking through Earth Moves, our exhibit dedicated to rocks, their origins and endings, from mountains to sandy beaches, I spotted one of our local red-shouldered hawks taking a break. The raptor was sitting atop the exhibit’s Army Corps of Engineers map of a segment of the Mississippi River’s meanders, old and new stream channels, oxbows and alluvial plains.  It was the end of a rainy morning and the hawk must have gotten itself quite wet, it seemed to be drying out its wings.

Little Bear, our now second youngest black bear on exhibit, is partial to spending time up on the exhibit’s cliff, high above the rest of the bears. There’s an easy way up the cliff, almost a stairway up to the top of the cliff. Little Bear, however, seems to prefer climbing up the cliff face next to the waterfall.

Once there, she tends to either pace, preen, survey the scene below, or sleep.

But, as I often say, if you’re not out there, you’re not going to see any of these things. So, what are you waiting for, get out there and have a look around!