Elephants

I really enjoy seeing Elephants and these did not disappoint!  Elephants display such strength and dignity in everything they do.  They are also obviously quite large!  In fact, the last picture shows a bull that is actually the largest in North America!  He was quite impressive to see!

African Painted Dogs and Lioness

The lioness might have been sleepy, but the African Painted Dogs were VERY playful!  They were chasing each other, playing tug-of-war, and having a lot of fun fighting.  Eventually they seemed to get tired and some of them split up to take naps. 

Gorillas

One of the places we went to on our vacation was the Knoxville Zoo.  I had SO much fun!  I especially LOVED watching the gorillas!  Their enclosure had construction work being done, so they were hanging out in a room with a glass wall to view them.  I don't remember how many were there, but I do remember that there were 3 or 4 super playful younger ones.  So of course, I had to take a lot of pictures of them!!

Ober Gatlinburg Wildlife Encounter

I truthfully can't remember if I am posting these pictures from our vacation in the right order of when they were taken or not, but that really doesn't actually matter.  These pictures are all from Ober Gatlinburg Wildlife Encounter.  We didn't spend very long there at all because it started raining pretty hard, and I didn't want to get my camera wet.  I was able to get quite a few pictures of the bears before the rain started.  I especially liked the bear with the coconut.  That bear did NOT want to share, so every time the other one got near, he grabbed the coconut and ran away.  It was cute watching him roll the coconut around trying to break it open.  I also enjoyed watching some of the bears swim.  The rain started before I got to see the otters, so there aren't many pictures, but I was able to get some while they were being fed, which was quite entertaining to watch.