Saturday july 2nd.

 Maria and Roland.s 8YO  (nearly  9 ) grand son Finn joined us for the weekend so we plañed and outing that would be both i teresting to us and fun for him. The weather was beautiful and we went to a small zoo park located in forest surrounds about an hour away.  It was very pleasant strolling around and the animals were carefully selected for breeding progammes to support threatened species. The fifst stop were the Mongolian horses. These attractive small horses are reduced to an endangered  status  and  the herd here is contributing to increasing their numbers in twoo small regions in Mongolia.

Note their brush like manes.

From there we walked uround a display demonstrating the impact of the last ice shield in this region. While Bulach  was just on the edge of impact Winterfall would have been under about 20 metres of ice.  Various boulders along the path were identified with labels which outlined their origins many kilometers away and found locally as glacier melt rubble.

The wolf enclosure was next and we almost despaired of seeing him as it was a vast wooded space. Just in time we realised he was patrolling  the boundary and he came flashing past the windows. No chance of photos but we worked out a couple of other vantage points where we could see him,  They we're  possibly a couple of different  wolves as there were surely more than one in that space.

We has about the same success with the Lynx with a good view of one of the three walking up to thhe den for an afternoon nap. Maria could see his head in the den opening but our eges were not as attuned to the woodland.

The European bisen and the wild pigs did not provide as much challenge.