Every nature photographer will tell you that patience should be your most cherished and practiced virtue, and that applies to those of us who find nature within the confinements of zoos. The reason for this, I believe, is that animals can be unpredictable and could care little about your interest to photograph them.
Patience, combined with resilience, will afford you the chance to observe and learn more about the animals you want to photograph and this can bring about an improvement in the quality of your shots.
Over the past couple of months, I've been visiting local zoos about once a week. This has allowed me to know more about the animals and their behavior. However, I'd been unable to shoot a few of the animals. Since I try to avoid shots that are too zoo-ey, there are several animals that I hadn't been able to shoot...actually, there are still some that I'm trying to figure out how to shoot, but these I've shot now.
The male sitatunga normally hangs out in a corner of the exhibit that's far from the observation walkway and is right by a fence and shelters. On my last visit, he ventured out in the open and I got a few shots.
The ravens have also been hard for me to shoot, but this time one of them flew down and posed for me.
I also hadn't been able to get interesting shots of the ostriches, but one of them was scratching its neck on the ground as it fed. Either that or it was turning over the ground to expose any food that might be hidden by the dirt. Looks like he's enjoying a good nap, though.
The female polar bear was more active and even jumped in the water.
I also got a few shots of the sifakas, the lemurs, but it's not because they normally don't offer good shots. Normally, there are a lot of kids around the exhibit and I don't like to disturb them, so I just go to shoot other animals since the shooting conditions are normally less than ideal anyways. The reflections on the glass are some of the hardest to eliminate. On cold days, the exhibit's warm, humid air will also create condensation on camera gear. Overall a good place to avoid as a photographer in the winter. This time, however, I managed to get off a few shots.
The more time you spend around these animals, the more you'll get to appreciate them, even when they don't present you with good shot opportunities.
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