Hi again, I just want to thank everyone for their remarks on my previous High Park photo from the High Park streetcar loop. I'm very glad you enjoyed it. And Holly (myquad), I'll get to that lama business too. Here we have another excerpt from my recent visit to High Park in Toronto. High Park has a small but rather impressive petting zoo adjacent to the main picnic area which is very popular with the visiting children. The zoo has a number of exotic animals that are not native to our geography but do seem comfortable in our climate. I took quite a few pictures and I hope to find time to post a few here in the coming days and weeks. For those of you that don't know, Canada's national animal is the Beaver (with a capital 'B', it's a federal statute). Yes indeed, the smelly, industrious, dam building, water rodent who some of my fellow citizens might describe as a little pesky. Needless to say, we as a nation get a lot of ribbing for what must be the most ironic choice of national icon. That is unless you include the fact that our currency is known as "the loonie" but more about that some other time. The Beaver also has the reputation for being known to be the second largest rodent that walks the face of the Earth. Only in Canada you say. This, of coarse, begs the question: What is the largest rodent that walks the face of the Earth? Well, it is this rather impressive gentleman right here. He is a Capybara: Master Of Grasses. Sounds like the title for a 1980's vintage direct to video Japanese science fiction film (like Sword Kill). Canada's idea for weapons of mass destruction, breeding giant mutant beavers and letting them loose on our enemies. Drat you silly and maniacal Canadians! But he escapes (the movie would be rather dull if he just sat there you see) and tries to topple the C.N. Tower while stomping on a few unwary and innocent streetcars in the process. Only in Canada you say. Actually, though the Capybara is a water rodent like the Beaver, he is a native of South America making him a creation of the Brazilian military industrial complex. So blame them. This fellow was rather hard to photograph through his fence. He seems to like his privacy and did not appreciate us smelly and loud monkeys (I know, we're actually apes but the Capybara doesn't have a degree in Zoology) gokking at him. So he kept his back to me in disdain. Thanks for viewing. Disclaimer: I did not draw the thumbnail used for this posting. I lifted the sketch from a picture I took of the sign posted outside of the Capybara's pen. Thank you GIMP.