Every once in a while, when I have the day off and the sun is shining, I drive up the New Jersey Turnpike, across the George Washington Bridge into New York City, and into the heart of the Bronx. It is there, nestled among the city blocks choked with apartment buildings, that Amur tigers, ring-tailed lemurs, giraffes, and western gorillas have taken up residence in the venerable institution known as the Bronx Zoo.

Even though I have lived in central New Jersey for almost 27 years I had never been to the Bronx Zoo until a few years ago. I first visited it as part of a class trip for a college zoology course and I was greatly impressed. The Bronx Zoo was very different from the small menageries my parents had taken me to as a child, places where leopards paced behind chain-link fences and monkeys huddled in sterile, concrete cells.

Despite the better quality of the enclosures for the animals at the Bronx Zoo, though, it is difficult to forget that you are looking at captive animals in the middle of the city. The wails of ambulances and other sounds of the city are never far away. That is why I always try to photograph the animals in a way that makes the viewer question where the photo was taken. This can be a difficult task, but in getting in as close as I can with my camera I can try to create an image where the animal's captivity in a city zoo is not so immediately apparent. The following photos are a few of my better attempts from my last trip to the Bronx Zoo, and I hope you enjoy them.

Black Leopard 

 
California Sea Lion 

Dwarf Mongoose  

Gelada Baboon

Marabou Stork

Nyala 

Ring-Tailed Lemur

Small-Clawed Otter

Snow Leopard

Western Gorilla