Updates from today's visit:
*Today I saw several of the new arrivals that have been announced: Ziggy the female giraffe, Genghis the male snow leopard, and Nyota the female spotted hyena.
*According to the board in Big Cat Country's kitchen, we are now down to just one cheetah - Nama. I am assuming that Damara, Nama's brother, was moved to another facility or passed away (mostly likely from sickness). By the way, B'alam and Zean the jaguar cubs are now as big as their mother - they grew up fast!
*Two greater kudu calves were born in June and July; however, they weren't on exhibit because our zebra could show aggressive behavior towards the calves. Also, I heard an alpaca was born on-exhibit yesterday.
*For the first time in a while, I took the time to see an animal demo today. This one for the Bactrian camel; it was cool to be so close to this unique creature and hear a few facts about the differences between the two camel species.
*The black bear exhibit was renovated this year with the addition of a few trees, and a small waterfall with a stream. The waterfall and stream are nice, but I was a little disappointed to see that the "trees" were just large bare trunks with spreading branches rather than planted trees. It does allow plenty of climbing opportunities, and I know the bears would tear up young trees if they were planted, but they could always just be hotwired off until they grow bigger, and then allow them to climb on something that is more naturalistic.
*The Australia Building now has a kookaburra and tawny frogmouth living together; their exhibit once held an elderly turkey. I thought the birds had a nice little area put together for them - some woodchips, perches, and plenty of lush branches.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Ruth, one of the two African elephants, and one of the Baird's tapirs both stole the show today! Ruth was splashing mud all over herself with her trunk, and then began tearing away at the bark on the branches that were in her exhibit. The Baird's tapir was patrolling the whole South American area, took a dip in its pool, and even came close to chasing one of the rheas around! Never seen a tapir that active before!
