Ok I dont really think I have much to report. By the time we drove all the way there through miserable construction delays we arrived with just over 4 hours to tour before be had to be back at the bus. Had to hit the zoo with tactical percision with 4 hot, whinny kids trying to hold me back. Ha, still saw most of the zoo despite them.
We took off as soon as we got in at nearly 11 am and booted it straight to the panda center. Skipped it yet again... no time for looking when your on a mission. The wait time was 30 minutes they claimed but the line was moving really fast and we were at the pandas in under 10 minutes. Pretty sweet when Da Mao is outside. We had no one really standing in our way once we got in to see Er Shun so we had good quality photo time. As we were heading out to see Da Mao I heard people saying he was coming in so I spun the kids around and they got to him up close and personal as he went after some apples right at the window. They were in heaven and frankly so was I since peoples rudeness and ignorance kind of impeded my fun the first time.
On to Australasia... I have a question about the victoria crowned pigeon, Crash. Is he missing a wing? I'll post and upclose pic I have of him but it appeared hes missing his right wing or most of the feathers on it. If so does anyone know what happened? I didnt notice it when I was last there but I wasnt as close to him and his left was turned a little more towards me. Saw a Komodo in the water. That was cool. Never seen them use the pool before. Im sure its common and heck it was boiling in that very crowded building. But still no wombats. That was a little disappointing but the kids didnt notice becauce none of them knew what a wombat was in the first place.
Tundra Trek was a bit disappointing. There were no arctic wolves or foxes to be had. But the bears were once again in fine form. As I was telling the kids about the bears a mother complimented me on my knowledge and thought I was a keeper... I was wearing a zoo hat and shirt from my last trip. Pretty funny but I owe a large amount of the credit to all of you so good job everyone. Inukshuk was paired with Aurora who is supposedly his best bud. Nikita was off in the other pen. They are trying to breed Nikita this year not so much Aurora. Hopefully she will be more successful as a mother than her sister. Maybe next fall Husdon will have a cousin or 3. Time wise I couldnt stay for the whole talk which sucks but at least I got that info. Oh Inukshuk apparently is rather small for an adult male. Hes about 9 ft tall and other males are 11-12ft tall. Good thing hes at the zoo where he wont have to fight bigger males to mate.
Skipped the Americas and Mayan temple. There was a lot of whinning about going on the zoomobile because at 1 hour in they were tired. Whimps. Happy to say more of the Przewalskis were on exhibit. I counted 6. They said up to 5 yaks may go on exhibit together but only one as visible... barely, just barely. Cant say I blame it. The sun was really pounding down but it wasnt hot, just warm. No calf yet again. Babies hated me today. Oh and they are going to try the Bactrians in with the Zoomobile later in the summer.
We continued on to the african stop. I vetoed the Canadian domain. No hyenas were out. Couldnt find the white lions nor could we afford wait the 15 minutes for the keeper. The penguins were just finishing their feedings so the crowds were light but no one was swimming. Saw all four bigger babies. No one with down anymore. Except maybe the youngest baby still in back.
Jake was out with one of the girls and he seemed excited at one point. Unfortunately one of the kids notice his enthusiasum so we had to keep moving because I didnt want to be forced to offer a lesson on the birds and the bees.
I actually saw a cheetah move. Thats big.
The baboons who I was concerned about with all that feminine swelling seemed fine. No one was swollen.
Saw Tony out in the rhino yard. Your tips about his horn size helped. His second horn was significantly larger than Tom who I saw last time.
Perky and Petal were out again.
But the whole warthog family were not.
And then to add insult to injury the lemurs were all balled up again. I missed 9 babies total today! So ticked off at my luck. Might go back in July so I will hit the lemurs first... well go their direction first I can wait on pandas.
Charles, Ngozi and Nassir were inside in the day room. The sign said there rotating the gorillas every 20 minutes for individual feeding. Outside there was no sign of Josephine, Johari or Sadiki.
In the orang exhibit Im a little unsure of who was out. There were 4 out. But Im guessing Jingga was out with Sekali because one of the babies was significantly smaller than the other baby. But last time Kembali didnt so much bigger than Jingga. Im wondering if it was Puppe and Budi out with them. Is Budi quite a bit bigger than Jingga?
Merriweather was out and visable but not looking so hot. Her fur was kinda wild looking.
Oh question about the babirusa. Im positive I didnt see Bucky, because a male is very distinctive. But I saw one outside and one inside. Have they seperated Olive and Muna. I mean they are rougly the same size now anyway. Or could it have anything to do with the limping I saw 2 weeks ago? Now if I hadnt gone to talk to the Rhino keeper first I could have asked them but i didnt.
And the rhino keepers I forced the kids to talk to with bribery of a sweet treat for a decent question, seemed less then knowlegdable. They didnt know where Vishnu was from or how long he had been there or anything about Asha. THey couldnt answer how old they were without checking with each other. Im not asking them to be a fountain of knowledge but one would expect they would know some of the very basics for their charges. I mean heck they must get asked these questions all the time. Maybe they were kind of new but then have them learn from a more knowledgable person. Worst keeper talk I have ever been to.
Then time was up... well shopping was a necessity but fun stuff was over. Oh and I never saw a peacock... weird.
Photos will come tomorrow.
