Zoo Day - Part 2!

A little later than promised, here is part two of our zoo trip!  Last time we left off with the painting Asian Elephants.  Next up were the Meerkats! 

Then came one of my favorites, the giraffes!!  The birth of the youngest giraffe Daniel is the reason we went to the zoo the first time and we just fell in love.  Since then the zoo has added another giraffe.

Daniel, still a "baby" at 10 feet tall!

You can feed the giraffes too.  These two are waiting their turn.

Next was one of Mr. Bird's top two favorites!  The lions.  Typical cats that they are, they were busy sleeping in the sun!

Now I tried to get pictures of the penguins, twice.  First they were all asleep after a successful feeding.  Later they had all just woken up and were busy swimming very quickly and cleaning themselves.  They have a penguin, Lucky, who was born with a deformed foot and he couldn't swim.  So Teva, the shoe company, set about making him a little swim shoe!  He's practically a zoo star now and gets around just like the rest!

I was going to wait and post this last part in another post, but since it takes me a while to actually post anything at all, I'm just going to go for it.  By this point we were having a great day.  We were following the zookeeper talk schedule and got a great education on the Condors.  Next up was the Asian River Otter talk.  The last time we were at the zoo they had a whole family.  The family got to big for the exhibit to they went to another zoo and our zoo got this current pair they hope to breed soon.

The zookeeper was telling the crowd how they work with the animals on certain behaviors to assist them if the animal ever gets sick or injured.  They work hard to keep a certain distance between them and the animals because many are released back to the wild after breeding, etc.  Mr. Bird and I were asking all kinds of questions. I commented to Mr. Bird that we should get a snack before going to the next talk, the Snow Leopard, and the zookeeper said he'd be over there in 15 minutes.  I was kind of surprised that the otter keeper was the snow leopard keeper too!

And here comes the best part of the day!!  We head over to the Snow Leopard enclosure munching on our french fries.  We see the female, Zoe, napping on a rock.  A few minutes later I can't find Mr. Bird so I'm craning my neck to find him and the zookeeper asks if everything is okay.  I tell him I can't find my husband which is weird because this is his favorite animal.

Turns out Mr. Bird was around the corner at another part of the enclosure.  Zoe had her eyes fixed in our direction so the zookeeper came over to us to see what she could see.  We began chatting him up again.  We learned that Everett, the male snow leopard was already in the back of the enclosure for the evening.  He's much older and they have to monitor how much he eats.

Zoe, very interested in something by us.

Once we were done admiring Zoe, we saw the porcupines.  Neither of us had ever seen one in person.  They almost look soft and fuzzy in a weird way. 

After that we came to the last large cat, the spotted leopard.  It's always fun to try and find him in his enclosure.  I'm always amazed at how much they are like domestic cats. He's just cleaning himself up!

Here he is licking his paw and cleaning himself just like a domestic cat.

So as if all of this weren't just great on it's own, I feel a tap on my shoulder when we were watching the spotted leopard.  It's the zookeeper.  He asks if he can speak to us away from the group.  First thing we thought was we were somehow in trouble!!  He said it's not often they get people at the zoo who are so interested and ask so many questions.  They have this special program and he doesn't get to use it very often but.... WOULD WE LIKE TO COME BACK AND MEET A SNOW LEOPARD!!!  Yup, that's right, MEET a snow leopard!!!

Remember, that male snow leopard Everett? Well, we got to go into the evening enclosure and meet him.  Don't get me wrong we weren't snuggled up to him or petting him.  There was a metal gate between us and we were instructed to stay two feet back from that, but we were four feet away from him.  It was amazing.  There was also a metal grate between that enclosure and the main enclosure and Zoe came over to see what what up.  They make these neat sounds where they blow air out of the noses in a particular way to show they like each other and we got to hear that.  It was truly once in a lifetime thing.  We took pictures which we were asked not to share online.   When we had to leave we went back to the main enclosure where Zoe decided it was play time and then she rubbed around in the grass showing all of us her belly.  Of course I was out of memory on my camera.

I know zoos can be controversial, but we really enjoy ours and what they are trying to do.  It also really pays to ask questions and get involved. You might get to meet a really special animal!

Cheers!
this little bird