LadyRanger and I had a wonderfully fun day on Friday. We took a trip to the Zoo! We have tried to go once a year for a while now. That plan did, like everything else in the world, get hosed by the pandemic, but the zoo and all it's inhabitants were nice enough to wait on us for a year and we finally got there. We had a day of epic sightings!
It wasn't too hot, so many of the animals were out, about and active. Both of the cougars, a brother/sister pair, were visible. The male was easy to spot, right up front.
Look at the size of those paws! What HUGE MURDER MITTENS!
We looked around for his sister. LadyRanger finally spotted her, up on top of one of the features in the enclosure.
Even big ol' cougars have little toe-beans!
I'm sure that the cats can't see though the glass that separates us, but I did feel personally noticed....
I mean, they gotta know we're all there, right?
We got to watch the Harbor Seal swim his laps. For a pudge of an animal, this is the most graceful and effortless form of movement I have ever seen in my life. I really could just watch him glide by for hours...
I've always been very comfortable in the water, and have been a capable swimmer for as long as I can remember, but, despite being built alarmingly like the harbor seal, I can not even imagine what is it like to be this at ease, this graceful, this beautiful, this at-home, in the water while still breathing air. Simply stunning.
Our next stop was even further north...
I was told that it snows here sometimes. They lied. Here we are in the middle of June, and NO SNOW! I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter. From inside, next to the AC...
I didn't have the heart to tell him that it's only going to get hotter for a while....
We saw some animals that are native to our area, as well. We have a barred owl or two living in our neighborhood (as we have deduced from their calls at night). We've never actually seen one though.
Pretty boss-looking creature, if you ask me. A couple of these had a heavy boss-fight in our back yard Thursday night around 3:00 a.m.. Loud enough to wake us up. I'm surprised that Daisy wasn't glued to the window-pane....
Next came the Bobcat, as pretty a beast as you could ever wish.
And, just FYI, wild creatures can manage some very pretty, very coy, glances when they want to.
Beauty hath its privileges.
One of the absolute high-lights of the trip were the Red Wolves. As we approached, we saw the male sitting on a rock, keeping watch.
Watching over what, you ask? Why, the rest of the pack, of course!
Four little Red Wolf pups!
Four steps further away from extinction! And considering that there are only 30 or so left in the wild, these are pretty big steps for such little paws! We had no idea they were there. It was only by chance we happened along as mom came out for a bit of exercise. What a glorious moment!
After that, we headed to the desert displays. We always like seeing the sand cats! Unfortunately for us, it was nap-time in sand-cat-land and all we got to see was a wee little lump of dreaming fur, waaay up on a ledge. No pics.... BUT! We did see another denizen of the desert that has usually eluded us. We got to see the Ocelot!
Another beautiful cat! Because it's not too big, we often call it the Ocelittle!
The next part of our entry today bears a TRIGGER WARNING! DA TABBIES SHOULD LOOK AWAY NOW!!
Yes, that's right. We went inside the AVIARY!
We saw some Victoria Crowned Pigeons, who insisted on rumping me, the cads...
These guys have the most MothMan-type eyes I have ever seen.
Kinda creepy, huh?
We saw some juvenile Scarlet Ibises, who were NOT scarlet, but will be after they eat a bunch of crustaceans and then molt.
We saw some fledgling Mynahs, waiting for mom to come home with the pizza.
This Blue Crowned Hanging Parrot had the most amazing, vivid, colors I had ever seen.
It's the only bird in the world that sleeps inverted!
Did you just take a picture of my butt?
I honestly think he talks in color.....
And then there was this guy.
Absolute bad-ass. Pretty fearless. Had a wonderful song, and he was selling it! As LadyRanger said, he wasn't just singing, he was Testifying!
And he could sing and dance at the same time!
And I have NO IDEA what sort of bird this is! He wasn't on any of the zoo's info cards, nor the zoo's website! I haven't been able to match him anywhere on line. Perhaps Da Tabbies could consult their FBI files and help out! (although, in their case I think FBI stands for "Feline Bird Ignorers" {and good on them!} so my hopes are not too high!) If anyone can find out, let me know, please!
As we came to the end of the tour, we had another first! Rhinos! The rhinos had always been out of site on our other trips. But that day, they were out in force! Napping!
Never in life had I thought to see rhinos napping in huge (huge!) kitten piles. These animals are massive.
That is surely some power-napping.
One of the really wonderful events, for me, was the giraffe experience. We were able to go out on the giraffe deck and feed romaine lettuce to the giraffes.
That's Leah, on the left, and Turbo. I had to restrain myself from touching them, but I did have to honor to have giraffe drool daintily smeared on my hand. I could have stayed there all day.
That is it for the zoo.
I hope you all have a great week ahead and thanks for reading!
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