Hello
Thanks to several graduation presents, I paid for the Backstage Tour. However, the tour did not start until 1:00, so I had a few hours to kill. Instead of heading immediately towards the bus tour, I looked around for a bit. Two keepers, one by the black-capped loris and another by the clouded leopards, talked to me. They had good information and were fun to speak with. After enjoying the bus tour, I headed toward the reptile house, since it tends to become crowded.
Goodness
A very nice lady held Jerome for me while I took a picture of him with an absolutely enormous alligator snapping turtle.
I'm not seeing it
The current theory states that mosasaurs, extinct, four-limbed reptiles, are relatives to snakes. My faith in paleontology wanes.
Hello handsome
I really wanted to get a picture of Jerome with the Komodo dragon. However, the lizard refused to cooperate and only stayed at the back of his exhibit. I managed to get this shot by zooming in as much as possible. As a result, the dragon looks great, but Jerome looked like he could eat Tokyo...or at least provide flooring for a major hotel (he is made out of cloth, after all). So the dragon did not have to share the photo. Well, other opportunities arose.
King of the world, Baby
The zoo placed life-size sculptures of the tortoises near their exhibit. After the disappointment with the lizard, this seemed like a good photo op.
Well...this is ironic
The zoo also placed a cart with animal artifacts nearby. Gary, the very awesome volunteer manning the cart, gave all sorts of facts about the tortoises. He even showed me how to pet one named Winston, who apparently provided some inspiration for E.T.'s design. His (Winston's, not Gary's) neck feels like an old leather jacket. Gary also let me feed a carrot to another tortoise named Isabelle. After my morning adventures, I grabbed some lunch and headed toward the tour's meeting area. I still had a few minutes before the tour started, so I looked at the nearby exhibits. I think I was excited or tired or something, because when I saw one animal, a song I have not heard for over a year came to mind. Just not accurately.
Well I think it's gonna be alright
Yeah, the worst is over now
The morning sun is rising like a
Red river hog
I seriously worry about myself sometimes.
Anyway, the Backstage Tour finally started.
They let us get really close to the animals
No, they did not really let me get this close. However, a super-nice keeper let me take this picture with the cheetah after the tour. Between getting this picture and not having Jerome eaten, this, by far, proves the San Diego Zoo has the most awesome staff ever. EVER.
The tour also included many other animals. Each group got a picture with a wild donkey. Two female clouded leopards walked about the area. A very, very big hornbill hopped throughout the stage (without eating her trainer). The tour group got to feed a rhino carrots and celery while getting our hands drooled on in the process (somehow, he also got our fingers muddy). We got to pet another one (who felt a little tougher than the tortoise). When we returned to the stage, we were greeted by an arctic wolf. The wolf howled (after we howled at him with the trainer's directions) and rolled in nutmeg (the trainers let him roll in the nutmeg instead of the trash he manages to find when they take him for his pre-opening walk). We then walked toward the flamingos. We were greeted by a red kangaroo. Actually, since she was female, she was a very large grey-blue kangaroo. We got to feed her bits of carrot and pet her. For the record, kangaroos are insanely soft-furred and soft-lipped. The fur was finer than rabbit's and softer than the sea otter pelt at the aquarium. After that, we fed and pet some flamingos. They returned us to the stage, where we got to watch a pair of servals walk the stage like they owned it. We also got to see a new program animal. She is a blue and gold macaw, and the trainers let me volunteer to help them. I have a confession to make, though. One of the trainers asked if I was afraid of birds. I lied. I have had a slight case of ornithophobia for years. Yet, there was no way I was going to pass this up. I got to act as a launch pad for the bird to fly to the trainer from. It was fun. Then the cheetah, with her companion dog, came out. It was, simply stated, one of the coolest things I had ever done. It was educational, too. So what did I learn?
1. Animals are awesome.
2. We need to help animals by monitoring what we buy, from furs and horns to palm oil (forests are often cleared for palm plantations).
3. San Diego zoo staff are incredible.
So, after learning all this, I headed toward the elephants. The zoo recently redid the elephant habitat. Thanks to findings through the La Brea Tar Pits, scientists discovered California's ecologic landscape was once very different than it is today. So the zoo "re-created" the old ecosystem
I've got a bad feeling about this
To further bring the "re-created" idea to the exhibit, volunteers monitor carts with models of fossils found at La Brea.
Feeling's worse!!!
This is a model of an American lion's skull, which is roughly a quarter larger than an African lion's. Wow.
I saw a lot, but no trip to the zoo, for me, would be complete without a view of the...
Okapi!!!
Seriously. These guys are awesome. I wanted to spent more time at the zoo, but some of the natives were getting a little cranky.
It was time to go. Man, it was fun, though.
Anyway, tomorrow looks to be another fun, if more sedate, day. Until then, I leave you with one more photo proving San Diego Zoo staff is awesome.
This photo makes me very happy
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