Bonus Post: The Zoo

A few weeks ago, we got together with some friends and the six of us went to the zoo.  Bryan had free tickets from work, so we all drove over to Columbus for an adventure.  Olivia and Eva were for the most part uninterested, but they toughed it out as we wandered through the various continents, dripping from the increasingly oppressive heat and humidity.  First stop, after being greeted by three enthusiastic flamingos (of which I failed to get a picture), was North America.  We wandered down the path until we saw this animal standing near a sign clearly labeled "Bison":

Pronghorn

You'll note from the caption that not only is that NOT a bison, but also that we did eventually figure out what it was.  It turns out that the bison and pronghorns live in the same enclosure and that this particular pronghorn was simply a little confused about which creature it actually was.  It happens to the best of us.

We followed a path, searching for an animal that I can no longer remember.  I do remember that our search was in vain; said animal was hiding.  Bryan took the opportunity to snap (that's a term that doesn't make sense anymore now that we're in the age of digital cameras) a picture of our group.  Scott wins the prize for noticing that a picture was being taken AND successfully looking at the camera.

Scott, Eva, Stephanie, Olivia, and me

On to the polar bears, which looked absolutely miserable in the balmy 91 degrees (according to a website I found).  We though it felt warmer... must have been the humidity.  Anyway, the polar bear that you see standing on the rock soon flopped down like a lovely polar bear rug and proceeded to not move anymore.  Fun fact: Did you know that polar bears actually have black skin and transparent fur?

Olivia watches the polar bears.

After the polar bears, it was time for a brief break.  The babies looked tired, but soldiered on after their snacks.

Past the arctic fox and the brown bears, we happened upon large cats, most of which were pacing restlessly near the back of the enclosures.  Stephanie hypothesized that it must be feeding time.  One friendly bobcat was kind enough to pose for a picture, though.

Puma

Bobcat

Next we saw a bald eagle, whose nest looked from where we stood to be bigger than a queen size bed.  Otters were next (of course), and were every bit as playful as Brian Jacques had led me to believe.  It was difficult to get a picture because the otter we could see was diving into the water, swimming around the edge quickly, rolling and flipping a few times for effect, then scampering out and running around the edge of the pond before jumping in again.

Bald Eagle

Otter

Otter

We came up to the other side of the bison/pronghorn enclosure, this time seeing an actual buffalo, and then we were exiting North America.  Another fun fact: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a complete and grammatically accurate sentence.  Click on the link if you want all the technical explanation, but in layman's terms that sentence says "New York bison [that] New York bison bully, bully New York bison."

Buffalo

Here you can see our choices upon leaving North America.  You'll note that South America, Europe, and Antarctica are not acknowledged by the Columbus Zoo, and also that all of Africa has been reduced to the Congo.  Also worth noting is the sign right under "Aquarium", which says "Tiger Shelter."  There was speculation over whether this meant "The place where tigers shelter" or "The place where you can take shelter from loose tigers."

We opted to go to Asia first, where we all hung our heads in shame upon hearing the following exchange:
Boy: What's Asia?
Mother: Asia's a country.
We weep for the future of the continent country of the United States.

Olivia liked looking at the elephants, although she didn't seem to believe our assertions that they're actually quite large.  From a distance, they look about the size of big dogs.  When she finished watching them, she waved goodbye and we went to look at rhinos, which appear to be elephants with horn instead of trunks.  We could see only the rear end of one rhino, so we spent most of our brief time there reading a sign that told us that there are less than 10,000 rhinos left in the world.  Javan rhinos are actually down to 70.

Elephants

There was a building where we could go to see the elephants and rhinos that had tired of being in the sun, so we went in there for a while.  This elephant looked much bigger.  Maybe Olivia's parents aren't lying to her after all.  We also had an interesting philosophical discussion:

Johannah: What do you think elephants think about while they stand there shoveling food into their mouths?
Scott: Fiscal policy.

Of course.

Rhino

Olivia waves to the rhino

Further into Asia, we saw some birds (which took quite a bit of work to identify), and then we happened upon an animal with magnificent horns.  Bryan decided that if he had horns, they would be like those of the markhor.

Western Cattle Egret, I think

Markhor

Bryan and Scott tested their height against that of a tiger and then we walked past cardboard cutouts of different types of tigers.  They all looked pretty much the same.  Also, Java is apparently a bad place to be an animal, because Javan tigers are extinct (and you'll recall that the rhinos are nearly extinct).  We did see one tiger.  I don't know what variety it was, and it was doing a poor job being interesting, so we moved on quickly...

Tiger

...To the lions, which were also not interesting.  The male did an excellent job posing for pictures as king of the animals.  The females were resting in an inconvenient, out of the way place, but when we followed the path around we were able to get pictures of them.

Female Lions

Male Lion

Into the snake, bat, and monkey house we went.  Olivia expressed her disinterest with the python, we saw some flying foxes (bats by another name) getting vaccinated, and we discovered four very sleepy monkeys hanging out with their hungover friend.

Python

Large Flying Foxes

Langurs

Outside again, we saw two warthogs on leashes.  The do a lot of crawling around on their elbows because otherwise their snouts can't reach the ground.

Warthogs

Next we entered the aquarium.  Bryan enthusiastically pointed out Dori in the coral reef tank, and then we spent time looking for other Finding Nemo characters.  We saw the obnoxious fish, but finding Nemo took a bit more work.  We finally discovered him, and continued on our way.

Dori!

Through the mangrove grove we trekked, to the big aquarium with the manatees and stingrays.  This aquarium was probably Olivia's favorite part of the whole trip, although we assume it had less to do with the fish and more to do with her being able to get out of her stroller and walk along the glass.

Manatee

Mangrove Trees

We saw penguins, and Bryan, after examining cardboard cutouts of all the various types of penguins and where they live, decided that all the best penguins are from New Zealand.  Those are the ones with the Roman olive branch crowns for hair.  If you click on the link, you can see what he means.

Penguin

Australia was next.  We saw some lazy koalas, and learned that they sleep 22 hours out of the day whenever possible.  We also got to see kangaroos, which are not caged up like most of the other animals.  They're in an enclosure, but it's open and we were allowed to go inside.  None of the kangaroos ventured near us, but it was interesting to be in there anyway.  Apparently they have a couple of kangaroos that were raised in captivity and are a little too friendly, so they have to be kept elsewhere, lest they get excited and kick a visitor.

Kangaroo

The monkeys were really neat.  It was like watching very agile 7-year-olds.  We wondered how the zoo kept them from escaping, and then noticed that they were on an island of sorts.  It would seem that they are just extremely anti-water.

Siamang Monkey

Siamang Monkey

Siamang Monkey

After the monkeys were komodo dragons, where there was a place for you to smell a dragon's breath.  Bryan was brave enough to try, and said it smelled like someone left a lot of cats in a basement for too long.

Komodo Dragon

Komodo Dragon

By this point, Eva had fallen asleep, and Olivia was fading fast.  In addition, all the adults were getting hungry, and our free meal started soon, back at the entrance of the zoo.  We zoomed through Asian small clawed otters, the leopard which was hiding (a little boy near us spotted it ...no pun intended), all the Congo monkeys, and an okapi, which showed up in a crossword puzzle I was doing on the way home!

Asian Small Clawed Otters

Orangutan

Scott and Bryan compared reaches again, this time with an orangutan.

Olivia fell asleep somewhere between orangutans and gorillas.

Leopard

Gorilla

Gorilla

The baby bonobo wanted its mother to come up the hill with it.  Actually, it wanted its mother to CARRY it up the hill.  :)

Bonobo

Bonobo

Bonobo

Bonobo

Mandrills are the ones with the long, orange noses.  I couldn't get a picture of his face, though, and we didn't want to stop long enough to wait for him to cooperate.

Mandrill

A deer with zebra legs is apparently called an okapi.

Okapi

Then we were out of the Congo and headed back to North America, the entrance, and lunch.  We ate, packed tired babies into cars, said good-bye to our friends, and took off our separate directions (which happened to be the same one, but we didn't see each other because we'd parked in different spots).  On the way home, our car odometer rolled over to 200,000 miles, but you've already read about that.  :)