We definitely filled Spring Break this year with lots of fun. We got back from camping on Tuesday evening of the week of Spring Break. Wednesday I worked hard all day unpacking, catching up on laundry, and cleaning the house. Thursday, I took Kaelyn up to our little children's museum in Jensen Beach. On Friday, Kevin decided to close the office so we went down to the Palm Beach Zoo. It had been a couple years since we had been there. As far as zoos go, it is quite small but it turned out being the perfect size and amount of walking for the day for us. Kevin and I both agreed that we had never had such a good day at that zoo. Probably the biggest factor was that the weather was absolutely perfect! The high for that day was somewhere in the low 70s. Not only did that make it more pleasant to be outside all day but that also meant we saw the animals far more active than we ever have before. The day really couldn't have been much more perfect. It was quite busy since it was still spring break but we kind of went backwards around the zoo and the crowds didn't seem that bad.
We decided to go counterclockwise around the zoo so that we would get to the otters toward the beginning of the day. I may have mentioned in my last post about SeaWorld that Kay has decided that otters are one of her favorite animals now. She bought a small otter pal at SeaWorld with her own money. Unfortunately, the only place to see an otter at SeaWorld is in the sea lion show but... the Palm Beach Zoo just happens to have otters and they are SO much fun to watch. Going the opposite way seemed to work out in our favor. Not only did we seem to avoid some of the crowdedness, but we got over to the other side of the park toward the end of the day and got to see several of our favorite animals being fed or worked with, which just made it extra interesting.
Kaelyn had to have a picture with her otter pal in front of the real otters. I discovered years ago on one of our zoo outings that these otters are attracted to bright colors. I held a red paper up to the glass and they would swim right up to it. If I moved the paper around in a circle, they would do flips and follow the movements of the paper.
(Kaelyn asked me just tonight where we could borrow some otters from to put them in our bathtub and let them play in the water. It seems she has been watching some Youtube videos people have posted of pet otters. I'm going to get Kevin right on that project - finding info on where to get and how to care for pet otters without getting caught for keeping an illegal pet. :-D )
One of the two Florida panthers. The other one was wide awake and looking out at us.
So this is something we do pretty much every time we go to the zoo. If you weren't us, it might get old but since we're us and we think we're terribly funny, it hasn't gotten old yet. :-)
We were trying to have Kaelyn look like she was being eaten by the mean-looking rock creature (maybe a crocodile? never paid much attention to what it's actually supposed to be). She wasn't quite putting her all into it - figuratively and literally. So I proceeded to show her how to put her WHOLE body into the mouth. :-)
I know, we're hysterical.
The jaguar is just plain beautiful. She was pacing a lot even though she has a LOT of space compared to a lot of zoo animals. She kept going back near what appeared to be an employee parking area and entrance to her cage. I'm guessing it was about time for what they call "daily enrichment" where they work with the animals.
Since one can never see too many pictures of monkeys, I've included this picture of this capuchin monkey.
This guy was funny. These people were throwing food trying to get it across the water. This monkey was determined to get the ones that missed the grass and landed in the water. For monkeys being afraid of water, he was getting awfully close to it. He would hang on to a branch with his tail and reach WAY down over the water as far as he could to grab the food out with his hands. I know it's a bad idea to feed zoo animals like that and the people got yelled at of course, but I have to admit that it was interesting to watch (as long as I'm not the one getting yelled at).
You can see how he is sitting at the edge of the grass and right below him was the narrow strip of water.
Meanwhile, up in the tree behind our hungry little friend was this little monkey family. See baby sitting there on Mama's lap? She kept him hidden fairly well much of the time but every so often he would peek out.
And it doesn't get much cuter than that - as far as monkeys go and all. :-)
When we were last at the zoo two years ago this summer, they had three new tiger cubs and they were the cutest things ever. We stayed back there forever watching them play. Well, they are still considered "cubs" for a little bit longer though all three of them (males) are now bigger than their mom. They weigh about 100 pounds more than her because male tigers tend to be quite a bit bigger than the females. At least two of the brothers will go to other zoos eventually.
Another place we always get a picture when we're at the zoo. :-)
As you can see, even the zoo thinks we went backwards since we saw the tigers first and then walked by the sign that announces we're headed to Tiger Falls. :-)
Kangaroo, who unfortunately did not want to hop around for us - BUMMER.
So this little opportunist squirrel decided that if the two kangaroos were just going to lie there and be all lazy, he was going to help himself to their food. We watched him grab some kind of fruit looking thingy out of their dish and then run up a tree with it. I guess if you snooze you loose. :-)
Yes, I know it's tigers again. Must I explain EVERYTHING to you all? :-)
Seriously though, when we went by the tigers the first time we saw that there was going to be a tiger talk in another 20-30 minutes. We walked on to see a few more animals nearby and then we went back to the tigers. It was really cool to watch. The trainer never gets in with them. They said the tigers are very good with her and have never gotten rough but they ARE still wild animals and they try to have a healthy respect of that (sounds intelligent to me). The "enrichment" time with the more wild animals is not so much to train them to do tricks but to "cooperate" and work with the people that check them out for health issues, etc.
She was having him lay down in front of her here. The trainer obviously doesn't make each tiger come over but they all usually do come up to the fence The raw hamburger "treat" she has with her is a pretty strong motivator.
When she raised her right hand to the fence, the tiger would raise its left paw to her hand; of course when she switched hands, the tiger would raise the opposite paw.
You can see her pointing up in the air. That was the cue for the tiger to stand up against the fence. After she had worked with one, she would move on to the next one that would be pacing around another part of the fence waiting for its turn. The hamburger she fed them is actually specially formulated for wild cats in zoo settings. It has other minerals and things that the tigers need that they don't get naturally when they are in captivity.
I split these pictures up into two posts although I'm not sure it makes much difference. Anyway, part 2 heads into "Australia" to wallabies, koalas, New Guinea singing dogs, and oh yeah, a python.
No comments:
Post a Comment