Robot Claw

It’s been a busy few weeks! But let me rewind a bit, to before school and before Irene, and remind you all I spent a week in San Diego. The next few blog entries will describe that week, and I’m going to start with San Diego Zoo!

I don’t know what the above animal is called, so I will refer to is as a ‘Long Necked Galoot’. It was one of many weird and wonderful animals I beheld on my trip to what is probably the best zoo I have ever visited.

Since I arrived early, I was able to see the usual sedentary beasts, such as Koala’s and Wombat’s, actually being active! These enclosures were not far from the entrance, and were the first start of a nagging theory that formed in my mind…

Not too far down the road I came upon this exhibit, and immediately thought of my mum:

She love’s  meerkats, and she would  love this enclosure with the massive lookout tower for the watchman to sit atop:

He was a lazy sod to be true, watching in name only. He gave no regard to the crowds observing from only a few feet away, and his fellows happily dug close enough to be to be almost grabbed.

Dung beetles and a massive hairy spider! These were in a walkway that led under the enormous elephant enclosure, which looked like this:

The elephants themselves were split by gender, and I had fun watching them waiting for one of them to emerge from her bedroom into the enclosure. Believe me when I say she was in no hurry!

The zoo is massive and built on natural slopes, so it’s quite a strenuous place to walk around for many hours (as I did). Cleverly, they have (free) bus tours that go all around the zoo and give a good view of most animals. I hopped onto these once or twice during my visit.

And here is a gallery of bears!

It’s probably obvious from the shots, but the enclosures are wonderful, and very rarely is the visitor separated from an animal by bars or any other obstruction aside from moats or glass. Here’s one rare example:

When I was standing there the male put his head back and lazily roared. It was frightening and very, very loud. Lots of kids had a real scream and giggle afterwards 🙂

One of the absolute highlights of the trip was the tiger feeding. Mum and her two babies were being tossed full steaks (probably sliced galoot, to be true) and enjoying it mightily. They put on a good show for the massive crowd:

I managed to get some decent video, which you can see here:

Another highlight was the human-feeding. I got a good shot of that as well:

Capybara madness!

People keep these guys as pets you know? 🙂

By the time I rode the ‘skyfari’ I was pretty sure something fishy was going on. San Diego zoo was very reminiscent of Taronga, in many ways. On my second skyfari ride I rode with an employee, and she told me the zoo has a close relationship with Taronga, which I think explains why.

These photos on scrape the surface of what is a massive zoo with a vast variety of animals to see and truly beautiful landscaping. If you’re ever in the city, consider this #1 on your places to visit!

Check out this photo:

What’s that little fellow doing? Here’s some detail shots:

Yep, it’s one of our backyard squirrels munching on mushrooms that are growing in our yard!

Still can’t quite believe it? Here’s a video: