My belated Zoo PHOTOS!
So last Saturday I took a trip to the San Diego Zoo while my parents were in town to visit me. Feast your eyes on some of these critter photos I shot!
The Zoo wasn't as big as I'd imagined, but there was a lot of stuff going on, and the San Diego Zoo is really big on conservation projects and natural habitat things that you don't exactly see in action on the grounds.
Here's an aerial view of some bear habitats I got while we were riding the bus. There's a bear down there somewhere, I swear.
This spot reminded me of Jurassic Park, so I took a picture. I think they keep the Raptors out there. I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY BRED RAPTORS!!!
And this is where they keep the Pterodactyls. I wish.
These cute little guys are Takin. They're a Chinese national treasure, according to the tour guide. Those two youngsters kept trying to fight the Takin in the middle. It was frickin' adorable.
I don't know how one Bird of Paradise gets away with being 'Superb' and one gets to be 'Magnificent'. They were both pretty unremarkable and hard to see, so I just took pictures of the signs, instead.
This is just some pig. There were a lot of pigs at The Zoo. I bet they're raising them to feed to the T-Rex they keep hidden somewhere...
Shhh...this Monitor is sleeping...don't wake it up or it'll kill you with its poisonous jaws!
This Red Tree Kangaroo wasn't feeling very photogenic. He was just waking up from a nap and refused to come out from behind that post, so I snapped this candid shot when he was least suspecting it. I feel like some kind of Kangaroo Paprazzi.
What you're looking at here happens to be THE RAREST DEER IN THE WORLD!!! Doesn't look that special to me. Maybe if it had solid gold antlers or something...then we'd be getting somewhere...of course, it's a female and doesn't have any antlers at all. So let's just pretend that the males of the species DO have solid gold antlers. There we go...now THAT'S rare!
Not pictured: Solid-Gold-Antler Deer (male)
What you're looking at on the top is a Polar Bear trying desperately to get a floaty toy out of the rocks. He'd dive down, smoosh his head into the rocks and dig the toy out a few minutes later. Then he'd let it float to the surface and promptly shove it back into the rocks. Fun game, Polar Bear. Fun game. His wiser brother was spending time on the rocks getting a little furtan. Polar Bears are so COOL!
Here's a mini-horse from the petting zoo. Nothing really special about him, besides the fact that he looked more suicidal than any other animal at The Zoo. I guess if I was a mini-horse I wouldn't have much to live for, either. There's not much call for mini-cart-pulling these days. We should ship all of our mini-horses off to a mini-island full of pygmies where they can be put to better use. Somebody start a petition!
Here's some Meercats. They weren't cracking jokes or being sarcastic or ANYTHING. That Lion King was full of crap. I at least expected a Groucho Marx impression, but all they did was run around and go on high alert every time the tour bus squealed its brakes. I guess that was pretty funny, at least.
If I had a pet Marabou Stork, I'd name him "Mister Burns" and teach him to caw "Excellent" every time he stalked into a room. This bird was pretty scary, though. I don't wanna have any run-ins with any Marabou Storks anytime soon.
The Elephants here weren't very impressive. I guess when you've got Pandas hiding around the corner, Elephants are allowed to take a backseat. I named the one elephant that was being active "Stampy", for obvious reasons. ELEPHANT FUN FACT: An Elephant will never forget your phone number!
Zebras...yadda yadda...everybody's seen Zebras before, you ain't hidin' from nobody. Hand me a stick of Fruit Stripe Gum, then we'll talk. Until then, you're just a stripey horse to me.
Here's one of my favorites. We were walking through the Reptile House and, for whatever reason, this Zoo Dude was rearranging the rocks and plants inside of this habitat. Look closely and you can see the mini-Crocodile in the water. There were two others to the left, just below that Zoo Dude's hand. The little Croc in the water kept trying to sneak up and out the back door, but the Zoo Dude kept using a little prod to push it back down into the water. There were some turtles in there trying to make a break for it, as well. He just plunked them with the stick and they'd go back down in the water. But that Croc just kept fighting back. He was probably trying to get out to attend a Steve Irwin Memorial Service. R.I.P. Croc Hunter!
Ranking in with what must be the coolest animal name at The Zoo, here you see some White-Faced Whistling Ducks. Sure enough, they were whistlin' instead of quackin'. It was surreal.
Here we have a Koala, doing its Koala thing and eating some Eucalyptus leaves. KOALA FUN FACT: The Koala Bear isn't a bear at all! It's a Koala!
I'll just put all my Primates together here...first we have a tiny baby monkey sitting on a branch. It was totally cute. Then we got a couple of Chimps, doin' whatever it is Chimps do besides eating bugs and flinging poo. Then the Gorillas decided to pose for some great photos. The last one is a new mother...you can see the baby gorilla riding on her back. The little gorilla kept swinging down and trying to investigate whatever the mother was eating, but she'd grab him and swing him back up onto her back. It was awesome. Go Team Nature!
I don't remember what this is, but it was some kind of a Pretty Cow Thing. So that's what I'll call it.
I think Giraffes are awesome. Every Saturday they let you feed the Giraffes treats during a certain time so they were all out at the gate for these great pictures. I didn't feed them because I couldn't make myself cough up Five Bucks for some Giraffe Snax, but it was fun to watch. GIRAFFE FUN FACT: Giraffes are tall!
Africa must have been having a sale on similar-looking gazelle-type animals, because The Zoo has a ton of them. Here's a few of them relaxing on a Saturday afternoon. The one on the left looks like he's telling a joke to another Gazelle out of frame.
I forget what this big ol' bird called itself, but it was pretty damn majestic. It also looked like it was wearing tiny black pants at the tops of its legs.
PANDA FUN FACT: Giant Pandas Love Coca-Cola!
I don't think I have to say much about Pandas. Everybody knows that Pandas are totally awesome and it was nice to see them out actually eating bamboo and being cute. The Panda habitat is really nice; they've got a huge bamboo forest growing around it and all that. But Pandas are sensitive to sounds, so there's a tour lady inside the viewing area shushing everybody. I'm pretty sure that Pandas sleep like 22 hours a day so I lucked out getting these shots!
And there we have it. My trip to The San Diego Zoo! Hope ya liked it. Comment as thou wilt. =)