Bless me LJ for I have sinned. It has been seven days since my last update.

[sammywol]

There is plenty of stuff to report. In fact there was last week too before I got mired in the mess that was the mad contraception=abortion insanity in the US

Comments

[leedy]

I too am really impressed by how much the zoo has improved, and is continuing to improve. We were there on Sunday and I practically had to drag Brian away from the gibbons swinging around in the trees, he could have watched them for hours. We were also enthralled by the Gorilla Sitcom, the gorilla family were extremely active and playful (and the baby! Being fed by his mum! Doing somersaults! Trying to pinch his giant silverback dad on the bottom!).

[sammywol]

Last time we were there last year's baby was being tickled by his Dad who was giving him belly-blow raspberries which were obviously amusing the hell out of them both. A little inner city darling next to me called 'Mum! MUM! Come see this monkey eat the other one!' Clutches head!

[leedy]

While we were there, one of the younger gorillas kept trying to get chases off his dad (normally by running up, bopping him on the head, and running away), so there was a lot of running around and wrestling and chest-beating and teeth-baring and generally, I assume, what counts as "great skit"/normal social behaviour if you're a gorilla. I was between two families, one of whose parents kept telling their children that the gorillas were "having lovely big hugs" and one of whose parents kept trying to shield their children's eyes from the brutal gorilla violence.

*sighs*

[leedy]

"having lovely big hugs" and one of whose parents kept trying to shield their children's eyes from the brutal gorilla violence.
feels slightly ill. Yech!

[owlfish]

How are the elephants at the Dublin Zoo? (Reason for interest is here.)

[leedy]

Hee! Dublin Zoo seems plentifully equipped with elephants - I'm not sure exactly how many there are, but there are two junior elephants (one born last year, one born this year) who are VERY CUTE.

*rummages on internet*

Aha, this handy global elephant database tells me there are five elephants in total.

They have a spiffy new outdoor area with a "rainforest elephant trail" through it, but sadly they had been brought in for their tea by the time we got to it.

[sammywol]

Cushy these days. They have a great compound covered in a red mud with water and high hung haynets and log piles to play with and their inside house is state of the art with more enrichment items to keep them busy at night.

However their old pair of females used to be an awful sight in the 80s. One was mad and weaved constantly (circus refugee) and another was damaged in one eye (another ex-circus animal) and so fell into the huge concrete ditches round the edge of the outdoor area and so had a permanent limp. It is wonderful to see the current group all being a family the way elephants are supposed to.

[leedy]

One of my favourite things I learned about the indoor area is that the keepers build them piles of sand to nap on every evening.

Apparently elephants can sleep standing up if they only have a nasty hard floor, but they don't necessarily want to.

[anonymous]

Good luck riding herd on Indiana Oscar:) Both of mt nephews (and to a lesser extent, my nieces) were fearless little daredevils whose exploits put some age on their parents/grandparents/uncles & aunts. Christopher, especially, did things that caused many near heart attacks...and all of them at a dead run.

Yay for the Dublin Zoo improving things! It is always a good thing when we improve the lot of animals in captivity.

[doc_mystery]

(emits jealousy waves) Sounds like a great getaway trip, and a fun zoo!

::B::

[enigmaticblues]

Sounds like a great zoo trip! We've got one within driving distance that's really, really cool. One of these days I'll make MMW take me. :-)

[enigmaticblues]

support the good zoo! If nothing else you can draw support away from any not so good zoos in the region.

that is when you have finished the petty trivia that is going to dominate your life this coming week ;)