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Zoo Zoo Zoo
Feb. 8th, 2004 01:21 pmTHIS is very very VERY cool.
As you may or may not know, I went to the zoo last Saturday. I have been lazy and not posted about it. I am lacking webspace and motivation (not to mention my camera batteries ran out early in the piece) so there will be no photos here. Just observations. As usual in no particular order.
- The new talking zoo thing available is not too bad. The headphones were surprisingly comfortable for bud earphones, and you get to keep them. The only problem was a loose connection, which these headphones always get as soon as you open them. Most of the stuff it talks about is stuff I already know but some of the info was new to me and even surprised me a little. I think it's great for people visiting the zoo to learn more about the animals they're seeing.
- One of the female orang-utans put a shirt on! Just like a human would. That was very cool to see.
- The bush thick knee in one of the aviarys was being weird. It wasn't at all bothered by me being really close and was making a strange noise and running it's beak along the bars, I was sure it would give itself a headache. I ran my finger along the bars and it would follow me. Weird birdie.
- One of the birds in the aviary... I forget what it was called but obviously a close relation to a canary because it's whistle was very canary like. And it was fluffy and BRIGHT flouro'ish orange and black. Stunning bird.
- I had "conversations" with the loris and eclectus parrots. One short whistle is enough to get them all whistling and chattering away.
- The snakes were all either out "sunning" or active, like the tiger snake. The poor docent who gave the reptile talk had a water python which is apparently the most recalcitrant of the handling snakes. This snake balled itself around her hands and proceeded to start cutting the circulation off. Her hands and lower arms were quite red when she finally dislodged the misbehaving snake (with the help of another docent).
- The echidnas are in a new enclosure behind glass now. Their old enclosure is now filled in with dirt.
- There is now a row of bollards up the middle of the rhino enclosure. Memphis, Sabie and Tamu are in the large section. Kitala is in the other side. Apparently this is part of experiments to get Kitala sexually receptive. She has shown nothing since they got her and they really want to breed from her as well as Sabie. They are trying different living arrangements to try and get Kitala and Memphis interested in mating.
- Tamu is getting BIG! She is now 750 kilos. They will probably move her in with Kitala soon.
- Kerry was giving the keeper talk. She said something that was of interest. White rhinos are the only rhinos not regarded as endangered. They were removed from the endagered list 2 years ago and are now classified as vunerable. That's great news!
- The new male tiger from Germany has arrived!! Being a new arrival though he had access to his night quarters during the day. Couldn't see him, I imagine he was being shy.
- Work doesn't seem to have started on enlarging the elephant enclosure yet. Silup (that's his keeper name, his name to the public is Putra Mas - which means Golden Prince) is still kept in the small back yard during the day. He's big and he has impressive tusks now. It'll be interesting to see how he behaves in full public display. This is one severly hormonal elephant, the little bugger charged me once when I was sweeping outside his enclosure, lucky the bars are strong! I've also seen him rip a tyre to shreds in one of his moods. He's not a bad elephant - in fact the very reason they haven't sent him to another zoo is because someone recommended they keep him because he'd make a brilliant breeding elephant. He's just a male, and hormonal and nowhere NEAR as docile as the females.
- One surprising thing I heard on the talking zoo. The red pandas usually eat bamboo and fruit, I knew this. But "If a possum gets into the enclosure it's unlikely it will escape." So they like to supplement their diets.
- Saw loads of Nankeen Night Herons - none in breeding plumage however - all drab and mottled brown.
- In one of the walk through aviarys a mallee fowl was busy digging a hole right near the walkway. Didn't seem to fazed by people getting really close. He worked at the hole for quite a while, not sure what he was digging for.
- They occaisionally feed the big cats a whole carcass for an activity feed. I MUST find out when they do this so I can view it, I reckon that would be awesome.
- The Satin Bowerbird in the aviary section had actually built a bower! And suitably decorated with various blue objects and snail shells. I imagine a lot of the blue stuff is provided by the keepers, but some looked like rubbish that could have just gotten into the cage because people don't know how to use bins.
And that was my trip to the zoo! Next time I will remember to take some food with me because I was starving by the time I got home. I didn't have any money on me and I wouldn't pay zoo prices for food anyway.
( TMI )
As you may or may not know, I went to the zoo last Saturday. I have been lazy and not posted about it. I am lacking webspace and motivation (not to mention my camera batteries ran out early in the piece) so there will be no photos here. Just observations. As usual in no particular order.
- The new talking zoo thing available is not too bad. The headphones were surprisingly comfortable for bud earphones, and you get to keep them. The only problem was a loose connection, which these headphones always get as soon as you open them. Most of the stuff it talks about is stuff I already know but some of the info was new to me and even surprised me a little. I think it's great for people visiting the zoo to learn more about the animals they're seeing.
- One of the female orang-utans put a shirt on! Just like a human would. That was very cool to see.
- The bush thick knee in one of the aviarys was being weird. It wasn't at all bothered by me being really close and was making a strange noise and running it's beak along the bars, I was sure it would give itself a headache. I ran my finger along the bars and it would follow me. Weird birdie.
- One of the birds in the aviary... I forget what it was called but obviously a close relation to a canary because it's whistle was very canary like. And it was fluffy and BRIGHT flouro'ish orange and black. Stunning bird.
- I had "conversations" with the loris and eclectus parrots. One short whistle is enough to get them all whistling and chattering away.
- The snakes were all either out "sunning" or active, like the tiger snake. The poor docent who gave the reptile talk had a water python which is apparently the most recalcitrant of the handling snakes. This snake balled itself around her hands and proceeded to start cutting the circulation off. Her hands and lower arms were quite red when she finally dislodged the misbehaving snake (with the help of another docent).
- The echidnas are in a new enclosure behind glass now. Their old enclosure is now filled in with dirt.
- There is now a row of bollards up the middle of the rhino enclosure. Memphis, Sabie and Tamu are in the large section. Kitala is in the other side. Apparently this is part of experiments to get Kitala sexually receptive. She has shown nothing since they got her and they really want to breed from her as well as Sabie. They are trying different living arrangements to try and get Kitala and Memphis interested in mating.
- Tamu is getting BIG! She is now 750 kilos. They will probably move her in with Kitala soon.
- Kerry was giving the keeper talk. She said something that was of interest. White rhinos are the only rhinos not regarded as endangered. They were removed from the endagered list 2 years ago and are now classified as vunerable. That's great news!
- The new male tiger from Germany has arrived!! Being a new arrival though he had access to his night quarters during the day. Couldn't see him, I imagine he was being shy.
- Work doesn't seem to have started on enlarging the elephant enclosure yet. Silup (that's his keeper name, his name to the public is Putra Mas - which means Golden Prince) is still kept in the small back yard during the day. He's big and he has impressive tusks now. It'll be interesting to see how he behaves in full public display. This is one severly hormonal elephant, the little bugger charged me once when I was sweeping outside his enclosure, lucky the bars are strong! I've also seen him rip a tyre to shreds in one of his moods. He's not a bad elephant - in fact the very reason they haven't sent him to another zoo is because someone recommended they keep him because he'd make a brilliant breeding elephant. He's just a male, and hormonal and nowhere NEAR as docile as the females.
- One surprising thing I heard on the talking zoo. The red pandas usually eat bamboo and fruit, I knew this. But "If a possum gets into the enclosure it's unlikely it will escape." So they like to supplement their diets.
- Saw loads of Nankeen Night Herons - none in breeding plumage however - all drab and mottled brown.
- In one of the walk through aviarys a mallee fowl was busy digging a hole right near the walkway. Didn't seem to fazed by people getting really close. He worked at the hole for quite a while, not sure what he was digging for.
- They occaisionally feed the big cats a whole carcass for an activity feed. I MUST find out when they do this so I can view it, I reckon that would be awesome.
- The Satin Bowerbird in the aviary section had actually built a bower! And suitably decorated with various blue objects and snail shells. I imagine a lot of the blue stuff is provided by the keepers, but some looked like rubbish that could have just gotten into the cage because people don't know how to use bins.
And that was my trip to the zoo! Next time I will remember to take some food with me because I was starving by the time I got home. I didn't have any money on me and I wouldn't pay zoo prices for food anyway.
( TMI )
