Zoo Day, 09-15-19

Around 8:30 I decided to head out to the Sacramento Zoo. Haven’t had a zoo day for a while, and the weather was supposed to behave itself today: a low of 61º and a high of 84º.

I got to the zoo just as it opened. I didn’t know this was going to be Girl Scout Day, though, and there were m’jillions of the little ferrets ev-ery-where! I tried to stay in areas where they weren’t and was pretty successful. I didn’t dare go in the reptile house, though. Too many people squeezing through it.

Remember, if you go to the zoo from now through 2020, if you drop your token into the wishing well with the Black Bear on it, Tuleyome will get more funding for its habitat restoration and wildlife study work at the Silver Spur Ranch in Lake County. CLICK HERE to learn more about that project.

Dropping a token into this wishing well in the front of the zoo will make Tuleyome eligible for more funding for its Silver Spur Ranch project.

The Wolf’s Guenons have another newborn, and the spindly baby was scrambling all over the enclosure – always close enough to mom so she could keep an eye on him, but not so close that she could grab him and make him behave. Smart kid!

When he got close to the chain link wall that abuts the Mongoose Lemur enclosure, the lemurs came close to check him out. Then three of the adult Wolf’s Guenons put themselves between the baby and the mongooses (mongeese?) and started growling and barking at them until the mongooses backed off. Icky neighbors. I’ve been in that situation before but didn’t have helper monkeys to defend me. Hah!

CLICK HERE to see the full album of photos.

I checked in on Padme the Aardvark, and she was sleeping in her cave. It looked, though, like she was sleeping with a cat snuggled in against its chin(!) but I couldn’t tell for sure.

What do you think Padme has tucked up under her chin?

The otters were showing off, swimming and then hopping out of the water to stand up on their hind legs and look at the crowd. The meerkats across the path form the otters, not to be outdone, did something similar, only they dug in the gravel before standing up to stare at people. Hah!

I didn’t get to see the lions, but I could hear dad roaring from inside the building where he and the female were being kept while the keepers finished cleaning their enclosure. He was so loud that I could hear him all the way over on the opposite side of the zoo.

The Snow Leopard baby, Coconut, was out with his mom, Misha, and he’s almost bigger than she is now! Not a baby anymore. But he’s still a playful kitten inside, bouncing all over the place, pouncing on his mom, rolling around. He’s so fun to watch… And Misha is so patient with him. What a good mama.

The baby Snow Leopard, Coconut, isn’t such a “baby” anymore.

The sloth was out – and she’s hardly ever out. Her name is Edwina and she’s 25 years old. She was having some breakfast and then disappeared, very slowly, into her “cave”.

One of the Red Pandas was also out and actually moving about. Usually, when I see them, they’re sleeping — if they’re out at all. This one groomed himself and looked around and scratched… Not terribly exciting, but at least it made for some fairly good photos.

I saw the Okapi, who is still very stand-offish and hides in the shadows so you can’t get any good photos of him. There were supposed to be a pair of Black Crowned Cranes in with him, but I didn’t see them.

Both the chimpanzees and orangutans were out, and some of them were “posing”. One of the orangs, though, was sitting in a doorway in her enclosure with a blanket over her head. She’d peek out now and then, but really looked like she just wanted to sleep in this morning.

I walked for about 2 ½ hours before heading home. but before I left, I stopped at the cafe and had some nachos for lunch, ad went into the gift store and got a big plushie sloth. Hah!