Dinosaurs and other Critters at the Zoo, 10-18-19

Up at 7:00 am. Well this was a busier, longer day than I thought it would be. I was going to go to the zoo on Thursday but was too tired to go anywhere. I was feeling stronger today, so I took a shower, put my laundry away and then went to the Sacramento Zoo.

When I first got there, there were only about 3 other people in the zoo, so it was nice and quiet, and I was able to get lots of photos without interference. I noticed that Tuleyome’s wishing well now has 69,494 tokens in it and is in second place, behind the lions’ well but ahead of the zebras’ well. The more tokens we get, the more money the zoo will give us at the end of the year for our habitat restoration and wildlife studies at the Silver Spur Ranch.

I was able to see the Snow Leopards Misha and her son Coconut just as they came out and went after some big beef bones that had been set out for them. Coconut is so much larger than his mom, now, it’s amazing. He used his beef bone like a giant toy and threw it around the enclosure before settling down to chew on it. Hah! Both of the Bongos were also out, as were the Zebras.

Coconut the Snow Leopard is now bigger than his mom, Misha.

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos and video snippets.

What I really wanted to see today were the newly upgraded lion and jaguar enclosures. The lions’ enclosure used to be behind chain link. Now, it’s double the size it used to be with an all glass front so you can see the big cats without any encumbrances. I was able to get quite a few close-ups of both the male and female lion.

The jaguar enclosure is the same size it was before, but they’ve cleared out a lot of the heavy brush that was in there and put glass along the front. Right next to its enclosure, though, there were some mechanical dinosaurs and the roars from the dinos was kind of freaking out the female jaguar. She kept trying to figure out where the roars were coming from and sat with her tail flicking nervously before rushing off to the back of her enclosure.

The dinosaurs were part of the zoo’s “Discover the Dinosaurs” exhibit. I don’t know if they were life-size, but they were all certainly very large. Some of the children were afraid of them; others kept saying, “They’re not real. They’re just robots with skin.” Hah! A couple of them were by the main gate, and others were scattered around the zoo. The T-Rex was back behind some building where the okapis’ enclosure was. You could hear it before you saw it. There were little “clue dinosaurs” around the zoo that would let you know where the big ones were “hidden”. If kids could find all of the little clues and write down a list of where they found them, they could get a free sticker. Cute. I saw all of the dinos except for the Pteranodon which was apparently hiding somewhere around the gift shop (maybe inside?).

Part of the big pond where the flamingoes, pelicans and ducks live was under construction, so everyone was crammed into a smaller pond. Some of the flamingoes weren’t happy about that, I guess, because some of them were “arguing” with one another.

I finally got to see the Black Crowned Cranes. They’ve been at the zoo for a while, but I was never able to find them. They’re handsome birds! Look like they have a Rococo-esque halo on their head.

Black Crowned Crane from the back. Look at the lovely “halo”!

The Kookaburras were out doing their laughing calls. One of them was able to do it even with his beak full of dead mouse! Ventriloquist!

I stopped walking around 11:00 am and had a light lunch of tea and some French fries. Then I went into the reptile house and got a few photos in there before heading out. I ended up walking for almost 4 hours!

I had a side trip on the way home from the zoo. I stopped on a whim at the SPCA and adopted a new dog: Esteban.