Small furry animal spoons

[stephbg]

Up early again this morning and made an effort to do some work but was distracted by unscheduled cat vomit and laundry. I then realised that the sun was shining, so sacrificed a narrow window of opportunity to visit emma_in_oz in order to get myself to the zoo and stretch my legs. Sorry Em!



The long skinny zoo car park is no longer free, but I failed to notice this until I came back. Oops. Fortunately I got away with this today. In other fund-raising news the new adult entry fee for the zoo is $20 which will make life much easier for the staff on the door.

To the beasties

Started today with the wetland birds. My, brolgas are big. They were also dancing around a bit which was interesting to watch. I got quietly excited observing lines of bubbles and waiting for the diving birds to re-emerge on the surface. Until, that is, I realised that I was watching a pump outflow. Oops. Good thing I find the infrastructure as much fun as the animals :-)

Found the new glass-fronted semi-submerged crocodile exhibit for Simmo, the Very Very Large Crocodile. When I arrived Simmo was underwater blowing bubbles, ignoring the little fish darting about and little else. I was not entirely convinced that he was real but eventually spotted an eyelid movement. People came and went, clearly convinced he was a static display. They probably should have looked at the large poster on the wall headed "IS HE REAL?" Yes, he just conserves energy. A lot.

Patience was rewarded when Simmo eventually stirred and surfaced to breathe. The water was just the right depth for him to dangle his limbs and appear to stand at full height. I've seen Simmo before--he's been at the zoo for many many years--and I've also seen a lot of big crocodiles in captivity, but I have never seen one from the POV of an underwater lunch candidate. Whoa. That's a lot of predator.

I followed my nose and worked my way up through the Australian Bushwalk section, but it's a bit of a pain really: lots of slog for very little reward, and a sensation of entrapment until you finally emerge at the top of the hill. Somewhere along the line I'd also bought some striped cushions and bookshelves.

I did find myself at the numbat enclosure for the first time. This involved going through an unmarked gate so I wasn't *entirely* certain I was supposed to be there, but the signage returned in force. It's certainly tucked away and probably protects the numbats from a certain proportion of visitors. Being both rare and shy I wasn't really expecting to see one, and my doubts were reinforced by the amount of educational and audio-visual material in the viewing hut. The more posters, videos and interpretive signage in the place, the less likely you are to see the actual animal. That's a theory I just made up. Like it? I think it works.

At first, nada, so I sat down to rest and wait. To my surprise the numbat emerged into the sunshine in quite clear view. It scuffled about, occasionally standing up like a meerkat, and it came within a few feet of me. It was gorgeous! I've never seen one this close before (did I mention rare and shy?) and I guess I've always kind of taken their image for granted. This one was extra fluffy with its winter coat, and its markings were much more detailed and pretty than the usual illustrations. Spots, stripes and shadings made this an exquisite little creature, in perfect condition.

Then the teenagers arrived. The numbat fled long before they got near the viewing platform, so I called it a num-day and moved on.

Let's see... quick check on the red pandas: no sighting. Just one tiger, and I watched it wash its face for a while. The otters were out and about, noisily demanding to be fed. Four giraffes were out today and I watched them for a little while before being overwhelmed by several families with toddlers spreading out for the serious and complicated business of morning tea.

Found myself alone at one of the lion viewing points so I tried out my lion cub impression. The cats were too busy recharging their solar batteries to get very excited, but I'll claim an ear twitch and head turn from one of the males as mine. The aforementioned cub impression once made a lioness very excited indeed, so I shall continue to try it when the opportunity presents itself again.

Nearly done. The rhino enclosure featured a pile of (presumably) rhino poo as big as a house. And once again people: painted dogs are not hyenas.

In the end I was there for two hours, which was much longer than intended and a bit spoon-heavy, but it was so nice to be out, and all this is free!

Comments

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

No worries.

[possbert.livejournal.com]

Leece and Rob are convinced that the numbats aren't real - they're stuffed and we just shift them about a bit to give the impression that they're moving.

The otters ALWAYS sound like they want feeding. If they see anyone coming at them from the off-display area, they get terribly excited.

Simmo's new exhibit is almost finished and will look very speccy when it's done.