Saturday, August 27, 2011

You Live in a Zoo

Kyle and I spent our Saturday at the Columbus Zoo. I left the fancy-pants camera at home so these aren’t quite the photographic quality they would be otherwise but the animals were super friendly all afternoon and we got some pretty amazing shots all the same.

Zoo1

Behind me is the highly endangered Okapi. It’s one of the rarest animals housed at the Cbus Zoo and also one of my favorites.

Zoo3

Zoo2

We visited the Bonobos’ habitat and I fell in love.
Bonobos are awesome, in case you didn’t know. They’re one of the few species that have a sense of identity (they even recognize themselves in the mirror). They live in female-dominated groups and hunt/gather together. If you’ve read Sara Gruen’s latest novel, The Ape House, these are the amazing apes her characters interact with (and if you loved Water for Elephants, you totally should be reading it!)


Zoo4

We were fortunate enough to visit the gorilla habitat when Mac, the silverback (or male leader), was trying to show off in front of the keeper and docent. They told us he’ll often wait for a crowd and then run up to the glass and pound on it to scare people. He loves the attention and he definitely had mine (I totally jumped a foot in the air).

Zoo5
The leopard was taking a nap right beside the visitor’s window when we stopped by…

 

Zoo6

Don’t tell Kyle, but this is my new boyfriend. He’s a Komodo dragon and he seriously was as close as this picture makes him appear. He came right up to the glass and stared deep into my eyes. What can I say, we had a moment…be still my warm-blooded heart.
Zoo11

Kyle looks upset. Either it’s the price of drinks at Flamingo Hideaway or he just found out about me and the Komodo dragon. Oops.

Zoo12

Loved this quote on the sign outside the manatee preserve. The Columbus Zoo is one of the only programs in the world that rescues manatees and rehabilitates them to be released back into the wild.

Zoo10

So what about YOU? What did you do today? Anyone see any animals lately (in the zoo or out in the wild)?

love, elizabeth

8 comments:

Alex Byer said...

Oh goodness I love the zoo! I love seeing all of the animals, it's so fun. Especially pandas. Duh.

Today, I said "see ya" to my godbrother who's going to study in China for a few months. It was super fun, and I made a delicious banana pudding :) Now, I'm going to get cozy and get ready for Hurricane Irene. Oy.

Madison said...

I have never been to a zoo! how sad is that?!

but.. today I went fishing and berry picking with the fam. bears, foxes, eagles and tons of bugs were present! kinda like a zoo...

Mrs. Pancakes said...

Awesome way to spend the day! We were home all day staying away from the hurrican and the hubby doing everything else to prevent playing scrabble with me:-)

Becca {A Blonde's Logic} said...

I looooove Okapis!!! For the longest time they were my absolute favorite animal! Still in the top 5 though!

Becca
http://blondeslogic.blogspot.com

Faith said...

ahhh, i love the zoo! i haven't gone in a lil while but this makes me want to take a visit!

Kate&Garrett said...

remind me to tell you about the terrifying SQUIRREL that moved into my garage and attacked me while Garrett was gone (translation: I left the garage door open and the squirrel took up residence because it couldn't figure out how to get back out... one night I startled it and it jumped out of it's hiding place and bounced off my leg... )

Sarah said...

The animals look gorgeous, Looks like you had a ton of fun =)

Sara said...

I love going to the zoo! It's always so nice to be outside and spend time with the animals. The last zoo I went to was on New Years day on vacation in NJ. (I thought about them a lot during Irene because Cape May was evacuated...)

Looking forward to reading Ape House...my weekend was spent playing scrabble and reading The Hunger Games

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