A Mixture at the Zoo

First of all, the peacock is a bird, right? So it should fly. I just never considered that it could.

Here are two males high in the tree so they can have a better look at the chicks...

We went to the zoo early to see the Panda baby. Pandas seem to sleep a lot, and the baby is no different. This little one, on the left of the picture, was sleeping when we arrived, moved once, which made it even more difficult to photograph, and slept without moving for the rest of our visit. Sometimes, the first shot is the best you're going to shoot.

About ten seconds after the last shot, Mom decided to get more comfortable, to continue her sleep of course. Now I don't know about you, but it seems that sleeping head off the bed, or just head down, would not be comfortable, but apparently it is. Try it sometime...

Since sleep was the order of the day in the first Panda enclosure, we walked on to the next where the baby's older sisters were. Now this next picture may look unusual, but pandas are very private and don't particularly like attention, they usually shy away. This is quite often the only picture that some people get.

Pandas eat bamboo. I expected it to eat the leaves and fresh shoots, which it does. but what this girl likes are fairly large chunks of bamboo trunk. These chunks are broken into manageable pieces by the Panda, then eaten. This just shows how strong these bears are.

The pandas are very good climbers [that's where they get their food in the wild], and this girl was no different, it just climbed the tree and settled for this posture as a good place to rest and sleep... Look at the wrinkles caused by the posture...

These two sisters were about 200 pounds, and a few years shy of maturity.

Not too far along were these two clowns; can the grandkids tell me what they are? They play a lot, are great swimmers, and have a lot of fun. Oh, and did I mention they play a lot?

They also live near where you do. Here they are playing some kind of game called: you nibble me, I'll nibble you.

These two were almost inseparable, mimicking each other's moves... What fun!

These ducks are Common Shelducks, I just thought they were cute.

Ditto for this little feller, but I don't know is name.

These next two were quite big, they are Saddlebill Storks, I guess these are the guys that bring cowboy babys into the world.

They say that Zebras have patterns that are never repeated, can the grandkids count how many differences there are between these two? I must admit I don't know the answer, there sure seems to be lots of subtle differences.

These were bright little flowers near one of the enclosures from little succulent plants that you can see along the highways here. Can you just imagine what a whole hill-side of these plants looks like? Almost blinding! And some are bright yellow, white, and some dark colours. Wow!

We went to the new home of the elephants, called Elephant Odyssey.

Joan watched the process of the oldest elephant of the park, 55 years old, get a pedicure, get its feet soaked and treated against infection. Her name is Cookie, and she's been part of the San Diego Zoo family for at least 18 years. She used to live at the Wild Animal Park, one of the Zoo facilities about 20 miles away [my guess....].

After the Odyssey was built and ready, they had to move some of the elephants from the Park to the Zoo. The big male had to be moved too [I'll mention him later] and he weights in at 13,000 pounds. That's probably heavier than a bulldozer! The elephants that were moved were crated, hoisted on a flatbed, and moved along public roads for about 10 hours before they were unloaded in their new home. Can you imagine the fuss involved?

All animals seem happy with their new digs, and they should be, it's an excellent facility. This is a picture of the big male with his current sweetheart. Since they don't need more elephants right now, she's on the pill... Seems everyone is happy with this arrangement.

Near the exit to the Zoo, we found a few snakes / pythons / monitor lizards and neat stuff like that. Unfortunately, they were behind glass, in quite dark quarters so photos were difficult. This next one seems quite orderly: every one we saw was coiled exactly the same way, even the picture on the legend was coiled the same way. Unfortunately, this one's head is on the other side...

Just before we left, we slipped into the hummingbird display and found a few small birds. This picture and the next are of the same bird. When it flies, there's a bright red flash, and the second picture shows that it's not the underside of the wings, it's the body itself that is bright red. Neat!

And last but not least, this little bird was hiding in a dark place, but his bright blue colours gave up his location.

Cute isn't it? Who knows what the next visit to the Zoo might entail?

I'll keep you posted.