Strange But True At The Zoo

On a beautiful 70-something degree day on the first of August, we visited the zoo for the third time this summer. We met my sister, brother-in-law and their three kids there, and Colter enjoyed exploring the zoo with his cousins. Zoo trip number three involved a crazy dancing monkey, a shaggy bear looking for pretzels, and an argument about a gibbon. It also involved some strange things depicted in the following photographs.

Look closely at the picture below. See the lady mowing? Although I didn't have a big lens with me to take a good picture, see the cheetahs the arrow is pointing to? See the fence? See how the fence is NOT between the lady and the cheetahs? What's up with that? Isn't that against some sort of zoo safety policy? What if the cheetahs decided it would be fun to catch the mower woman? It's not like she would have heard them over the roar of the mower. Even if she did hear them, I doubt she could get away. Didn't anyone ever tell her that cheetahs can run 70 miles per hour? This doesn't appear to be the wisest way to spend a Saturday morning. The lady almost deserves to be eaten!


Speaking of eating, we happened upon the alligators at feeding time. Look closely in the gator's jaws. Can you identify its lunch? It's a BUNNY RABBIT!!! One of those cute, white rabbits with the pink eyes that people keep as PETS! When we walked past the alligator enclosure, a zoo keeper was tossing dead bunnies into the alligators' mouths. Eww. Thankfully, none of the little kids that witnessed the scene were too traumatized.

This isn't all that weird, but we thought it was funny. Mr. Elephant appears to have a crop of grass growing on his back. I guess he likes his food to go.

Have you ever fed a giraffe? At our local zoo, there is a deck over the giraffes where visitors can buy wafers to feed the giraffes. It's great fun, but watch out for the tongues! Giraffe tongues can grow 18-20 inches long! Really! Go here if you don't believe me. :)

All in all, it was a fun day, although I really was concerned that the cheetahs would eat the mower lady. It was fun to watch Colter interact with his cousins. He and my youngest nephew, Justin, who is only nine months older than Colter rode together in Colter's big Radio Flyer wagon. They got along well most of the day, but when we came upon the gibbons, my other nephew, Tristan, mistakenly told us to look at the baby gorilla. Justin said, "Oh, no, that's a spider monkey." Colter responded by saying, "No, ga-illl--a" so for a minute the dialogue between Colter and Justin was

"Spider monkey!"

"Ga-illl--a!"

"Spider monkey!"
"Ga-illl--a!"

"Spider monkey!"
"Ga-illl--a!"

You get the idea. It got kind of heated. Two-year-olds think they know everything. Sheesh, boys. It was a GIBBON.