LA Zoo Meet-up!

On March 28, 2009 me and a hand full of flickr members from the LA Zoo group met at the Los Angeles Zoo. I'm glad I got to meet these wonderful people and I was also glad to learn that they had a passion for the LA Zoo like I did. The day was perfect for the meet as in the morning it was kind of fresh, but as the day went on it kind of got hot but not too much.

Righ after we met at the zoo's entrance we headed over to the Children's Zoo were we got to see Chico and Barky (the meerkats) cuddling in a tub with hay. They seemed very happy together, and I'm glad that Chico finally has a friend. We also got to see the new four meerkats, as they were back on their exhibit. The male was doing sentry duty, two of the females were eating lettuce and the third female was sleeping. I was surprised that they weren't as active as the last time I saw them.

Barky and Chico cuddling


Male meerkat doing sentry duty


Female meerkat eating lettuce

After the meerkats we headed over to the Australia section of the zoo. Some animals were active in this area, and some were sleeping like always. The Red Kangaroos were surprisingly not sleeping, as they were eating. The koalas were sleeping as always, as were the wallabies. The big aviary in the center home to the hornbills and yellow-footed rock wallabies had some work done to it. All the trees were trimmed which made it possible to see the Red-knobbed Hornbills. Even though the trees were trimmed, the male was still hidding inside the trees. Over at "Dragons of Komodo", the female was digging which may mean that she is about to lay eggs, and the male was sun bathing in the sun.

Red-knobbed Hornbill female


Male Komodo Dragon

After leaving Australia, the group headed over to Campo Gorilla Reserve and noticed that Rapunzel and Glenda were still out by themselves. After the gorillas, we headed over to North America were everything was normal, with nothing interesting going on. The zebras, pronghorns, peccaries, the anoa, and the babirusa were all walking around their exhibit. The bighorn sheep, the camel, and the wild dog were all chilling in the shade. I also saw the new Sacred Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, and Hawk in their new exhibits.

Peninsular Pronghorn


Bighorn Sheep


Sacred Ibis

We then moved on to Red Ape Rainforest to see the Orangutans. As always, Berani (the 4 year old orang) was playing around the enclosure with mom (Kalim) and grandma (Eloise). Bruno, which is the big male was nowhere to be found. On the big exhibit both Mynyak and Rosie were laying on the ground resting under the shade. After visiting the orangs we decided to visit the Chimpanzees, who were all resting under the shade by the rocks next to the waterfall.

Chimpanzee troop resting under the shade

The African section of the zoo was rather quiet this day with only the fossas and the bongos being active. The fossas were walking so fast that I could not take any photo. The bongos were awake, which was weird since they had been sleeping most of the time the last couple of times I visited the zoo. In the lion exhibit only Lionel (male) was on exhibit with no signs of Cookie (female). Lionel was just laying down on his heater on the left side of the exhibit. In the giraffe exhibit, one of the females was not on exhibit, hopefully nothing bad happened.

Bongos drinking water


Lionel the lion

Both the Eurasia and South America sections of the zoo were rather quiet, which might have been due to the hot weather. The tigers, bears, hippo, and rhino were all sleeping. I did get a chance to take a photo of the Bali Mynah which is one of the most beautiful and vocal birds that I've seen. The snow leopards were surprisingly awake, even though it was a hot day. We stayed in South America so that we could see Billy the elephant play in the sprinkelers. He seemed very happy to play in the water on a hot day. After South America we walked over to the griffon vulture aviary to see these majestic birds.

Bali Mynah


Cape Griffon Vulture


Cape Griffon Vulture

After this we all left the zoo, but I returned as it was still too early. I stayed by the harbor seals for a while, then I went over to the Children's Zoo. On the way to the Children's Zoo I took a photo of Reggie the Alligator. I got to take some photos of the Agouti, the tamarins, the meerkats again, the Black Duiker calf, the prairie dog, and the pelicans. I also got to see for the first time a baby La Plata 3-banded Armadillo which was being carried by it's mother and the Slow Loris, although it was just sleeping.

Harbor Seal


Harbor Seals


Reggie the Alligator


Agouti


Meerkats Barky and Chico


Cotton-topped Tamarins


Black Duiker calf


Black-tailed Prairie Dog


Brown Pelicans

Hope you guys enjoy! Till next time!

Snow Day Cont. (March 14, 2009)

Well, on March 14 I also got to see the other animals at the zoo. At the beginning of the zoo, I got to see both Barky and Chico (meerkats) play around in their indoor exhibit at the Children's Zoo. At first I could not see them because they were inside their tubes, but then Barky appeared and went over to their digging box. After that, he went to the front of the exhibit where Chico followed there after. This was my first time seeing both Chico and Barky do sentry dutty at the same time. It was a joy seeing them together, and finally seeing Chico happy.

Barky (left) and Chico

Also, for the first time in a long time I got to see the elderly Lesser Asian Civet awake and active. She is a nocturnal animal from south east asia, so she spends most of the time asleep in her nest box. Being that she is the only one of her species in the US, it's really important I take enough photos of her.

Small Indian Civet

The other animals that were active at the Children's Zoo were the red-flanked duiker, the gerenuk, and the antelope ground squirrels. I also got to see the mysterious Axolotls that are located inside the cave. Many people never get to see this weird but cool animals. Axolotls are salamanders that originate from Mexico. These are some of the most endargered amphibian species in the world today.

Red-flanked Duiker

Axolotl

After the Children's Zoo I headed over to the main zoo. The first exhibit is the meerkats, but they were not on exhibit, as some construction was going on in the exhibit. In the Australia section everything was the same with most animals sleeping. Over at Campo Gorilla Reserve it was rather quiet as only Glenda and Rapunzel were out on the family exhibit. According to the sign in the front of the exhibit both Kelly and Evelyn are being introduced to the new gorilla Alafia. It said that they plan for her to be on exhibit by this summer. The bachelors were nowhere to be seen.

Glenda (baby) and Rapunzel

Over at the North American section everything was the same, but I did notice that the baby Babirusa was no longer with the mother. In the African section the lions were taking their daily nap. The giraffes were just roaming around. The chimps were sleeping. The okapi was just standing in the back. The only animals that were active were the Coquerel's Sifakas, the Colobus monkeys, and only two of the mandrills.

Coquerel's Sifaka

After that I headed over to the Steller's Sea Eagles, which were taking care of their first egg. One of the eagles was standing by the nest and the other one, which was barely visible, was sitting on the egg. Hopefully the egg will hatch and the eagles will raise a healthy chick. The Siamangs and the gibbons were loud as always, but especially the gibbons by the hippo exhibit.

Steller's Sea Eagle

I also got to see Randa the indian rhino for the first time in a long time. She was out on the left exhibit walking around the tree as her pool was filling up. Randa is an elderly rhino, and I once heard from her keeper that she is well into her fortys.

Randa in her exhibit

Randa

At the end, I headed over to the South American section were I got to see the Aldabra Tortoises walking in their open exhibit. Most animals in this section were active, except the Maned Wolves and Jaguar. I also got a shot of the Red-legged Seriema and the Baird's Tapir, who was awake for the first time in a long time. I then headed over to the Cape Griffon Vulture aviary, where I got to see one of the two new chicks.

Aldabra Tortoise


Red-legged Seriema


Cape Griffon Vultures

Last but not least, I got to see Billy in his new enclosure and he seemed happy. He was playing with his tire for a while until he headed over to his temporary barn.

Hope you guys enjoy my visit. I will be going to the zoo on March 28th, so I will be writting what I saw that day. Till next time.

My first blog! - Snow Days at the LA Zoo

I have been visiting the Los Angeles Zoo since late 2004 every weekend of every month of every year. For the past 5 years, I've seen the zoo grow. When I first visited the zoo, it did not have the new Campo Gorilla Reserve open, so i was kind of sad because they are one of my favorite animals. The zoo did not even have it's current entrance open and most of the zoo was a construction mess. Now the LA zoo is better than ever, and with the upcoming new elephant enclosure it will become even a better zoo. I will be blogging on every visit I make to the zoo, which is sometimes every Saturday.

Well, this first blog will be from this past Saturday March 14, 2009. The LA zoo celebrated "Snow Days" where the zoo would provide snow for four animals, which included the Sumatran Tigers, Snow Leopards, American Black Bears, and the Sichuan Takins. I only saw the bears, tigers and takins enjoying the snow. The day was very crowded, but that is good money for the zoo so that they can keep building new exhibits.

I was kind of surprised that the leopards were not as active as I thought they were going to be. One of the leopards was walking around the snow and the other one was sleeping. If the zoo had cubs again it would have been better.

There was only of two bears playing with the snow, as the other one was on the top of the mountain sleeping. The one that was awake, which I think was Ranger, was rubbing his stomach on the snow and rolling all over it too. The zoo brought snow for the bears two years ago and they enjoyed it so much that the zoo brought it again this year.

The takins were also very active compared to the snow leopards. The two female takins were more active than the male takin, who spent his time at the back of the exhibit eating hay. These animals came from the San Diego Zoo, so I'm sure they never got to see snow which might explain why they weren't that active. Sichuan Takins come from the mountains of China, so snow is a great part of their life in the wild.

Only two of the four tigers (an adult female and her three big cubs) were active, but after a long time of playing in the snow, they went to the back of the exhibit and took their nap, which a lot of people did not like.

Well, hopefully you guys enjoy my first blog and the many more that will come in the future.