Sunday, May 10, 2009

Diggers!

The LA Zoo has two species of animals that burrow as a way of life. The two species are Meerkats and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. The zoo has two meerkat mobs; one at the Children's Zoo and the other one right by the flamingos. The zoo only has one group of prairie dogs which live in the zoo's Children's Zoo.

The first group of meerkats consist of Chico and Barky, two elderly meerkats. They live in one of the indoor exhibits in the nursery.

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Chico (left) and Barky (right)

Meerkat at the Los Angeles Zoo
Chico's new friend, Barky

Meerkat at the Los Angeles Zoo
Barky coming out of a tube

Meerkat at the Los Angeles Zoo
Barky sitting

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Barky and Chico sharing sentry duty

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Barky and Chico cuddling

The second mob of meerkats at the zoo are new to the zoo and came from the North Carolina Zoo. This mob consists of four (one male and three females) young meerkats. It's easy to recognize the male since he has a shorter tail, but the three females look the same.

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Meerkats exploring their new home

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Doing sentry duty

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
They seem to like their exhibit

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Meerkat's close up

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Chillin' in their exhibit

Meerkat at the Los Angeles Zoo
Female meerkat

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Sentry duty on a sunny morning

The zoo only has one group of prairie dogs, which consists of eight (one male and seven females) prairie dogs. The group lives in their big exhibit across from the petting zoo in the Children's Zoo.

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs at the Los Angeles Zoo
By the burrow

Black-tailed Prairie Dog at the Los Angeles Zoo
Not sure about coming out

Black-tailed Prairie Dog at the Los Angeles Zoo
Also not sure about coming out

I don't have many photos of the Prairie dogs since every time I go to their exhibit they are inside their burrow.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Selig Zoo Statues at the zoo

The LA Zoo recently put up 4 new (actually old) lion statues that were once on the entrance of the old Selig Zoo.

Selig Zoo Statues information
This is the information on the statues

Lion Statue
Male lion statue

Lion Statue
Lioness statue

Lions Statue
Lioness and cubs statue

Lions Statue
Lion cubs statue

I heard that the zoo had 2 more lion statues and 7 elephant statues that will be later put around the zoo in the future.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

First Photo Blog! (April 4th, 2009)

The last time I visited the zoo on April 4th, 2009. It has been hot lately here in LA, so I haven't had the chance to visit the zoo. So here are some of the photos I took:

Red-knobbed Hornbill at the Los Angeles Zoo
This was the first time I got to take a photo of the male Red-knobbed Hornbill.

Lady Ross's Turaco at the Los Angeles Zoo
A pair of Lady Ross's Turacos were in the former Congo Peafowl exhibit.

Snowy Egret at the Los Angeles Zoo
This is a Snowy Egret which recently moved to the former coyote exhibit along with the rest of the marsh birds.

Sacred Ibis at the Los Angeles Zoo
This Sacred Ibis and a Roseate Spoonbill moved in with the marsh birds in their new exhibit.

Roseate Spoonbill at the Los Angeles Zoo
Roseate Spoonbill

Scarlet Ibis at the Los Angeles Zoo
Scarlet Ibis

American White Ibis at the Los Angeles Zoo
American White Ibis

Red-tailed Hawk at the Los Angeles Zoo
The Red-tailed Hawk kept looking at a wild hawk which was just above his aviary.

Channel Island Fox at the Los Angeles Zoo
I finally took a good photo of the Channel Island Fox, but he was sleeping.


North American River Otter at the Los Angeles Zoo
The North American River Otter was getting ready to sleep. The second otter was already under the blankets.

Chinese Alligator at the Los Angeles Zoo
Chinese Alligator

Well, hopefully you guys enjoy! Till next time!

Change!

I have decided to change from writing about my visits to the LA Zoo, to only posting photos that I take on my visits to the zoo. I will also add minor descriptions to each photo, so the blog will not be boring. I will also be posting my favorite photos of particular animals.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

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.

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Barky and Chico cuddling

Meerkat at the Los Angeles Zoo
Male meerkat doing sentry duty

Meerkat at the Los Angeles Zoo
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 at the Los Angeles Zoo
Red-knobbed Hornbill female

Komodo Dragon at the Los Angeles Zoo
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 at the Los Angeles Zoo
Peninsular Pronghorn

Bighorn Sheep at the Los Angeles Zoo
Bighorn Sheep

Sacred Ibis at the Los Angeles Zoo
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.

Chimpanzees at the Los Angeles Zoo
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.

Mountain Bongos at the Los Angeles Zoo
Bongos drinking water

African Lion at the Los Angeles Zoo
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 at the Los Angeles Zoo
Bali Mynah

Cape Griffon Vultures at the Los Angeles Zoo
Cape Griffon Vulture

Cape Griffon Vulture at the Los Angeles Zoo
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 at the Los Angeles Zoo
Harbor Seal

Harbor Seals at the Los Angeles Zoo
Harbor Seals

American Alligator at the Los Angeles Zoo
Reggie the Alligator

Red-rumped Agouti at the Los Angeles Zoo
Agouti

Meerkats at the Los Angeles Zoo
Meerkats Barky and Chico

Cotton-topped Tamarins at the Los Angeles Zoo
Cotton-topped Tamarins

Black Duiker at the Los Angeles Zoo
Black Duiker calf

Black-tailed Prairie Dog at the Los Angeles Zoo
Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Brown Pelicans at the Los Angeles Zoo
Brown Pelicans

Hope you guys enjoy! Till next time!