MP's Blog: 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 at the Los Angeles Zoo

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

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.