A day at the zoo...

Note: this post is image intensive

On December 9, 2007, the boyfriend and I decided to spend our Sunday at the San Francisco Zoo. This was 2 weeks before the infamous Tatiana the Tiger incident on Christmas day. Just to bring you up to date, that was the day that 3 ass hats decided it would be a good idea to taunt a full-grown, female tiger in heat for shits and giggles. They were "pwned" to say the least.

"RIP Tatiana, you died doing what you loved."

It was about 10:30 AM and the schedule showed that we were just on time for the bears to receive their Christmas gift of fresh fish released into their habitat pools. I managed to get a shot of one of the sister bears snacking on a fish she had been stalking for 20 minutes. The habitat that the 2 Grizzly sisters were in that day was a new installation that the other bears would share in cycles to offer a more stimulating environment than their old concrete exhibit. Giving them new challenges and exercise that they would normally get in the wild (since they were abandoned as cubs by their mother, they would have never survived infancy in the wild).

"Nom, nom, nom..."

In an adjacent exhibit there were 2 polar bear siblings that were meandering about after receiving their meals.

"We're still hungry."

We entered an humid, toasty environment that featured  critters commonly found in the Amazon forest. There were tiny peep birds and large parrots, a green anaconda (that always hides), and giant arowana fish. Then there was this guy just waiting for us to stick our arms in the water.

"Oh hai, I can has your arm?"

Near the Lemur Cafe in the center of the zoo had the flamingo exhibit right next to an open air eating area. Presumably to taunt the flamingos with sights and sounds of pizza, burgers, fries and beer. They were very calm and did not startle easily to the squeals and screams of pointing 

crotch fruit who tried to reach and grab a spindly leg.

"Ready for a game of croquet!"

Since it was Christmas time the zoo gets into the holiday season by offering a real ice skating rink (not that slippery plastic soap surface) and a small herd of reindeer to the delight of the boyfriend. They were very cute in person and their fur was very warm. They never once looked up at us as they were too busy keeping the ever persistent grass from growing back.

"Nom, nom nom x2 ..."

From the reindeer pen we entered the children's zoo area, the part of the zoo were one can get much closer to the animals (for grabbin') and raise our chances of being bitten, pooped and peed on. We tried in vain to get some shots of the snuggable Prairie Dogs but try as we might we were not prepared to deal with such quick rodents. I had a lot of pictures of smudges if you were curious. Instead, we visited their more laid back neighbors, the Meerkats. The weather that day was very nice so the Meerkats were taking advantage of day by recharging their solar-paneled bellies.

"Wanna get my back?" *offers suntan oil*

Right next to the Animal Resource Center (were talks and demos happen) was the birds of prey exhibit. We spied this intimidating looking Golden Eagle that was over 40 lbs. Obviously, he was not part of the petting zoo.

"PET ME!!!"

The children's zoo was surprisingly not filled with raving children but quite a few teenagers and giggly adults. There were 2 barns filled with farmyard animals; llamas, lambs, goats, chickens, donkeys, pigs, turkeys and ducks. This was the part of the zoo that attracted me more than any other part since I could get right up to the animals and take these pictures (also did not grow up on a farm). I took a lot but I'll just show a few since once you've seen a goat you've seen them all (also almost all were pregnant so I have a lot of pics of bloated goats).

"Hug and kiss me please."

"Please to be leaving me alone, my feelings are hurt."

"Ivory and eeeh-bony!!!" *sing-song*

The last stop for the day (since we have other things to do that day) was the big cat house were they were going to have a public feeding of the tigers and lions. This is one of the last pictures of Tatiana alive before the incident. We were told that a male Lion was too agitated to eat because his mate was in heat and so he was compelled to keep an eye on her. We were also told that Tatiana was specially excited since she was going into heat as well. She was very entertaining to watch, what with her jumping about in her feeding cage, playing with a box on a rope and visibly relishing her meal. The male tigers ate and looked as if they could care less that there was a "hot" lady tiger in the next cage or the people outside going "Oooh" and "Aaah".

"Too excited to pay attention to you."

"Like I care..."

"Mmm, fud."

"No more fud?"

We purposefully choose to see only half of the zoo so that we could come back and maybe see a pregnant big cat. Sadly, we will never get to see Tatiana's kittens but did return in February for the "Year of the Rat" festivities (will post more pics of that visit). This is the last shot of the zoo trip; a view of the African animals exhibit with the giraffe house in the background (a little baby giraffe was just born there this week). We'll be back again soon (probably not during the tourist season).

"Y'all come back real soon y'hear?"

Su