I broke my record on number of pictures and movies taken in a single day using almost 5 GB on my memory card. I divided the post about our visit into three parts in order to shorten the posts some. I hope you enjoy the pictures and movies as much as we enjoyed our visit to the San Diego Zoo!
The first animals to greet us as we entered the park were these beautiful flamingos.
We decided to head for "Koalifornia" (the koala exhibit) first since this was one of the main reasons we came to San Diego. The koalas were just as cute as I thought they would be.
Koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves and they do not drink anything...not even water. All their nourishment and hydration comes from the eucalyptus leaves.
Koalas have a very short gestation period of 34-36 days. They are about the size of a peanut when they are born.
The baby "joeys" crawl into the mother's pouch after they are born and continue growing there for about another six months. Two of the koalas had little joeys in their pouches but they were too small for us to see. The zoo volunteer told us that one of the zookeepers just so happen to find a joey that had just been born on the ground one day. The veterinarians were able to put the joey back in the mother's pouch and stitch her pouch closed until the joey was big enough to survive. That same joey is one of the adult koalas on exhibit today.
Since most of them were sleeping, we decided to come back and visit them again at the end of the day.
Next, we came to this cheetah. There was an animal trainer and a dog in the cage with the cheetah,
but the cheetah didn't seem to have much interest in playing with them.
We then saw a rhinoceros but he was sleeping too.
The rhinoceros was so big...
...and wrinkly around the neck...
...but I think his ears make him kind of cute in his own little way. :)
Next, we saw a red river hog,
some zebras,
and some Caribbean Flamingos.
The flamingos liked to argue a lot.
But then they kiss and make up. :)
Their feathers were beautiful...
...and the tips of their wings were black. I barely caught this flamingo on video opening his wings.
We could have stayed their watching them for longer but we still had the rest of the zoo to see.
We came to the giraffes next.
They had a cute little baby giraffe...
...and Big Daddy giraffe too.
Next, we came to Matchie's Tree Kangaroo.
And then, we came to Mr. Hump Day himself, the camel.
Mr. Hump Day has not one hump but two!!
You would not believe how many people said "Hump Day" while we were standing at this exhibit. I guess the Geico commercial about "Guess what's happier than a camel on Wednesday" is pretty effective.
The below video shows another camel chewing its cud. Listen at the end of the video and you can hear someone going by saying "Hump Day."
a North Chinese leopard,
and the rare and nearly extinct California Condor, the biggest bird in the world.
We walked around a corner and Chuck says "watch out for that snake." I nearly jumped out of my skin. "Don't tell me there is another snake out of its cage like in The Living Desert?"
But it was just a bronze figure of a snake on a rock at the rattlesnake exhibit. The real rattlesnakes were close enough behind this glass cage.
After watching the rattlesnakes, we walked to the elephant exhibit where the oldest and biggest male elephant was getting a pedicure.
Around the corner were some more elephants that were not quite as big as this one.
Next, we saw a guanaco,
two capybaras,
and a tapir.
The capybaras like to swim! (I found out later that capybaras on Wikipedia are the largest rodent in the world. Eek!)
Next came the cats with a beautiful leopard...
and a lion and lioness.
Ok, guys, let's take a break and continue the rest of our visit to the San Diego Zoo on the next post.
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