David and I visited the Cleveland Zoo. It’s December, so it was cold out, but the zoo prepares for that. The rain forest area is in one large (and well heated) building, and they have coat racks so you don’t have to haul your coat around. And when you’re ready to head into the zoo, they have a shuttle (also heated) that takes you up to the aquarium and cats building (I know! Really weird pairing).
David took a LOT of pictures. When we got to the zoo, I discovered that my camera battery was almost dead. So I got some shots (like this one), but David got many more. Sometimes, we were not entirely clear about who was on display –
the animals or us:
the animals or us:
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| River otters and children |
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| Orangutans and children |
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| Gharial and woman (tasty snack?) |
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|
| Something cute and small (and us, not pictured) |
And we saw bats, of which David managed to get several very nice photos, despite the room being completely dark.
And a dwarf crocodile. He was only about three feet long, and didn’t move, blink, or twitch the entire time we looked at him. (David wanted to know if he was fake.)
These guys were off display for the winter, as was the entire Australia section of the zoo. However, when we left the rain forest and headed to the aquarium/ cat building, the shuttle was no where to be found. It was rather nice outside, despite the cold, so rather than wait, we decided to walk. On the way, we encountered the kangaroos’ winter home. Two were outside when we came upon the building, and while we stood, a couple more went in and out. They looked very cold, though.
Just as we were getting ready to continue on, along came the shuttle, whose driver very kindly stopped and let us board.
This is a prehensile-tailed porcupine. At first we just saw two sleeping, but then a third came up and started running all around the trees. They have an enormous nose. It’s a little hard to see in the picture, but it’s that large pink spot at the end of his face. (It looks really fake.)
And cute turtles. There was a large section in the rain forest with turtles and frogs for a very long time. They were all cute, but they just didn’t differ that much from each other.
The ant eater seemed bored. Unlike the otters and the orangutans, he had no interest in us, and just wanted back through his door. So he paced back and forth. It was very sad.
This is a spiffy pink bird that pretended like I didn’t bother it. We looked at each other, and then I casually strolled up to the railing and we chilled for awhile. He kept looking at me and shuffling his feet like he wasn’t sure if he should come closer or move away.
And then there were the R.O.U.S.es. I don’t actually remember how
the zoo had this guy labelled, but really, could he be anything other than
a Rodent of Unusual Size?
And we couldn’t quite figure out what kind of animal was in this cage,
or why it had so little room.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or *insert holiday of choice*)! And I hope you have a fabulous New Years Eve! We’ll be in Boston for New Year’s and for an exchange the weekend after.
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