we shall not cease from exploration: November 2006

Zoo Atlanta Zoo

I may or may not be zoo-crazy.

The gorillas at Zoo Atlanta are very friendly and have, cumulatively, like, 7 babies. I could have watched them for hours . . .from the other side of glass, of course. The dirty glass. Give that gorilla some windex, they have opposable thumbs!

Cute kid and cute baby gorilla.

"G'day, ladies. Come on in, can I pour you a scotch?"

The Orangutan on the left is huge and dredlocked. They have the coolest habitat with at least 4 treehouses.

Seriously? They travel like this? This is the actual transport cage that Yang Yang the Giant Panda arrived in, via UPS(?) to live at the Atlanta Zoo.

This is either Lun Lun or Yang Yang. Again, I got a phone call while looking at a bear.

Anyway, Lun ^2 and Yang ^2 DID IT, and made this little guy(below), who will be named at a ceremony on December 15th. The new ^2 is about a month old and he stays inside a cave with the camera guy.

Thanksgiving 2006

Just a glimpse at my family's thanksgiving dinner.

Okay, first of all, if you are reading this, and you are in my family, and you would like me to remove this video from my blog, please tell me.

Second-ly, the conversation that you are hearing is about using a digital camera to record film clips. Which is what I was doing!!

And, in conclusion, I will explain - she's trying to get the baby's attention.

i did this on my computer

I'm in an airport

This place (Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport) is teeming with children!

It's 8pm! The flight lands at 11pm. WAY past bedtime.

Anyway.

I already miss this guy:

Dude.

So, my friend Jill sent me a chain email today.

It said something like this:

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

~anonymous~

So send this to all of your friends (and me) in the next 5 minutes and a miracle will happen tonight

Cheesy, yes, and like my digestive system, my brain/heart system can tolerate and appreciate cheese only on special occasions. So, cheekily, I sent it on to the members of my band, Stickerbook. Because a MIRACLE could happen. . .TONIGHT!!

Well, doubters, My mom had an appointment with her doctor today AND . . .
she is doing a lot better than all the doctors had expected. Her tumors have shrunk 40%! The doctors who gave her the diagnosis in August gave her a certain amount of time to live. The longest amount of time that they allotted her in August has now become the median amount of expected time to live~

So just call me chain-mail Sally, because all ya'lls gonna be miraclin' this holiday seazzin!

The Georgia Aquarium is King of the World

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the WORLD and it is one year old as of November 21st, 2006.

Which roughly translates as, "Don't expect there not to be mobs of people there on November 20th when you go there with mom, dad, and uncle Bob."
Maybe in a few years, it'll lose it's mass appeal and when I go back I'll get to spend less time waiting for the crowd in front of each tank to clear and more time learning about aquatic life.
The place is AMAZING, though, and, it's inspiring to witness that mob-like enthusiasm in an aquarium . . .

Beluga Whales

There was one exhibit where you stood on this moving sidewalk and went through a kind-of tunnel under the sea.

Do you see anything in the above photo?

NOW do you see something? This is a really beautiful creature. It's called a Weeded SeaDragon and it's in the seahorse family. Blue Ribbon for coolest thing at the aquarium.

Second Coolest - Piranha's
(They forced me to say that.)
(I just got eaten by piranha's.)

The handlers (aquarium keepers?) poured a bucket of ice and mussels on the the ground and the otters picked the mussels up and turned on their backs to pry them apart. Then the otters dipped the mussels in a ramiken of garlic butter and discussed Sartre.

The things sticking up in the sand are a type of eel. Garden Eels, I think is what they are called.

My mom liked the penquins.

The Very Reverend Tobias Corduroy

Why anyone would put a religious man such as The Very Reverend Tobias Corduroy behind bars is beyond my comprehension. But there he was, in a 2'x2' cell, bunking with a little scoundrel named Bubblegum. Once the religious leader of a large branch of the United Church of Canada, The Very Reverend now presides over the congregation here on Westover Dr. in Atlanta, GA -- A far cry from Winnepeg.

Zoo Bronx Zoo Part Two

At LAST! My notes from the Bronx Zoo: verbatim as scribbled in my embroidered firefly journal:

(later observances and comments are in italics)

Jungle World

Matchie's Tree Kangaroo

-He's just sitting there as if he knows he's supposed to - or as if any second he's going to explode out of anger and hiss at you. I don't trust him.

Ebony Langur

- Some brown, some black

- families include one or two adult males, several females and offspring

-males born into the family leave before puberty to form bachelor groups or travel alone.

-one brown Langur has a black Langur baby. It's mother holds it very close and it might be nursing. The baby starts crying and the mommy starts to jump around (while still holding it) and swing from the branches. This quiets the baby. Take note, AG and NL.

-There are otters in this habitat, too. They're hiding in a tree trunk. One Langur starts to jump on a log to awaken the otters and get them out of the tree. Mission accomplished!

This was the first instance when I began to suspect that the animals here know that they're in a zoo. The Langur was clearly saying to the otter, "um . . .we have a visitor. please show yourself or you'll be fired. yes, just like the zebras."

Silver Leaf Monkey

-mothers often allow related females to babysit infants

-wow! they really swing from vines!

Malayan Tapir

-ugly and strange looking

-shy - only been observed in the wild by a very few people

White-Cheeked Gibbon

-Gibbons pair for life - up to 25 years

-they're swinging through the trees!

Striped Squirrels run rampant in here.

Leopards

- Black. Beautiful.

African Plains

There are peacocks everywhere. They sure have their reign of the place!

Baboon Reserve

-The baboons here are Geladas. They're different from other baboons in that they

* only eat grass

* use 25 different calls to communicate

* live on high altitude grasslands

-Body Language

* Direct eye contact - THREAT!

* Smile - to show fear or appeasement

* Flip Lid (a gesture that looks like they're going, "syke!") - worried/uncertain

* Yawn - to show off large teeth

* Groom each other - comfort, cleaning

* Female turns her back - act of submission

GIRAFFES!

- Sleep deeply for 20 minutes a night

- They can move/gallop at about 40 miles an hour.

- They have a 25 lb heart.

- Mating- Bull smells the urine of female to detect heat. He then taps his foreleg against her hind leg or rests his neck on her flank. If she stands still, he will mount and mate.

-Baby girl Giraffe born 10/30/06

This is the second instance where I began to suspect that the animals knew they were in a zoo. The mommy and daddy giraffes would nudge the shy baby in front of them as if to say, "Go on. This is your public. You're a show-raffe, now." The baby would stand in front of them, terrified, looking at me, as if she was going to be forced to tap-dance, and then she would circle around to stand behind them again. Stage parents are relentless!

Zebras

-Missing. No Zebras in the Zebra Habitat. My hunch is that they were fired. The weren't comitted to being zoo folk.

Congo Gorilla Forest

Gorillas

- Two huddle close with their backs against the glass.

-All of the gorillas are a family

Names from one gorilla section (town?):

Fubo, Pattycake, Tunko, Triska, Fran, Halima, Layla, Kumi, Suki, Kioja, Nyasha

-Tunko might be preggers - she's got a huge belly and she keeps throwing up into her hand and eating it.

Names from the other gorilla section:

Zuri, Julia, Holli, Tuti, Imani, Pierrepont, Sufi, Shana, Zola

Bears

Polar Bears - to survive, a polar bear, on average, must kill a seal every 5 days.

Tiger Mountain

The tigers names are Sasha, Norman, Zeff, Alexis, and Taurus.

There are diagrams on how to tell them apart.

- I can't tell them apart.

Himalayan Highlands

Snow Leopards

- Baby Twins - Girls. Born June 7th, 2006

- They are very cute and like to climb and have fun and chase leaves.

Red Pandas

- Not at all related to giant pandas

World of Darkness

(nocturnal animals)

Douroucouli - Nocturnal Monkey

Porcupines - Huge

Bats -Really hang upside down

Slow Loris - Wins the award for THE STRANGEST Animal here.

I'm in Atlanta, now. I may or may not do the calendar here. Haven't decided.

Thank you for reading.

Zoo Bronx Zoo

Oh, Camera phone. You were broken for a long time but now you miraculously work again. I'm to tired to write about all my zoo learnings, so I'll save that for next time. I will write this:

This baby giraffe is a girl. She is 18 days old. I want one.

Natasha called me right after I took this polar bear photo. I was like, "I'm looking at a polar bear. . .I'm at the zoo." And she was all, "let's hope so!"

In the Mouse House