The Wild Things

Our granddaughter, Jordan, invited us to spend the morning at the  Phoenix Zoo where she is a docent.  What a great time, we think of zoos as a place for children and indeed there must have been hundreds of parents’ pushing every kind of high-tech stroller imaginable while their kids helped push or just ran circles around them.  Kind of defeats the purpose of having a seat on wheels for the kids but everyone was having fun.  Some of the grandparents rode scooters decked out as animals, so there were stuffed lions and tigers everywhere.  There was plenty of room for a toddler to ride with them and they were all smiling so I guess it was fun.  Next time I want to ride the hippo with the cute ears.

Jordan was excited to show us her favorite animals and even a few she thought were obnoxious.  This is a big zoo, and we started our tour with some feathered friends.  The first were a couple of burrowing owls that were so adorable I wanted to bring them home.  One little guy sat right in front of us in a tiny shelter with all his mouse parts in front of him.  Apparently the owls only like the heads of the mice and leave the other parts sort of spread out on the ground.  Much to the parents horror.  

There were several vultures  with wings spread to catch the sun and several road runners all puffed up and strutting their stuff.  Both bald eagles and golden eagles were on display. The male egret was annoying his mate so she flew over to another tree and turned her back on him.  Later we saw several different water fowl.  Some belonged to the zoo and some just found the water hole and decided to stay.  

The two female lions were enjoying the sun on a huge boulder in their new enclosure.  From the viewing tower you could see the size of their heads and paws were amazing.  The girls have a new male friend but they have not been fully introduced yet.  Apparently you don’t just open the gate and announce, ‘Here’s Johnny’.   First is the sniff test, the lions don’t get to see each other but they  can smell each other from different enclosures, then after they become familiar with the smell they are allowed to see each other.  The next step in the process is actual introduction, I’m not sure how long this takes but it sounds a lot like the The Bachelor series.

Jordan knows the names and personalities of all the critters and has funny stories to tell about them, making our experience way better than just walking by the enclosures.  One of the most colorful animals is Jack, the mandrill monkey from Africa.   I thought Mandrills were baboons but in fact they are one of the largest monkeys.  Jack was arrogantly strutting around his enclosure ignoring the smaller female mandrills he shares the space with.  

Lucky for us, he felt like showing off and came right over to the glass where we could see the bright red markings on his face and his attractive gray goatee.  He showed us his large sharp teeth while he tore up a stick.  He really needs some of those whitening strips if he’s going to attract one of those girls.When he turned around his red rump was on full display.  According to Jordan he has that red rump so his harem can follow him through the brush and trees.  

Jack is not only territorial but overly protective of his girls.  So much so that he won’t even allow any male handlers near his harem.  So his handlers are all girls except for one gay male that Jack allows because he is not a threat.  We found this intriguing, how would Jack recognize this gentleman was no threat.  So much we don’t understand about animal behavior.  One thing we do know from Jordan is that Jack can be very inappropriate when he comes out in full view of kids and adults to pleasure himself in the afternoon sunshine. Jordan said the docents are always on high alert and hurry the children along the way.  ‘Nothing to see here folks, follow me to see Aurora, the beautiful jaguar next door.

Aurora was sleeping for the first few minutes we were watching her but, as if on cue, she stretched and got up to take a walk about her enclosure. She sauntered over to the highest perch and jumped straight up about ten feet to the platform and continued along the high walkway and up onto the tree branch.  What a magnificent  creature, so graceful and beautiful in a scary sort of way.  Jordan said Aurora is feisty and if her handler is a little slow with dinner or treats she smacks the fence with her paw to show her displeasure.  

The curators of the zoo would like to breed Aurora with the male jaguar in the next enclosure but it is hard to determine when Aurora might be receptive to a first date and a mistake might mean the death of the male if Aurora isn’t interested.  I’m thinking this would definitely be an animal to avoid in the wild.  According to the Tucson newspaper a new jaguar was spotted in the mountains southeast of Tucson. I think that makes three of them identified on trail cams in that area.  That’s good news, jaguars used to roam all the way up to Colorado until they were hunted almost to extinction.   

When the zoo created a new enclosure for the orangutans they got some experienced rock climbers to see if they could climb the rocks to get out of the enclosure before the orangutans got a chance to figure it out first.   The climbers did discover some places that needed extra security.  

Although zoos often trade animals in order to breed certain species or to add to their exhibits; there are a lot of rules to be satisfied for an accredited zoo to import animals.  The Phoenix zoo has an exhibit set up and ready for meerkats they are importing from Texas.  But before that happens there has to be a fool proof plan to keep the meerkats secure both in transit and in their new enclosure. Apparently meerkats enjoy a tasty meal of prairie dogs and that could get out of hand.    

We saw a white rhino wearing his suit or armor, to me they look a lot like an armadillo only the size is different.  The armadillo weighs about twelve pounds and a male rhino is about 5,000 pounds.  Ok so they aren’t anything alike but the armor like skin is similar. 

The baby giraffe was adorable, all legs and neck, mom was keeping a close watch on him while he wandered around the enclosure.  The Andean bear; better known as the spectacled bear because he has white circles around his eyes, was  excited to find the perfect scratching post up against the eucalyptus tree in his enclosure.  

The maned wolves were a strange looking beast, I guess they prove God has a sense of humor. God must have said we need another animal that looks like a red fox, he should have a face like a fox with a pointy nose but much bigger ears, he should be bigger, yea, he needs much taller legs, oh and he should wear black leggings.  How ‘bout a black mane like a horse, not like a lion, and let’s make him walk like a giraffe, Oh, and he should smell just awful.  We’ll call him a maned wolf because that makes sense. Sounds like it was the same committee that created the javelinas.

This was the best zoo experience we’ve ever had, the inside scoop made it more than just a trip to the zoo.  We offered lunch to Jordan but she put on her docent hat and was off to hand out stickers to the kids watching the orangutans.   

As soon as we cleared the gate we found a rock to sit on for a few minutes. I piped up with ‘What did we learn Monty?’ We looked at each other and said, ‘Two and a half hours of walking with stops only to see the animals was more walking than we are used to.’   Monty offered to go and get the car for me but I insisted I was fine. He replied. ‘Well, in that case would you go and get the car for me?’  

Nope we walked in together and we’ll walk out together OK we are a little slower than when we arrived but we are moving.  

Thank you Jordan for a delightful morning!