Wild Animal Park

Today we got up early, met for our complimentary breakfast and headed out to the Wild Animal Park. Mike and Sean had to re-evaluate their sunblocking technique as both were a little red. Sean, Mike, Bree and Devon all piled into our rented Prius and hit Walmart for a hat and more sunblock. We met the rest of the family at the Wild Animal Park and ran to the meeting place for our tour. We decided to do a Photo Caravan which is a big truck that you all pile in and they actually take you out into the exhibits! It lasts about two hours and was worth every penny. Our tour guide was amazing, she knew every animal by name and species. She was full of interesting facts and tidbits.

We started in the Africa exhibit with the giraffes and rhinos. About five minutes into the tour we pulled up alongside to sleeping rhinos that were lined up butt to butt. They were actually "best girlfriends," which is apparently how rhinoceros pair up. Female rhinos are very close and help to protect each other. By laying butt to butt they were able to protect each other's flanks and see more. They just kept on sleeping despite us being ten feet away from them and talking. Our guide said that rhinos get up at "the crack of noon," and they still would sleep for several hours. We could see several giraffes in the distance, which was only about a football field's length away. The guide said that the giraffes think of us as the ice cream truck. They have all the food they could want available constantly but we had special leaves that are treats to them. As we stopped in the middle of the enclosure, sure enough a giraffe snuck up behind us to get a treat. Everyone got a handful of leaves and we were instructed on how to and how not to feed the giraffes:

1. ONLY feed the giraffe from the back of the truck. If you fed them from the side and they get startled, they could hurt themselves on the supports for the canopy of the truck.

2. If you're scared of the giraffe, feed it first, THEN runaway. The giraffe really wants that leaf, and if you walk/ run away with it, it will follow you. Which means the entire giraffe head and neck will stretch inside the truck all the way to the back. They can reach that far. Also, don't bend or curl away from the giraffe while holding the leaf, they can wrap their tongue and/or neck all the way around you. If you're scared, hold the leaf behind you or above your head; then scurry away.

3. Don't pet the giraffe. Most of the females and babies would take that just fine. But they can head butt you, and you would be knocked out. A likewise warning for the tongue; the trainer described being "tongue slapped" by a giraffe who still wanted leaves when she was out.

So one at a time we went to the back of the truck and held out these long leaves for the giraffe to eat. They seem even bigger up close and it was absolutely amazing! Bree took many pictures of each family member feeding the giraffe and Sean managed to get video of Mike doing it. As soon as the giraffe realized we had no more food, she wandered away and we continued on. We stopped alongside several giraffes to see them eating, drinking water and rubbing their long necks against trees. As they drink from the stream they have to spread their long legs out to the side in order to bend down. They can't drink for long, our guide said, because they will get a head rush and can faint.

Our tour guide knew each giraffe by name and lineage. She could spot who was born of whom, how old they were, etc. Her favorite was a young female (2.5 years old) who was pregnant. She said she was too young to be pregnant but the lone male had had other plans. The dominant male was apparently not nice to the trucks so they avoid feeding him from the tour trucks. The Wild Animal Park has an elaborate breeding program and often switches animals or has "visits" from males at our zoos. There is a "zoo dating service" that allows zoos to borrow or permanently trade animals in order to have healthy offspring. She told the story of a male rhino who was at the San Diego Zoo and had only sired few children in a long period of time. He was shipped up to the Wild Animal Park and in a short time had a huge amount of children. Apparently the "best girlfriends" dynamic was missing at the Zoo and that was something male rhinos look for.

Our guide new elaborate details about the mating, and how the males check for fertility which was fascinating. There is so much knowledge at the park and so much planning! The keepers are aware of everything that goes on. Our guide was able to point out the new lambs in one herd that had been born that morning and to whom they were born and who was next. The exhibits are also carefully planned not only to mimic the animals natural environment but also to keep them as "natural" as can be. The African prey area where we were is downwind from the African Predator area. That way the prey always smell the predators and just think they're really smart at outsmarting them. This way they still go through all the same mating and breeding rituals.

We passed by the oldest rhino in captivity and I'm pretty sure the world. She is 47 years old and still ticking. Believe it or not, an older rhino does actually look older and has a more wrinkled, weathered face. They also lose the hair around their ears which makes them hard of hearing. We saw many Antelope and variations of deer in the Africa portion before going to the Asia section. There were so many variations it was hard to keep them straight! Some were in "velvet" which means they had on their fancy coats for breeding. Others were molting out of them in order to blend in post-mating season. Apparently the males in most breeds change their coats to a very black and white (high contrast) coat in order to attract the females. They stand out and look like rebels, like "hey I don't care if predators can see me, I'm that strong." But as soon as they mate, they don't want to stand out anymore and its advantageous to blend in with the rest of the herd.

We made a big loop through the exhibits and went back the way we came. As we passed by a gorge we were trying to see some Asian rhinoceros, but they were deep in the gorge. Our guide had warned us against calling to the animals like dogs an cats. But when we came near these rhinos, she really wanted us to see them so she called to them by name and called, "Babies! Babies!" while shaking the bucket of apples. That was the rhino treat, but even that couldn't get them up before the "crack of noon." We got really excited at one point because one started to get up when she called it by name but then it just resettled. They were all piled together in the bottom of the gorge on top of each other, but the guide tried to convince us they're not usually social animals.

The tour lasted about two hours and was absolutely amazing. We saw baby animals and so many up close and personal! From the end of the tour we headed through the village (gift shops and food courts) and most of the family stopped for lunch. Mike and Bree continued on to see some of the bird aviaries, gibbon monkeys and gorillas. We wandered through several of the closer exhibits and grabbed a quick hot dog before meeting the rest of the family at the Frequent Flyers bird show. Its amazing! Trained birds fly over your head in order to show visitors some of the birds up close. There were three pheasants named Larry, Curly and Moe because they goof off some times. A scarlet macaw circled the stadium at the beginning of the show. We tried to catch the birds in flight but with a 300 mm zoom lens, thats not easy. We also saw a large Andean Condor that is a success story in terms of captive breeding and re-release. They used the same process to help save the California Condor. He had a ten foot wingspan! There was also a beautiful hawk that came down at the end of the show. Bree loves bird and it was one of her favorite things at the park from childhood. The only thing that was missing was the emu. There used to be an emu that was trained to walk from one trainer to the other across the stage and that was all that he could be taught to do. Emus have very poor memories and that took years to do. The emu used to have 8 shows and training sessions a day with two trainers. Even though the trainers were the same each time, the emu thought he made 16 new friends a day with treats.

From there we headed over to the Lion Camp. We got to see two male lions eat large bones; we think they were cattle or horse femurs because they were several feet long. We saw the cheetahs and decided not to make the long trek out to the outer safari area to see elephants and tigers. We did got to the butterfly jungle though, which had just opened. The line was over an hour long and moved really fast until we got into site of the doors. Then it just crept along ever so slowly. I'll write more about the butterfly exhibit next ;)