Meet Pip.



Pip is a juvenile king vulture. This is what he will look like when he grows up. These are his parents, who rolled the egg out of the nest and left Pip to be hand raised by the zoo staff.

( Click me click me click me )

Monday afternoon, my friend A and his friend P (both visiting for Comic-Con) went to the zoo. Nice going at that time; different light, and some critters were more active than usual.

Say hi to Zhen Zhen, who's almost two. She had a mister going so that's why it's got that nice fuzzy look and the effect with the light.



And here's one of those late afternoon critters. A striped hyena! They're very cool.



And this spiffy raptor. I forget what he is.

He he he, three guesses as to what these are:



Give up yet? ( Here's a hint. )

graashoppa and I went to the zoo today, and, much to our enjoyment, we got to see the elephants doing lots of things, like getting their feet bathed to keep their nails from cracking and to harden their pads, and then Tembo wandered down to visit with her keeper and take a bath. Keeper was delighted too; today was the first time she actually went under the water. Yay!





And we watched the orangutans for a while. This is Satu looking pensive.
( more pics behind cut )

So the zoo just opened Elephant Odyssey last Saturday. It's really cool. Doesn't quite have all the animals it will, but they'll be there soon. It's largely dedicated to educating people about the critters that used to be there (mammoths, giant condors, saber-toothed tigers and such) with animals that are around now (elephants, California condors, jaguar, horse.) There are some really big statues. This one is twice as tall as me. And all the statues actually toured the U.S. before they got here.

For example:



vs.



I got the camera in there on purpose. Dunno if he's making a documentary of sorts, or moving it around as one of those animal cams that streams live on the website. But, hey, I think he got me a couple times.

( more pics behind cut )

Okay, it's been a while. Zoo's been crowded 'cause of spring break and I was out of town last week, sooo . . .

Went today with a friend from work and his friend and walked around almost the whole zoo.



And it's starting to be baby season. Meet the newest giraffe, only two weeks old.



And here's a young yellow-backed duiker.



And two baby sun bears (up in the tree limbs on the left) which are only the third and fourth sun bears ever to be born in captivity. SD Zoo had #2, also.



And just 'cause this Cuban iguana is one of my favorites to photograph:



But the pic of the day lies beneath the cut.

( Cut for the squeamish; snake eating dinner. )

It's been a while. Haven't gone to the zoo in a couple weeks. But, anyways, I got to see the tiger cubs, who are now eleven months old. And their keeper was out chatting with visitors, so I learned cool stuff (and sad stuff) like there used to be nine subspecies of tigers, but now there are six, and the zoo has Malayan tigers, and they don't expect there to be any more wild tigers in 20-25 years. The male is a valuable breeder, and one of the females (the second has been fixed) is in heat again and is tired of her cubs becaue three is too many. And mating is, er, rather violent between the big cats. She likes to back into a corner so he can't jump off and get away when he's done. Nice kitties.

Anyway. Cubs! Two girls and a boy. The boy's name is Menderu. He's bigger than the others, but I still can't tell them apart.





And a close up.



And meet one of the zoo's two new resident sloth bears. I don't remember his name. But he totally enjoyed hanging out in the tub playing with his stick.

Hightlights of the day included seeing the flamingos get fed. Okay, well, not terribly exciting, just funny watching the flock follow the keeper around the pen. And listening to two very knowledgeable keepers in the bug house talking about how this one bird-eating tarantula doesn't actually eat birds (it got its name because the guy who named it saw it with a bird, but it's too heavy to actually go after them on purpose) and has dangerous hairs; if you get one in your eye, it'll be swollen shut for two weeks. If you get some in your nose and throat--bad news, dude. And they have five layers of mesh in the cage to protect the keepers from it. I kept trying to think of a nifty SF story or something to use that in.

Anyway. On to slightly less dangerous critters. These are, um, African short-nosed crocs, I think.



( lizards and snakes and pythons, oh my! )

Went to the zoo the other day. Got to see a zookeeper and a vet trimming the beaks on the Galapagos tortoises. The zookeeper would scratch the tortoise's neck to get his head out and the vet had a dremel (sp?) to sand down the beak. Pretty nifty. Mr. 100-year-old tortoise didn't like it much though.

Saw this nifty frog. I think he's new. I don't remember what kind he is though.



And, hey, look, a lizard! This is an iguana. A Cuban iguana, I think. Through the mesh of his exhibit.



And this is a spiny-tailed lizard. I think he's fairly new too. I should know these critters by now.

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Twelve handsome oryx/gemsbok,



(Went to the Wild Animal Park" tonight and got to ride the tour bus at night and see the critters. Got to see a few gemsbok right up next to the fence, including a year-old juvenile who was very cute. This pic is from earlier this year though.)

( Eleven )

And thus concludes the 2008 12 days of zoopics. Thanks for stopping by and enjoying them, and I will now return you to your normal, non-whacked out weekly zoo pics. (Unless I manage to get my hands on a copy of photoshop; then all bets are off. Bwa ha ha ha ha.)

. . .my zoo love gave to me:

Eleven Nemos (er, false anenomefish) swimming,



(okay, yes, there are more than eleven. But they're cool. Took these at Epcot at the end of the Finding Nemo ride. There's a whole aquarium at the end. It's nifty.)

( Ten )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Ten nifty beetles,



(I love bugs. Y'all should know that by now. These were taken at the National Zoo, and are part of a, um, mosaic of sorts making up a very big beetle.)

( Nine )

. . .my zoo love gave to me:

Nine koi fish,



(These are from the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park. This is actually a new batch; sadly, their older ones died because of a filter malfunction last month. Poor fishies.)

( Eight )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Eight sable antelope,



( Seven )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Seven giraffes and friends:



(There's two Nubian Soemmering's gazelles lying down on the left, they're hard to see, but I swear they're there.)

( Six )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Six creepy turtles:



( Fiiiiiiiive )

It rained today. All day. And I figured out the best way to get the zoo to yourself is to go when it's raining. It was fun. Barely any people. And the hyenas were (for once) up and walking around (they stared at me. Creepy.) and I got to see the New Guinea singing dog puppies again. Found out the biggest, ugliest camel is named Mongo (which totally fits.) Popped into the nursery, and the lady had the baby Wolf's guenon (a monkey) in her arms and was walking around, but stopped long enough to let me get a look at him. Awww.

The birds were happy. See? These are Lorys in one of the aviaries. They just got fed. This is looking down from a bridge, as it's a multi-level aviary.

. . .my zoo love gave to me:

Fiiiiiiiive of birdhousefrog's Chickens!



(Or, at least, their eggs. Mmm. French toast with freshly laid eggs. Yummy! Okay, yeah, so I know these aren't zoo animals, but since I live in a concrete jungle they're exotic to me so you get chickens today.)

( Four )

. . . my zoo love gave to me:

Four bonobos:



( Three )

. . .my zoo love gave to me:

Three tiger cubs:



(Yeah, yeah, I know you just saw them, but they're cute enough to use again. And if you follow the link above, it goes to the San Diego Zoo blog on the tigers and there's a YouTube interview with a keeper about the cubs. It's fun.)

( Two )