Zoo Time

Since it wasn't too cold outside, Travis and I went to the Smithsonian National Zoo rather than the art museum. It reminded me a lot of the Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier because a: it was free and b: there wasn't much rhyme nor reason. I'm used to the Pittsburgh Zoo where there are very specific arrows and you know very quickly if you are off the beaten path. Here, you kind of just wander around and hope that you aren't going towards a dead end or a parking lot. We were too cheap to spring for a special visitor's map ($2.00) so we took our chances and headed down the Asian Trail. I took a ton of pictures today (my immortal batteries finally died) and here is a giant influx of them. My favorites are from the butterfly cage and the aquarium tanks.

Let's group them by animal category, shall we?

Mammals:

Porcupines.








Elephant. How about I keep naming obvious animals?










Two elephants. Aww, they're kissing.







Everything I've ever learned about hippos has given me reason to be afraid of them.






This one was especially fierce. It kept half yawning, half biting in my general direction






Hippo in the pool.








Wow, frightening.








Awww - the famous panda bear! How cute!







God, I just wanted to reach into the pen and cuddle and hug this baby panda. Do you think that is a good idea?





Apparently not. I think that the zoo just wants the pandas all to themselves. Selfish. It's blasphemy to say that an animal so cute could be dangerous.




This was a neglected bear (everyone else only wants to see the pandas) and it showed it by relentlessly pacing back and forth. I hate when zoo animals do that because it makes me feel guilty for being there even if I didn't pay two dollars for the map.


Sad, sad.








I got over it and sat on an extremely spiky, not-amenable-to-climbing, cold cold statue of the bear. Ow.





A kitty! Some sort of sleeping leopard!







What is that? That freaky thing? Yes, that's right - it's a naked mole rat. Come on! You have to watch.






Monkeys and monkey-like primates are shrill, shrill animals.








Birds:

This was one of the first birds we saw in the Bird House. Common duck, right?






Blarrrrghhh!! He was into shaking. Go on, click the picture. You won't be sorry.






Fun, pretty bird.











This is the bird that doesn't get invited to all the parties.







Now, this kind of gross. It was feeding time in the Bird House and this particular hawky falcon was dining on either a mouse or Rufus, the naked mole rat.




Crunch.








Ah, that's better.











Owl on a cactus.








You know, this was a whole cow when they brought it into the exhibit.






So, check out this crazy looking bird. I have never seen a bird like this before in my life. It was a total show-off. It kept prancing around and strutting to make sure we saw his feathers.




But honestly, what plumage!




















He wandered away and led us to...








A real peacock! Oh, it was so on.








I wish they would have had some giant colorful battle.







The peacock was equally proud of his feathers. Vain, vain birds.









Same position, different location.










Travis challenged the peacock to a walk-off. Travis lost, and we had to leave in shame.






This wasn't a zoo bird! Just some random bird in some random tree.








Amphibians:

We skipped the amphibian house because we read that there was an OCTOPUS FEEDING at three o'clock and there was no way we could miss that. Sorry, frogs. And newts. I'm sure you were very interesting.


Reptiles:

There was a komodo dragon in another pen but a large crowd was forming in front of the exhibit and honestly, I've never seen a reptile do anything that great, especially in winter DC weather.




Fish:

No fish. Sorry.


Insects:

The Hercules beetle, or something like that. I can only imagine how much it would sting to get that hooked into your ankle.





Woo!! Yes! There was an entire greenhousey area just filled with butterflies and flowers, and people were just filing through it like they were bored. Not boring! I want to go back to get more pictures.












More butterfly.









Other Invertebrates:










We did manage to catch the octopus feeding, which was very interesting because this guy was giving us some explanation about them and he obviously had a not-so-secret love affair going on with this one because he kept bragging about her intelligence and arm strength and the fact that she could fit through one-inch tubes and unscrew caps. That should help in the wild.

These were crazy-looking jellyfish things that were forced to revolve in a circular motion all day by means of a high-pressure water current.




Killer crab.








More of the jellyfish.








A sea cucumber.








More creatures of the sea. I need to start writing down names.







I couldn't get enough of those jellyfish.







Now, here's a tale. I was like SWEET, there's a spider right next to the glass so I can get a great picture of it. So I get up all close and this turns out really well. I go to get another picture, and realize ... wow, I'm super close. Is the glass angled or something, or, how is this working? I put my hand up to feel the glass, and my hand goes much farther in than it should. At this point, I am almost hyperventilatey nervous. I blow on the spider, and it wavers. AURGHGH! There was no glass! It was just me and spider and web and nothing in between! Thank god I didn't actually touch it with the camera because if I had, I would have flung the camera with velocity and then cried. Travis suggested afterwards that they weren't real spiders or else they would have had glass there. I'm not so sure. There were a ton of them in webs that were obviously not man-made. I need to go back and ask someone, and steer very clear.

I'm thinking that I'll go back sometime Tuesday or Wednesday with recharged batteries and a few hours to kill. It's free! That is such a foreign concept to me that I must take advantage of it. There was a ton of stuff that we didn't get to see, either, and not only the amphibian house. We missed the entire Wild Cats section and this bizarre twisted part in the middle. And, oh god, we didn't see Lemur Island.

It's 11:45 PM right now and about nine people were supposed to be here by 11:00. Well, I am going to bed at midnight and waiting up for no man. I will tape a piece of paper on the door that will be to the tune of 'suckers!!!' and flop down into my bunk bed. It's gotten so much more comfortable now that I'm used to it. A lot of people that stay here freak out on Fridays and Saturdays because we have this club right underneath us and funky bass grooves keep pounding until the wee hours. Hah, I have the good fortune to be on the third floor and hear none of it.

One of the many bonuses of working the hostel desk is that I have hour upon hour of downtime of which to do nothing but play on the computer or watch the San Antonio Spurs. Result - many, many more postings. You're welcome. No, no - thank you.