Los elefantes, las jirafas, y los pavones

Lo siento para escribiendo el título en español. Pero, en este parte de los estados unidos, hay mucha gente española.

I figure I need to keep practicing my Spanish every once in a while, and it's quite easy when I'm so surrounded by it. I'm dedicating today's entry to some of los animales en el zoológico. I hope to describe some of them to you, so that in later entries you will have an idea of their names and personalities. I've been here just over a week, and some of them have already made a great impact on me. I have learned so much about them in just 9 days, and surely I will continue to learn.

I spent my day off yesterday, as I have on other days off, touring the zoo. In my part of the job, I don't have much interaction with the healthy animals (and with about 3000 at the zoo, there's no way I'd be seeing them all in the vet wing!) So, my times spent roaming amidst these lovely creatures have been vital to my happiness with this experience, and to my increase in knowledge of the world's different species.

I love the elephants we have here. There are three young ladies--Rolinda, Tonya, and Binti. Rolinda is the matriarch, and she can be distinguished by her wrinkly forehead. Tonya is best friends with Rolinda, and she is quite the character. Every time I am at the elephant yard, she feels the need to show off for me. She picks up hay with her long trunk and flings it around, luxuriously slings water on herself, or turns in a circle to my amusement. The other elephant here, Binti, is at the bottom of the totem pole. Sometimes I think she feels irrelephant. While the other two ladies are well trained and perform for the public daily, she doesn't quite fit in. It's not to say they are mean to her; she's just a bit different. In fact, she lacks tusks, an uncommon thing for a female African elephant (in African elephants, males and females have tusks, in contrast with Asian elephants, where only males do). I've always had a bit of an underdog complex, and seeing her eating at the edge while the other ladies perform, makes me love her all the more. The impressive skills that the others have acquired include saluting (sticking one foot out and trunk high), turning around, sitting, laying, showing ears wide, opening their mouth, blowing on a harmonica (very adorable!), and bowing. They are quite amazing, and when they are finished showing off, they get a canteloupe, which they happily roll in their trunk and carry to their mouths. The elephants here also enjoy painting as enrichment. Their artwork is for sale in the gift shop, and I am very interested in aquiring such awesome abstract sweeps of color made by an appendage so foreign to me. Here are some pictures of the girls.

Rolinda

Tonya

                                       Binti and a drawing of her

I never really realized how much you can learn about something's anatomy
by drawing them. Another characteristic than helps to distinuish an African elephant is the ear shape--theirs look like Africa! Ears are very important to elephants--they have many blood vessels running through, and when you see an elephant flapping their ears, they are doing so to cool their blood, and thus cool themselves. Another interesting fact about elephants is that they are pachyderms--Παχύς and δέρμα coming from Greek mean 'thick skin.'

Another group of animals that I am very fond of here are the giraffes. There are five giraffes, two adults and three juveniles. The adults, a big male named Ramses, and a female named Ralphie are fairly docile. They spend their time under the shaded hay racks, munching on the forage and keeping a wary eye on the kids. The three little ones are darling. Their names are Cricket, Possum and Nyela. One day, the warthogs were in the enclosure with them and Cricket was not having the warthog near her. Each time the little guy would strut closer, in dignified fashion, hair on his back flowing in the breeze as warthogs do, Cricket would look down at him, front legs sprawled, as if to say, "What are you creature?" Then giving a gentle nudge of her soft nose, the warthog would scamper off, and leave her at peace to continue eating. She was busy flicking her long bluish tongue repeatedly on her face, attempting to get a piece of hay that had made its way into her nostril, when the warthog came back again. This slow game of chase away, sneak back continued for the whole time I watched. Despite the giraffe's long neck, they cannot reach the ground without spreading the front legs, and their gangliness is quite an adorable site. Here are some pictures of these guys:

Ralphie in the back, Nyela with the dark face, and Possum in front

Curious Cricket

Mr. Strutting warthog

This is one of the stalls where the giraffes spend the night--on the back wall, you can see how they measure these guys height!

Lastly for today, I will describe to you our wattled curassows. I would gladly write for the rest of the day on all of the animals at the zoo, but this is getting pretty long, and I'll just save that for next time! A curassow is a type of South american bird. It is called wattled because of the red flap that hangs beneath its beak, known as a wattle. Many other species of birds have wattles, and they can be a testimony to male health, attracting many females with their size. You even see wattles on goats, from the necks or ears, though they don't seem to have much significance among the goats. Out on exhibit, with other South American birds, is our very friendly curassow named Scud. He has a tendency to follow visitors along the length of his fence, and will sometimes give a low whistle at you. He spends much of his time at the edge of the fence, in what appears to be study of the curious creatures on the other side. To him, we are an exhibit that is ever changing and continuously interesting. Well, Scud is in for a treat. In quarantine, we have been keeping a very crazy albeit curious female curassow named Tiffany. When you clean her enclosure, she follows you around, and she will only eat her mix of veggies and softened pellets if she is up on the log where we put them. In a few days, Scud and Tiffany will be introduced, and we are likely to hear increase in Scud's whistling. They will be introduced at first in separate enclosures, where they can see and hear one another, but can't touch--a very Romeo and Juliet story. After a while, they will be allowed to be in the same space, and they will hopefully breed. Having interacted with both of these very curious and lovely birds, I am excited for their romance to finally take flight.

Scud