So I promised some zoo photos and here they are.
This is our newest zoo exhibit, the Humboldt penguin exhibit. It opened up earlier this summer. It’s pretty cool that they have these neat viewing areas. The penguins zoom by the windows all the time – of course I have never been able to catch Simon looking through the window and a penguin swimming by at the same time. When this exhibit opened I took Simon down and he quickly learned the sing for penguin which is waddling like a penguin. It’s pretty funny because he spent the entire time at the exhibit waddling around. Here he is with pals Ivy and Sevilla.
My favorite is the Gorilla exhibit. They are in a huge enclosure but it is surrounded by glass so you can really get a good look at them. The woodland park zoo was one of the first zoos in the US to pioneer these more natural environments for animals back in the 1970s. This gorilla enclosure was one of a kind when it was first built and it’s still world class. Don’t you love that the Gorilla on the left is doing the perfect newborn pose : )
This is Simon and Ivy watching a mommy gorilla nurse her baby. (The baby is extremely adorable). Simon and Ivy are thinking “Hey, that looks familiar!”
This is the Sumatran Tiger. He was looking at all the babies and thinking “Lunch?”
And finally the highlight of the day… flamingo sex. Actually, it was more like flamingo rape. Right as we were walking up to the exhibit this male flamingo casually stepped upon top of a female who was minding her own business eating her lunch. What happen next was a big flurry of feathers and a lot of wing flapping. I had my camera around my neck and without even checking my settings I fired of a few shots.
This has never happened to me before at the zoo – I have never seen any other animal copulate…
And that beings me to today’s discussion topic. What is the strangest or most interesting thing you have ever seen at a zoo? Leave your answers as a comment bellow and the “best” one wins a Starbucks gift card. “Best” will be at my digression but if I have a hard time narrowing it down I will consult Myles.
Here is Simon watching the flamingo’s through the glass railing. The funny thing is that he always notices the wild ducks that have moved into their pond. Here are these exotic birds and my kid is standing there going “duck, duck, quack quack”
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Hehe! So funny. When Mylie was 1, I went out of town for the weekend to a scrapbook retreat. DH took her to the zoo on Saturday (Boise Zoo) and he texts me to say “Your daughter just saw 2 tigers having sex.”
The funny part of the story is that the next time we were at the zoo, as we were walking up there was a tour trolly going by and they have a loud speaker and are narrating the tour. They say, “And here we have the tigers at Zoo Boise, they are brothers!!!!!!”
I totally think of this everytime we go to the zoo!!!
lol, too funny! The whole time I was reading your blog, it reminded me of the time I was at the Chicago zoo (on a trip there) and an odd looking ape was sitting there with his you know what hanging out…um…pleasuring himself! Oh and he was looking at us too…..ewwww we were human porn!!!!!
No lie!! I bought a postcard of the ape for the memory, he had a bare bottom and was so odd looking.
OMG!!! The first thing I thought of when I read that was a funny story when we were at the Vancouver Zoo in BC. Chris and Madeline and I were at the monkey exhibit, and all of a sudden, one of the little monkeys stopped… stared at me for a little bit, and got a monkey erection!!! AHHHHH… we were dying. Luckily Madeline was 2, and had no clue.
And apparently, off topic a little, at the same zoo last year one of the eagles escaped during the show, flew into the tigers pen… and we eaten alive!
Fun photos Emily!
When Jeremy and I were on our Honeymoon we went to the Belize Zoo. It was way over hyped. The highlight of our trip was watching 2 lizzards doing it at my feet. I took pictures of them and cannot remember for the life of me what the actual exhibit was. Shows what I was paying attention to!
Best Zoo Story: This spring my husband was on a business trip in Portland, Oregon. So we decided to take the kids along with us and I would hang out in Portland during the day while he was in his meetings for the week. So I ventured with my 2 boys who were about 26 months and 10 months old at the time. We went to the Oregon Zoo right at opening. So of course I got a killer parking spot in the front row. It was right under a tree. So I put the SUV in park. Hop out to get the double stroller all set up with are stuff for the day at the zoo. I buckle the kids into their seats in the stroller. Lock the car. Walk under the other side of the tree. And SPLAT a bird sharts all over my head/hair and the car. So I unload the boys, put them back in their carseats, fold up the stroller, move the car to another spot….so the birds don’t destory my husbands precious Mercedes that he is obsessed with by pooping all over it all day. Then I repeat the whole unfolding the stroller, getting the kids locked back in. I go into the restroom to try and get the rest of the bird crap off of my head/hair which i didn’t see while trying to clean myself up with baby wipes in the side view mirror in the parking lot. And then I seriously can’t remember what happend in the bathroom. Either they were out of soap, only had hand sanitizer or perhaps it was the powder soap stuff which i surely wouldn’t be attempting to wash my hair in the sink with. So just went around the Zoo all day with poop residue in my hair. What a way to start a Monday, right?!
Everyone has animal sex stories! Well, so do I.
At the polar bear exhibit, there were probably 20 people watching at a window. Then ahem….something started. Big polar bears. Very soon you heard so many parents say “oh”. “Ooooh, ok, kids, let’s move along!” 🙂 Most memorable zoo trip I’ve had.
At the San Francisco Zoo… we were watching the wallabies (bascially mini kangaroos) and one male kept hopping after female and mounting her and she would hop away and he would follow. As we stood there, a mother and child (about 4) approached and the child said, “Mommy, what is that kangaroo doing, does he want to play with that other one?” The mom looked, it registered, and she looked desperately at us, so I said, “Yep, just playing sweetie!”
After you left that day we all went to the Woodland Park Zoo, we visited the Tapir who seemed to have a fifth and much longer leg. some kids around 8 – 10 years old were looking at it, taking pictures and saying “What is that?” while Mom stood silently in the background. I think all of us wanted to tell the kids but were also curious is she would stay silent the whole time. She did. We did. I couldn’t get any pictures, but that tapir’s penis was clearly half the length of the body.
My husband and I (he was my BF at the time) went to the Bronx Zoo on our trip to NY. There was a great Monkey exhibit with all difference species in enclosures in this building. Well, these too “cheeky” monkeys were going at it. The funniest and most disgusting part was that each time the male jumped off the female, she put her hand in her crotch then brought it up and smelled it. This happened several times! He’d climb on, hump her, jump off then she’d reach back then smell her hand! Ewwww! We were in hysterics!
Mine is we took our sons along with a friend to the National Zoo in DC. On the way we stopped for breakfeast to go and the kids had pancakes..needless to say somehow I sat on one of the pancakes syrup packets and got it all over my backside. So finally arrive at the zoo. We were thinking the boys are going to be so thrilled to see Pandas. We were watching the hippos and one had diarhee. It was spraying all over the place. The boys thought that was the greatest thing. After that we were walking along and I noticed signs that said be careful of bees . Here I am like a bullyseye with syrup on backside. What we learned that day panda’s were not in for 2 boys but a hippo with diarhee is so cool (the only thing they remeber about the national zoo) and never eat pancakes in a car while heading to the zoo.
we go to the zoo a lot, and we have seen turtles at it and a walrus pleasuring himself. It was well awkward to say the least 🙂
We recently went to the Denver zoo and saw the neatest peacock display. There was 1 female and about 10 different males trying to woo her. They were doing this whole display for all to see ,but the best thing is the humans really respected nature and the display. It was really neat to observe.
I was at the Memphis Zoo about 20 years ago, with my aunt, and cousins from up north. We saw a big crowd around the Bear habitat, and everyone was laughing. A big black bear was *pleasuring himself* for all to see, and it was almost like he was laughing at our reactions. Twenty years later, and my family still laughs about that bear.
That first shot is so sweet 🙂
I was just telling a friend about this last night. A bunch of us were at the St. Louis Zoo in the Monkey house. I had just stopped a guy to drool over his camera. (I was using a p&s and dreaming of one day owning a dRebel.) We stopped to let the boys look at some of the monkey playing. I told them to look at the monkey’s chasing each other around, when all of a sudden they stopped running, right in front of us. And started doing it. Oh my gosh. We hurried up and turned the boys around and pointed out some of the other monkeys. Luckily they’re too young to remember that, but it was so funny.
Of course, you’re getting a lot of similar stories…but I was at the Animal Kingdom a few years ago and saw a male monkey giving another male monkey a blow job! No one does family entertainment better than Disney! =P
Okay, I’m totally cracking up at flamingo rape! Thanks for the post, these stories are great! LOL! I cannot believe you made it this long without seeing sex in the zoo! I have 2 stories…first one from when I was about 7 and we went on vacation to the San Antonio zoo. The male lion walked up, bit the female lion on the neck, and proceeded to have his way with her. Me being 7 I have no clue what’s going on, so I ask my mom. She says they are getting ready to go to sleep and hurries me away from the lions. Years later I realized what a sad excuse it was she made up. Second story…me, my husband, and our two friends went to the Cleveland Zoo. When we get to the baboon exhibit he’s chilling on a tree branch just inches from the glass. We look up and he has a HUGE erection. I had no idea that a baboon was that large. It was like a scene out of a movie…moms start gasping, covering their little ones eyes and pulling them away. Of course us four mature adults took advantage of the break in the crowd to go up to the glass and get a closer look. We laughed so hard at that whole situation!
Fun Emily! First trip to San Diego Zoo, I could have stayed the entire time at the Panda Exhibit! What amazing creatures to just watch, them basically, really not do much!
Haha! Looks like a fun day! I am laughing so hard about the flamingos having sex! LOL
One time when I was at the Seattle zoo, standing probably where Simon was, I was in a jean skirt and bending down to show Jevin (my son who was around 2 at the time) the gorilla and he bent down and looked up my skirt. Pervert Gorilla! HAHA
No crazy stories here… or at least I can’t recall! Just wanted to say that these are great images!
Apparently lions and monkeys “do it” quite often for all to see. I love that you got a photo of the flamingos going to town. Here is my zoo story…when Coop was about 2 we took him and my cousin, her husband & her daughter (age 5) to the Las Vegas Zoo. It is quite a pathetic excuse for a zoo, and we actually felt sorry for the animals. Just as we were leaving we rounded the corner and were headed straight to the ostriches. We (the adults) all stopped & stared in disbelief. Luckily the kids were not old enough to ask questions, but we sure had the shock of our life. I bet you didn’t know that ostriches are well “HUGE” for lack of a better word. We saw all of his boy parts hanging out as he went to mount the female that he had pinned up against a fence. And when they were done, the female tried to walk away and stumbled. I don’t think any of us can talk about the zoo without a little chuckle, and a slight feeling of pain for that poor female!