Wild Animal Park

On our first full day in San Diego we went to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park with Brent and Veronica. We really enjoyed the park - nice and big, well laid out. All around a fun place.

We saw gorillas. Big, fat gorillas. As Michelle so eloquently shouted at this one, "Maybe you should mix in a salad!"



Let's be honest, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't find the time to post something like this:

Gorilla butt!



See, the park is pretty cool. It's hard to tell where the boundaries are some of the time. I know it's not exactly like the plains of Africa, but it's sure a lot better than [Here I was going to make fun of the zoo in Athens, which was depressingly terrible, but it turns out that they've built a new zoo. Dang internet.]



Although, I'm not sure why they feel they need to put deadly trees right next to where people walk. It's an accident waiting to happen!



We took a tour of the park on a bus (No, not a bus. Not a train, either. You know the thing - it's like a super huge golf cart. Twenty-five bonus points to the person who can tell me its name.), with an excellent guide. He was funny and either knowledgeable or a talented liar. This picture below is important because it depicts a crucial part of nature. But you probably don't want to know what.



OK, I'll tell you. While it looks like the one animal (I can't remember what they are called, so I'm going to name them George and Laura.). OK, so while it looks like George is sniffing Laura's butt, he is actually doing something much more delicate. He is "sampling" her urine with his Jacobson's Organ. And best of all? You and I have a Jacobson's Organ too. Please be careful with that knowledge.

Here is one of the things that is neat about the park - in one place they have different kinds of animals together. In this picture there are rhinos, wildebeest and a giraffe. They do keep the lions separate, though. Not sure why.



But you can get pretty close to the lions. Here you can see that Eli is a panel of glass away from becoming lunch.



Aren't they cute?



They are working on their new Tyrannosaurus Rex exhibit. The gate is ready, but the cloning technology isn't quite up to snuff.



Michelle told me to take a picture of a "five legged elephant", and then she giggled. I don't get it. She said that "I just missed it," but there wasn't any other elephant near this one. Honestly, I don't know what the big deal was.



Milena rides a tame elephant.



Eli is on a cheetah, which probably explains why he is blurry.



Koleman is being very daring, and Kelson is smiling behind him.



Michelle is surprised. Shocked, even. I'm not sure why, though, since the route of a merry-go-round is pretty repetitive.