happy 20th birthday padang!

padang celebrated a milestone birthday today, turning the big 2-0! ... last week i was with follower andiecatt who gave padang's keeper barb two new blankets for her to give her today. thankx to barb! who had padang's area done up with her blankets layed out and some new toys and a big stuffed dog! all scented with spices and perfumes that are pleasing and interesting to her. she had a great time checking out all her prizes and loved the dog especially, carrying it to her bed for a tussle! hope you enjoyed your day padang! happy birthday and many more! ... these pix are screen caps from the video i took, since i didn't take any still photos. ... want to note that her gifts were set up indoors cause the weather has been unpredictable. she and the other big cats are not always behind bars. these are their night quarters in the lion house, which some cats have access to for a few hours during the day so visitors can get the opportunity to see these magnificent cats up close!

video snips

here are some clips from video i took yesterday. i hope to eventually have all my zoo friends captured in action so i can dub the footage together and make a nice tape. i say tape cuz i'm using my old school technique of vcr to vcr! its the only way can do it for now with the equip i gotz! but it all works for me. anyway, i was able to feed the footage from yesterday to my imac imovie ap and catch these snips with the little memory my old imac has. i got some great stuff, so in this case, size doesn't matter! only thing is they run quick and not sure why ;( ... gauhati was out and about for hours lookng cute as can be while enjoying his morning grub! ... jahari was more interested in sniffing his hay than showing his face, but he gave us a bit! ... ulu was in her meadow and happy as can be! ... goober was chowing on his alfalfa and when he was done made his cutest goober faces!

new lioness in town

last week our female lion kimani was sent to her new home at the tautphaus park zoo in idaho falls. she is going there on a breeding recommendation. its very sad that she won't be here anymore and i will miss her. and her spunkyness! she was born here and has lived with her papa all her life. the deal was a swap and we are getting their female as a companion for tunya. her name is sukari. from this pic she looks like kimani aittle and her mama kita. she is already here in quarantine, where she will stay for thirty days. i just feel bad that tunya will be alone for a month. as well poor kimani will be too (in Q) in her new home. its heartbreaking but that's the way it goes since the program (species survival) is trying its best to keep the lion population thriving and diverse. ... here is a pic i found online. attempts to get concrete info on kimani's boyfriend or photos of either (from Tpark zoo) have not been sucessful ;( .... will post pix of her when i see her in person, hopefully by the time they give out christmas enrichment's! add note> i have been in contact with a fan of the Tpark zoo and sometime soon, she will go there and check on our kimani and get some further info, plus pix of her and her new boyfriend! so, stay tuned for updates.

rhino fever

both of the black rhino's have been moved to their new home! they are giving each time to adjust to their new surroundings and they seem to really like it! i've seen them both now, today being the first time i've seen miss elly out. she was prancing around looking like she just loved the place! so happy to see her in good spirits. she is an older gal and in the old enclosure it kinda showed. she just layed there most of the time and never really had the ambition to do much. now it seems she's got a new zest! i had my video camera and she dashed by with a smile on her face :) i've seen gene (mishaki) out several times in the past week and he too seems to be loving exploring (and marking!) the new digs! i'm glad they are happy! ... photos above of gene checking it all out! below short clip of elly strolling about, can you see her smiling!?

all about roo's

this is my first post about the kangaroo's that live at the zoo. i think i mentioned one that appeared last winter, in the "babies, babies, babies" post, but this is all about roo's. ... today i was lucky enough to see babies! one baby out with mama and the other at first with only its hind legs out of the pouch! the keeper said that since the babies are estimated to emerge from the pouch at six months, the one fully out is prob about seven months and the undecided one about six. after standing there quite sometime, the undecided one, decided to give mama a break and jumped out and about for a bit! they are both very cute, i wish they were alittle closer and my pix were alittle clearer of the undecided one. both are red kangaroo's, which there are twelve total, including two breeding females, the father and the offspring. the other walkabout residents are two female grey kangaroo's and a male/female pair of wallaroo's. ... i heard this about kangaroo's, but just thought it was a "capable of" thing, not something that is continuous, but kangaroo's can be in three different stages of motherhood at the same time. they can have one baby in the pouch, one newborn suckling in the pouch and one in utero. so since our two red females are breedable right now, they are constantly pregnant! mama to the seven month old male is a three time mama and the six month old is its mama's fifth! ... thankx to keeper heather for standing there in the gorgeous, but nippy weather to answer all my Qs!

dozer update!

this is my guy dozer! i've mentioned him once before, but til now he hadn't had his own post becuz he moved to safari west (near santa rosa) before i started this blog. bulldozer became my fav becuz we share a birthday, august 11. he was born in 2007 to mama bititi and papa sam. dozer was always fun to watch and his sweet disposition always shined thru! the last three pix of him are mine. you can see he had a girlfriend in one of the female kudu he lived in the savannah with. i was lucky to catch this sweet exchange between them. ... since his move i had tried (unsucessfully) via several emails to get an update and pic of him in his new home. finally someone answered my twitter tweet the other day and posted a pic (the cute tongue one!) on their facebook site. they had some others as well and said it was cool if i post some here, so thanks to safari west for the first three pix. you can see dozer is still sweet dozer! loving attention and being a sweet silly boy! he looks like he is getting along fine there, but i miss him all the time! he moved there so he would be able to have his own family one day. looking forward to visiting him and someday seeing baby dozer's! love ya dozer!

big cats in sepia tone

i love using the sepia tone effect. i took some before last year, but for some reason didn't have any of the big cats. snapped these today. the one of tony (siberian tiger) playing with his ball is the cutest and one of my favorite all time pix i've taken at the zoo. ... the one of jahari full frame mane came out exactly how i wanted it to. all the male lion ones are jahari, female lion is amanzi. ... leanne (sumantran tiger) ... rigel (snow leopard) wasn't sleeping today but was on the go! too bad about the fence, but i like that i finally got him up and about! ... just looked at my photos again after posting and having eye contact with such majestic creatures makes me tear up. its really incredible when they look right at you and some you know recognize you. look at the pix of tony and jahari how they are looking right at me. even amazni was, but you can't tell the depth in that photo like with the other two.

gems from yesterday

i'm at the zoo at least twice a wk. i get some really good pix that i think capture the animals personalities. i'm going to start posting more of these gems. ... miss tallulah doing what she loves best, reading a magazine wrapped in a blanket. ... padang was grazing in the grass. i love how she looks against green, especially her eyes. ... jahari and amanzi were striking this awesome pose for quite sometime. ... jonesy and half sis zura, side by side, watching being watched. ... all the giraffes in one snap! papa sam, camilla, niklas, moms carolina and bititi. ... niklas.

niklas gettin' his groove on!

shot this video today on my digital camera. its a bit out out of focus at this size (my clips play better at small size) but it was a great moment to see and a close capture so easy to tell the detail of what is going on, even if not clear. posting it anyway becuz his playfulness was adorable! ... fyi niklas is seven months old now!

a personal memory - the old seal pool

i've been continually trying to organize my digital photos and in that attempt i keep coming across this pic. it is not from my childhood, but probably the last photo i took of a seal in the old pool and one of the cutest photos i've ever taken or seen. too cute to pass up sharing, so i thought i'd write a bit about what a highlight the seal pool was when i'd visit as a child. ... i remember before you even got to the area you could hear all the seals barking! as you approached you would see the line coming from the hut that sold fish you could buy to feed them. it was always a big attraction for visitors and for me. my parents would always get the fish. watching them swim fast around the pool and then jump up on the rock right in front of you so you could throw the fish to them, was one of my favorite things to do at the zoo. ... the seal pool is still there but not in use. it was last used as a rehabilitation holding area in connection with the marin mammal center. the photo was taken in 2002, so this cute harbor seal was probably a part of that program and was probably eventually released back into the wild. that partnership was a great use for the pool. its sad when things you remember so fondly are no longer, but in this case, there are better places for healthy seals to live, this pool is just too small. i'm also grateful that seals and dolphins are not housed at the steinhart aquarium anymore. great memories but not a size appropriate place for these animals. i note healthy, becuz we do have orkney, a gray seal with special needs and i believe the zoo is the best place for him. ... i think my experience feeding the seals at the zoo, was a foundation for another favorite activity that is no longer. up until pier 39 corralled the seal lions and began making a profit for free off that confinement, i used to go to marina safeway and buy a bunch of fish and go down to the area behind fishermans grotto and feed the seals. it was fantastic! i would dangle a fish over the edge and a seal would jump out of the water about a foot from me! so close that i would just drop it in their mouth! fun times. ... i mentioned the marine mammal center. great organization. if you are in the sf area, check them out. i haven't been there since they re-opened after a major renovation, but it used to be a place i visited regularly. one of the most beautiful things i've ever witnessed was one of their seal releases. it took place in the early morning near point reyes. they released three seals that were rehabilitated and ready to go back in the wild. it was incredible to see.

today's news, re the grizzly invasion

there are so very many things wrong with the outcome of this jury trial.

please read the article available via the sfgate.com website.

the judge is the lamest excuse for a justice renderer and in my opinion the jury is worse becuz they are supposed to be the balance of logic. to me, this jury is made up of those same people who i witness every visit, rapping and tapping on the glass of enclosures, and yelling and roaring out to the animals. the people who come up to me and ask why the animals are all napping. can't we go and "get them to move around." ... i'm not a fan of humans and during one jury selection poll, when the judge explained to me the process was to also ensure my right to a jury of my peers if ever needed. i told him i would wave that right. evidentially you are not allowed to wave that particular right. so, its not a right at all , its a mandated demand. anyway, this jury's logic or lack of proves that i was wise beyond my years as the cliche goes. i would not want people so inept making a decision on my life. ... so the judge doesn't know the meaning of the word "trespass", and both deemed the guy too mental to know what he was doing, but still let him go with no reprimand, not even to deal with fact of said mental issue. .. it was noted that the bears did nothing to him so it wasn't an "intrusion"? how would the judge and jury have justified if the animal had lost its life becuz of this creep?

bottom line, its just another bad message being sent to those who lack a moral conscious in regards to how animals should be respected. who is going to set the precedence on how to punish these people? its obviously not the justice system, so it needs to be zoos, just flat out saying "if you go in, too f-ing bad." sorry if this offends anyone, but i'm pretty pissed and tired of the same old human bullshit in regards to animals.