The National Zoological Park

Today I visited the National Zoo. I don't generally enjoy zoos (it makes me sad to see animals caged for people's pleasure), but seeing as I have been based out of NZP all summer, I decided it was worth a visit. Plus Eagle Eyes keeps telling me zoos these days are doing a lot more conservation so they are not just about displaying animals anymore.

At first, I regretted it. It was hot and crowded and people were not respectful at all of the animals, whistling at them and yelling at them, which really irks me (and I even said so to one woman who was practically yelling in my ear).

The first place I went to visit was the cheetah exhibit, as it was such a pivotal place for me in ninth grade (see my first post, Full Circle). I wasn't impressed, but then again I've been five or ten feet away from a live cheetah and so seeing the back of one lying thirty feet away on the grass is no longer nearly as exciting to me.

Next I went to the bird house (I'm predictable). At first I also found it depressing. My low point was seeing a caged burrowing owl. These are one of my favorite birds, and their numbers are plummeting in San Jose. I had the privilege of helping to rehabilitate one in San Jose a few years back and was present when C released it at the airport, which is the only place left where they are present in Santa Clara county.

I'm including a picture of the burrowing owl so you can see what it looks like, for those of you who have never seen one. The minute my plane lands in San Jose, I will be scanning the runway looking for them, as once when I was taxiing on the runway I did spot one! (OK, OK, I'll admit it publicly, I have this totally unrealistic fantasy that someday I am going to see the one C and I released while taking off or landing, even though I don't remember the color combination of its bands other than that one was blue, and anyway I would never be able to see the bands clearly enough to identify that particular bird while hurtling down the runway at over 60 mph. Don't tease me please-- it's bad enough that my seatmates find it perplexing that I am glued to the airplane window and when they ask why I explain I am looking for burrowing owls, I am sure they think I am nuts as most don't even know what a burrowing owl is).

When I looked in the cage, I expected to see the burrowing owl on the ground, where they usually are in the wild, but I guess there was no good mound for it to stand on or it was stressed, because if you look closely it is perched in the top right corner.




I finally began to enjoy my visit when I got to the outside part of the bird house where it was much less crowded, and saw the cranes. Below is a Stanley crane, which has an elaborate mating display that involves tossing twigs.



In the next cage over was a Wattled crane, with signs posted proclaiming, "Aggressive crane!" Maybe that is why it came right up to the bars and made it so easy to get a picture.



As I rounded the corner, I was very excited to see a Double-wattled Cassowary, which adorns the cover of one of my favorite books-- Biological Exuberance-- due to its homosexual behavior. Eagle Eyes says they are ferocious birds to handle, and I can see why. I certainly never imagined they were quite so large!