The Oregon Zoo - 4/8/2011

 Friday was possibly the first nice spring day of the year in Portland.  We had decided that we would go to OMSI on Thursday and then go to either the Zoo or the Air Museum where the Spruce Goose is on Friday, depending on the weather.  When we left the house, it was cool and overcast but we decided to try the Zoo
anyway.  By the time we drove through the Zoo parking lots without finding a place to park and then backtracking along the MAX route toward Beaverton until we finally found a place to park and riding back to the Zoo, it was a nice spring day.

Everyone else with young children, especially enough young children to require a tandem stroller, had also decided to go to the Zoo.  We set out toward the elephant enclosure where the youngest member of the elephant family (is a group of elephants a herd?) was busy sweeping up the last of the bamboo leaves left from the morning's meal.  I hadn't seen elephants use their blowers to sweep food into a pile so they can gather it up with their trunk and transfer it to their mouth.  Between blowing it toward a center and sweeping with the side of their trunk, they have a very efficient system to clean up the last bits of good food.


Along the way to the elephants, we passed the harbor seal pond where the only seal visible was sunning on a rock and looking pretty much like an extension of the rock.  Unless you were familiar with the outlines of a huge seal, you might have walked right by without seeing him.  We also visited the Sea Otters where two of them were putting on a show by just doing what they naturally do.  One was eating something while floating along on his or her back.  The other was cavorting around the pool, at one time performing about a dozen barrel turns in a row right at the glass about two feet from where we were standing and looking through the glass.  The glass is set so about the lower three feet is under water which provides a great view of what is going on in the pool, both above and below the surface.

Eventually, after seeing bears and monkeys and a huge snake, whose photo I have intentionally omitted, we arrived at the Africa exhibits.  The first attraction is a hut that holds four or five drums arranged so young drummers (and even old drummers) can beat out as many disparate rhythms as there are drummers.


 Along one wall there are a half dozen bells and a tethered stick for aspiring bell ringers to practice their thunk, thunk, thunk strokes.  None of the bells had any chime tone and none of the thunks were anything more than that.  Fun for kids but not much fun to listen to.



 Another attraction at the entrance to Africa is a nicely done tile map of the continent with various animals depicted.  Getting a decent photograph of it is difficult because of its size and it is mostly in the shade except where it isn't so the camera doesn't know how to set itself.  Anyway, it is worth a few minutes to enjoy the art.

 For unknown reasons, I have less interest in seeing the big cats in captivity than most of the other animals, except the primates and about everything else at the Zoo.  Elizabeth and Jack visited the lions while I guarded the stroller.  The photo recorded an interesting reflection of Jack along with the lions lounging on one of their rocks.

The most popular attraction at the lion place is, by far, the lion statues at the entrance to the viewing area.  They are natural climbing structures and obvious photo opportunity places.  We had to wait our turn to get space for photos.

Surprisingly, unlike at OMSI, people at the Zoo were very courteous.  Stroller management is sometimes difficult especially with those strollers that are about four feet wide and loaded with coats and lunch and about everything else needed to enjoy a day at the Zoo.  Some of them even carried kids.

I'm glad we saw these Hippos.  They might be about the only exotic animals that truly look at home at the Zoo.  I think they normally spend much of their time in the water, both for climate control and pest management.  These two were contentedly lounging in
the sun and enjoying the day.  They look to have no bone structure but just a very large bag of liquid attached to legs.  They can apparently be aggressive and have more speed than you would think.

Somewhere along the way, but not in the sequence of these photos, we came upon the pygmy goat petting enclosure.  In about 300 square feet there are maybe a dozen very calm goats.  Groups of five or six kids and their companions are allowed in at a time and can pet or brush or just be near the goats.  They are admonished to not sit on the goats or grab them.  The goats are nearly oblivious to what is going on.  I guess they've seen it all.










                                          

Probably the most photogenic animal we saw was the giraffe.  The enclosure has several viewpoints along one

side and the giraffe seemed to almost pose for viewers to get good photos.

We also visited the Trillium Family Farm where two Dexter cows, some pigs, and a small flock of sheep, some angora goats, and a chicken pen are located.  It is used as a petting place but when we were there, none of the animals were available for petting.



It looked to me like the Zoo could be a good place for volunteer opportunities.  Many of the areas seemed to have places for Zoo staff or volunteers to be available but not many of them were occupied.  I think the petting place would be about the most popular place there, if folks were available to supervise the activity.

Someone said they thought the Zoo was a place for grandparents and their grandchildren.   There were plenty of those groupings to be seen with groups of two grandparents and groups with only one grandparent and kids from toddlers to teenagers.  We saw only one group that didn't seem to be having a good time and that looked like a family of four with the kids being about early school age.  Everyone else, even the older kids with grans, seemed to be having a great day at the Zoo.

JCE