Last week we already to a trip to the Dallas Children's Aquarium to observe fish, our main focus being the zebra sharks. The kids did some beautiful water color paintings.
On Monday, we had two animal encounters, the first one with an African Black footed penguin, the second with a Ball Python, a constrictor snake that is also known as a royal snake because in ancient times, African kings and queens liked to adorn themselves with those smaller sized pythons.
Katharine, Lukas, Keira and I touched the snake, and to the kids surprise, it wasn't slippery and slimy, but dry and warm. They learned much about the animal and even had extra time to talk to the snake keeper after everyone else had left.
As always, we took a ride on the monorail, which is always a welcome break for the kids, especially on a hot and humid day.
Katharine's hand is the top, Lukas' the bottom
Today was much cooler, overcast, and as we left the zoo, we got rained on pretty hard. The animals seemed to enjoy the cooler weather, too, and were very active. We visited the tiger, the white cheeked gibbons, the Mona monkeys and the Allen Swamp monkeys, watched the river otters all curled up together, and then had a nice picnic lunch. The kids all agreed that Tiger Creek is a better place to observe tigers, but they still enjoyed learning about how a tiger stalks and kills his prey, compared their hands to the size of a tiger's paw and Lennon realized that his head could fit in a tiger's mouth.
After lunch we headed over to the Galapagos tortoises which we observed for quite a while before looking at the large birds (Bald Eagles, Andean Condors, King vulture, African Fish Eagle, Harpy Eagle etc...). The even heard an eagle's cry which sounded actually quite pretty.
While watching the tortoises, the kids noticed how the dome shaped shell is made up of lots of little mounds that looked like mountains. They found out that the shell is actually pretty light weight, compared to the rest of the animal. It is made up of a honeycomb structure that has lots of air chambers.
I asked Katharine how tortoises are usually portrayed in stories, she gave me the correct answer, ancient and wise.
The Harpy Eagle looks pretty cool.
Last we proceeded to check on our friends the gorillas. Only two of the boys were out today. We then decided to check on the chimps, which was a great way to finish today's visit. All but two of the chimps were out, and very active. We watched them get fed and got to talk to their keeper. there must be something about my kids that makes people want to talk to them. Katharine could match almost all of the chimps correctly. The oldest chimp there is Bon Bon, she is 55 years old. The youngest is Kona, a little 4 year old toddler that entertained the kids greatly. It was great seeing the family of chimps interact with each other and learn more about their personalities. I took a video, but have to figure out how to load it, first.
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