London Zoo 2010

London Zoo Septemer, 2010

London Zoo 2010

fatkraken and I spent the next day at the London Zoo. I generally love modern zoos and try to visit every one I come across. The London Zoo is one of the special ones: classic institution, forward-looking, etc. I was not disappointed.

The zoo is very well laid-out and easy to wander in. The exhibits are roomy and much care has been taken to give their wards enrichment and room to move.

Since I'm going to bore you anyway, I'm just going to indulge myself and focus on those things I really enjoyed. There's a whole lotta zoo that I'm going to skip-- but you can find plenty of better reference for the London Zoo all over the web.

First, I *love* going to a zoo with an expert. I have been to zoos with people who's conversation is limited to, "Monkeys! I like monkeys!" I usually ditch 'em! In this case, fatkraken was fantastic company. Her university specialty was in science (mostly snakes, but there's a lot of range into the general animal and science realm). Conversation was lifted to a satisfyingly high level. It was like an interactive NatGeo Channel show. Secondary highlights were the butterfly enclosure (beautiful), the big cats, the polecat interactive kids area (cat-carrier filled with a dozen ferrets: adorable) and the birds. Lunch was fun, too: we beat back the pigeons and marveled at the starlings and their characteristic cunning. British starlings are quite beautiful close-up, with their striking color patterns.

Considering this is in the middle of London, the zoo takes up quite a big parcel of land. However, they also don't have a lot of room to grow, so in order to get a new animal, they have to switch out an existing exhibit. I was very lucky: one of the newer exhibits was a pack of African Wild Dogs. This was easily the highlight of my zoo trip. Thank goodness for fatkraken's patience: I could have stayed there all day watching the pack. As it was, we probably spent more than an hour there.

The zoo originally had a pack of four males (brothers). Recently, they introduced a different mini-pack of two females (also sisters). There was a lot of change within the pack: in the month before the females were let in with the males (while the females were adjacent to the main enclosure) the males sorted out their hierarchy dominance (lots of scuffling). The males still bore the scars (literally, with lots of little wounds and one dog with a pretty bad limp). After they got that sorted out, the females were introduced.



The two females were already pretty copacetic: there was a larger, more serious female and a small, goofy female. The alpha female promptly tore into the victorious male, letting him know who was boss. So much for spoils going to the victor. Still, he never left her side, patiently walking and laying beside her. Every once in a while he would mount her and kind of just go through the motions. She mostly tolerated this, but would just as often wander off
mid-hump . Heh.

My favorite dog was the little beta (more like omega) female. She reveled in her low status: no pressures, more fun. She was the most playful, doofy dog of the pack. She loved to flop down and wriggle on her back. I don't think it was for any physical itch-- it just felt good to do apparently. She hung out near her sister (who was always shadowed by her prospective suitor, the alpha male). The little female actually flopped down on top of the alpha pair, much to their annoyance. It was testimony to the little females harmless status that neither alpha got angry at this.

Here the little female has just flopped on top of the alpha pair (who had been laying on the ground). They immediately stood up, annoyed. The little female, after a token submissive apology, just started to wiggle around on her back, right under the alpha male. The male looks decidedly undignified and unsure just what to do about this complete lack of respect.


Here's actual video of her rolling and rolling and rolling...

Oh, another fun exhibit: the Asian otters! Man, these guys know how to have fun!

London Zoo 2010

London Zoo Septemer, 2010

London Zoo 2010

fatkraken and I spent the next day at the London Zoo. I generally love modern zoos and try to visit every one I come across. The London Zoo is one of the special ones: classic institution, forward-looking, etc. I was not disappointed.

The zoo is very well laid-out and easy to wander in. The exhibits are roomy and much care has been taken to give their wards enrichment and room to move.

Since I'm going to bore you anyway, I'm just going to indulge myself and focus on those things I really enjoyed. There's a whole lotta zoo that I'm going to skip-- but you can find plenty of better reference for the London Zoo all over the web.

First, I *love* going to a zoo with an expert. I have been to zoos with people who's conversation is limited to, "Monkeys! I like monkeys!" I usually ditch 'em! In this case, fatkraken was fantastic company. Her university specialty was in science (mostly snakes, but there's a lot of range into the general animal and science realm). Conversation was lifted to a satisfyingly high level. It was like an interactive NatGeo Channel show. Secondary highlights were the butterfly enclosure (beautiful), the big cats, the polecat interactive kids area (cat-carrier filled with a dozen ferrets: adorable) and the birds. Lunch was fun, too: we beat back the pigeons and marveled at the starlings and their characteristic cunning. British starlings are quite beautiful close-up, with their striking color patterns.

Considering this is in the middle of London, the zoo takes up quite a big parcel of land. However, they also don't have a lot of room to grow, so in order to get a new animal, they have to switch out an existing exhibit. I was very lucky: one of the newer exhibits was a pack of African Wild Dogs. This was easily the highlight of my zoo trip. Thank goodness for fatkraken's patience: I could have stayed there all day watching the pack. As it was, we probably spent more than an hour there.

The zoo originally had a pack of four males (brothers). Recently, they introduced a different mini-pack of two females (also sisters). There was a lot of change within the pack: in the month before the females were let in with the males (while the females were adjacent to the main enclosure) the males sorted out their hierarchy dominance (lots of scuffling). The males still bore the scars (literally, with lots of little wounds and one dog with a pretty bad limp). After they got that sorted out, the females were introduced.



The two females were already pretty copacetic: there was a larger, more serious female and a small, goofy female. The alpha female promptly tore into the victorious male, letting him know who was boss. So much for spoils going to the victor. Still, he never left her side, patiently walking and laying beside her. Every once in a while he would mount her and kind of just go through the motions. She mostly tolerated this, but would just as often wander off
mid-hump . Heh.

My favorite dog was the little beta (more like omega) female. She reveled in her low status: no pressures, more fun. She was the most playful, doofy dog of the pack. She loved to flop down and wriggle on her back. I don't think it was for any physical itch-- it just felt good to do apparently. She hung out near her sister (who was always shadowed by her prospective suitor, the alpha male). The little female actually flopped down on top of the alpha pair, much to their annoyance. It was testimony to the little females harmless status that neither alpha got angry at this.

Here the little female has just flopped on top of the alpha pair (who had been laying on the ground). They immediately stood up, annoyed. The little female, after a token submissive apology, just started to wiggle around on her back, right under the alpha male. The male looks decidedly undignified and unsure just what to do about this complete lack of respect.


Here's actual video of her rolling and rolling and rolling...

Oh, another fun exhibit: the Asian otters! Man, these guys know how to have fun!

London Zoo 2010

London Zoo Septemer, 2010

London Zoo 2010

fatkraken and I spent the next day at the London Zoo. I generally love modern zoos and try to visit every one I come across. The London Zoo is one of the special ones: classic institution, forward-looking, etc. I was not disappointed.

The zoo is very well laid-out and easy to wander in. The exhibits are roomy and much care has been taken to give their wards enrichment and room to move.

Since I'm going to bore you anyway, I'm just going to indulge myself and focus on those things I really enjoyed. There's a whole lotta zoo that I'm going to skip-- but you can find plenty of better reference for the London Zoo all over the web.

First, I *love* going to a zoo with an expert. I have been to zoos with people who's conversation is limited to, "Monkeys! I like monkeys!" I usually ditch 'em! In this case, fatkraken was fantastic company. Her university specialty was in science (mostly snakes, but there's a lot of range into the general animal and science realm). Conversation was lifted to a satisfyingly high level. It was like an interactive NatGeo Channel show. Secondary highlights were the butterfly enclosure (beautiful), the big cats, the polecat interactive kids area (cat-carrier filled with a dozen ferrets: adorable) and the birds. Lunch was fun, too: we beat back the pigeons and marveled at the starlings and their characteristic cunning. British starlings are quite beautiful close-up, with their striking color patterns.

Considering this is in the middle of London, the zoo takes up quite a big parcel of land. However, they also don't have a lot of room to grow, so in order to get a new animal, they have to switch out an existing exhibit. I was very lucky: one of the newer exhibits was a pack of African Wild Dogs. This was easily the highlight of my zoo trip. Thank goodness for fatkraken's patience: I could have stayed there all day watching the pack. As it was, we probably spent more than an hour there.

The zoo originally had a pack of four males (brothers). Recently, they introduced a different mini-pack of two females (also sisters). There was a lot of change within the pack: in the month before the females were let in with the males (while the females were adjacent to the main enclosure) the males sorted out their hierarchy dominance (lots of scuffling). The males still bore the scars (literally, with lots of little wounds and one dog with a pretty bad limp). After they got that sorted out, the females were introduced.



The two females were already pretty copacetic: there was a larger, more serious female and a small, goofy female. The alpha female promptly tore into the victorious male, letting him know who was boss. So much for spoils going to the victor. Still, he never left her side, patiently walking and laying beside her. Every once in a while he would mount her and kind of just go through the motions. She mostly tolerated this, but would just as often wander off
mid-hump . Heh.

My favorite dog was the little beta (more like omega) female. She reveled in her low status: no pressures, more fun. She was the most playful, doofy dog of the pack. She loved to flop down and wriggle on her back. I don't think it was for any physical itch-- it just felt good to do apparently. She hung out near her sister (who was always shadowed by her prospective suitor, the alpha male). The little female actually flopped down on top of the alpha pair, much to their annoyance. It was testimony to the little females harmless status that neither alpha got angry at this.

Here the little female has just flopped on top of the alpha pair (who had been laying on the ground). They immediately stood up, annoyed. The little female, after a token submissive apology, just started to wiggle around on her back, right under the alpha male. The male looks decidedly undignified and unsure just what to do about this complete lack of respect.


Here's actual video of her rolling and rolling and rolling...

Oh, another fun exhibit: the Asian otters! Man, these guys know how to have fun!