Decision Made

I have always had a tough time deciding what my favorite wild animal is. There is something so amazing and majestic about elephants. But monkeys are so cute and I love watching them swing from tree to tree and appreciate their keen intelligence (especially that of the great apes, which I recognize are different than monkeys). So when people would ask me what my favorite animal was sometimes I would answer monkeys; sometimes I would answer elephants.

But we headed to the zoo last week, and I saw something that made my mind up for me. We watched the baby elephant Zuri with her mother. Her mother had been eating and Zuri was playing. Then the mother walked away from the food, defecating as she was walking. Zuri trotted over to her mother's fresh poop and sniffed it. Then she began using her trunk to shovel it in her mouth. She feasted on it. My kids could not believe it and have been telling people about it ever since. Now I know that many animals do things that we would think are disgusting. I know that many birds swallow food and then regurgitate it for their babies. I know that some animals chew their own cud. But somehow, in all of my reading and all of the times I have watched elephants, I had missed the fact that baby elephants will eat the mother's fresh excrement. I guess it must have nutrients as the mother had just been eating. But I felt like leading that sweet baby elephant by the trunk over to the food that was not far away and encouraging her to eat that instead. Gross! So now, my mind is made up. My favorite animals are monkeys. Or is my favorite the koala? Or maybe the giant panda? Okay, perhaps my mind isn't quite made up. :)







The zoo has a new exhibit, Rocky Shores, that just opened. It contains seals, seal lions, a polar bear, grizzly bears, river otters and bald eagles. This was our first time seeing the exhibit and the girls loved it. (Although I still think the elephant stole the show.) I loved seeing the river otters since Alfredo and I had seen some when we went on our rafting trip last summer in Jackson Hole. And the polar bear was awesome. The girls loved watching the seals and the sea lion and were completely unimpressed by the river otter.





















They also wanted to sit on every animal statue we passed and have their picture taken, no matter how many times they'd had their picture taken on that statue before. Some were new though, so perhaps that was why they were so intrigued on this trip.
It was a fun trip to the zoo. I really love spending so much time with my kiddos going on fun outings throughout the summer. We don't spend a whole lot of time at home, and that is just how I like it. I like to be busy and out doing things and making memories together.