Friday, July 10, 2009

We took our first trip to Tanganyika Wildlife Park today with Oma and Papa and cousin Jake. We saw penguins, monkeys, a red faced panda, white Bengal Tigers, zebras and cloud leopards.

We fed brightly colored rainbow lories (like a small parakeet) who were flying free inside a large cage. They would walk up your back, sit on your head and as Papa found out, poop on your shirt. The good news is that lories' #2 dries clear, so at least other people are not disgusted by your bad luck. One lorie was determined to eat the sapphire stone out of one on my rings and tugged and pulled on my ring until it hurt. They had a high pitched chirp which sometimes hurt your ears, especially if they were chirping right INTO your ear.
One seemed to be a bit miffed when he found out that he could not eat the rubber bands in my hair.

We also fed tortoises and rabbits and rode a Dromedary camel named Charlie. Jake, Adam and Zach rode together. Jake sat on the hump of the camel, which he said was not too comfortable. Then Oma and I rode...this was my first camel ride and Oma's second. She's a veteran camel rider...she rode one in Egypt!
Next we fed goats, one of which kept butting the other goats with his horns so he could eat the food. We were able to feed lemurs, but the worker told us not to pet them. They were very agile and light while jumping from rock to rock. If you held you hand out with a closed fist, they would use their little paws to try and open your hand, then finding nothing, would reach out for your other hand and pry it open in hopes of finding something there.
We tried to feed the giraffes, but they were not interested in food. We walked in the kangaroo cage and saw several baby kangaroos sleeping and one even in the pouch of the mother. We were told that we could pet the kangaroo's on the back if they were close enough, but we had to stay on the path.

You could also view the new baby animals through a window in the Animal Nursery. We saw little clouded leopards about the size of a small house cat and a lemur. Both animals were born in May.

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