More Zoo Camp

Well, the lemurs will be tomorrow, not today. So I'll be looking forward to that.

But today was great. We started out pulling weeds, but in return we got to feed the giraffes. It was sort of like feeding horses. You grab a handful of oats and scoop it between the giraffe's lips, then he sticks out his long black tongue and leaves your hand sticky with saliva. Their tongues were sort of rough, almost like a cat's tongue. There were a couple of pushy males that butted their heads in whenever I tried to feed the smaller ones squished in the back. I took a couple pictures so hopefully they'll turn out well.

Next on the agenda was the otters. Man, they are cute. They have the funniest way of walking, too. We hid little pieces of dog kibble and fish in various places in their enclosure, and we stuck an open bottle of goldfish into the otters' pond. Then we got to watch them run out from their den and go crazy finding all of the food. It was great.

In the afternoon we started what's called an "enrichment project." Basically we made toys for the animals. Right now we're working on a large paper mache giraffe that we'll stick in the lions' area. I'm not sure it's really paper mache since all we're doing is sticking strips of newspaper onto a cardboard box, but the lions should have fun tearing it up.

The hyenas were out today, too. They've got to be the ugliest, scariest looking animals at the zoo. Or in the world. Man. One was pacing back in forth with a bone in his mouth, while the female was nuzzling a big red ball. She was so big that she looked more like a bear than anything else. The male gave us a couple of dirty looks; it might have been close to their feeding time.

Ok, so tomorrow is the lemurs. For some reason I'm really excited about this. Today we saw a couple of zoo keepers feeding grapes to the lemurs and it was the cutest thing. They're not shy at all. They also like to smack each other. It's really funny. They sort of remind me of my cat Bernie because he has a tail striped and colored like a lemur's. I took some pictures of them, too.

So that was my day. Now I'm going to relax since I feel tired as heck.