Friday, June 27, 2008

Offlede gets cute and ugly animals (goes mainstream)

Feeding0199
A worker was leading an emu around the grounds of the Brevard Zoo during my visit Monday. I don't consider this baby emu very cute, but the kid reacting to touching it is, so I'm good.


This post picks up where the last left off.

Actually, this just dawned on me: I have never been to a real zoo.

I'm from Maine, so I've been to plenty of aquariums. I've been to parks. I've been to animal preserves with deer and lynx and other more northerly creatures.

But a zoo? Tropical birds? Gators? Kangaroos? Giraffes? Nope, never seen that stuff.

So the latter half of Monday consisted of my first visit to a real zoo.

The Brevard Zoo is small and inexpensive - $11.50 for an adult. It's a place you can easily visit in a single afternoon. So I did that.

Most of my time was spent fooling with my new video camera, which I will blog about later. I focused on video instead of still photos. But about an hour into my visit, my battery died. I didn't have a spare, as I do with my still camera, so I was out of luck.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough footage for a good video. I plan to return to the zoo to make that happen.

The most momentous portion of the visit was when I saw an alligator for the first time. Too bad it had to be in captivity; I don't think it counts.

My recent focus on cute animals is all part of an effort to take The Offlede mainstream. As we all know, traditional readers love cute kittens, dogs and bears wandering in someone's backyard. Because I got some heavy traffic with the Nibbler piece earlier this week, I think this strategy will pay off.

I took few photos because of my preoccupation with the video camera, but these are some of what I did get.

ZooFront0538
It's a sign. Nothing misspelled in it, either. So far, so good.

Kayak0264
For an extra fee, you can kayak on one of two water courses on zoo grounds. Above, a tour guide leads a group through the Expedition Africa part of the zoo, a course that seems geared more toward younger children.

Flamingo0201
Flamingo. First time seeing one. They congregated in a pond at the center of the zoo.

RedHead0390
Another bird. Don't know what.

Bird0299
Some parrot variety.

Barred0381
Mr. Long Beak.

Pudu0359
Much fuss has been made about the Chilean pudu, the world's smallest deer. If you ask me, this little fawn is ugly. Certainly not as cute as Nibbler.

Rhino0251
White rhino gets kind of dirty. ... You were ugly in the first place. Can't hide that with mud, dude.

4 comments:

shoyu said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
shoyu said...

I heard the drinks are better at the Melbourne Greyhound Park.

Anonymous said...

Sheesh, you have standards for animal cuteness?

By the way, how are Nibbler and Teddy getting along?

As for the birds, well, that's what the signs are for. To tell non-zoo folks like yourself what species you're watching.

~WN

Andrew Knapp said...

I shot the signs with my video camera so I would know what they were for a video. But I didn't do the same for the still photos.