Visiting the Los Angeles Zoo

A Bright and Sunny Afternoon

Last week for the first time we decided to check out the Los Angeles Zoo. Even though we've lived here for many years, we have never been to the local zoo. I think we got spoiled by the San Diego Zoo, and had heard that this one was much smaller so didn't bother checking it out. It is indeed quite a lot smaller, but there is still a lot of great things to see there. We ended up getting a membership so that I can take @little-ricky as often as I like.

These guys are set up pretty near to the zoo entrance. I really love their vibrant colors. I have read that they get their coloring from the food that they eat, specifically carotenoids. In nature they eat a lot of algae and brine shrimp that contains the substance which ends up metabolized leaving pigment to spread throughout their feathers.

The sign indicated that there are two different species housed at the zoo. There may have been more, but I only saw the two. They seem quite content just roaming around snacking and relaxing in their habitat.

Not much further along you will find this somewhat sad looking elephant. I might be putting an undue emotion on him, but he really seemed to be moping around. It is also very possible that he is just incredibly old! He/She looked kind of gaunt to me, but what do I know about elephants. For all I know, this elephant is living the great life and is quite pleased with its situation. I do know that these are very intelligent creatures. I didn't see any other elephants around, so I don't know if it is alone or not. We arrived a bit late in the afternoon and a lot of the animals were put away, so it's possible that there is another one living here.

There were quite a few chimpanzees to see at the zoo. Unfortunately, all I brought with me was my 85mm RF lens, so I couldn't get any good closeups of the animals that were further away. I did the best that I could though! I really want to buy a fast telephoto lens, but I really can't justify the cost since I don't really do anything that would make money with it.

This particular chimp was making a lot of noise and I think he was annoying some of the other residents. At some point he kind of went off by himself and sat in the corner.

So the chimp in the above photo on the far right had everyone pretty grossed out and amused. It hung its butt over the edge of that cliff and started to pee. After it peed, it reached its hand around and cupped it under its butt and took a big dump into it. Immediately afterward, it started to eat it while closing its eyes with an ecstatic expression on its face.

Thankfully I wasn't eating anything at the time, because I might have lost my lunch. Sadly for many zoo visitors they weren't so lucky. I saw quite a few people make gagging faces and others laughing pretty hard. That was something that I really didn't need to see that day! But hey, nature is nature.

These guys were by far little Ricky's favorites. We kept going back and forth between the giraffes and the elephant. He kept yelling "Giraffe!!!" then he'd run toward them. As soon as we'd get to the giraffes he'd yell "Elephant!!!" and run back in that direction.

At this point I have seen a lot of giraffes in person and various locations. I never really get used to how large these animals are, though. They are such alien looking creatures!

I think there are just two giraffes in the zoo, but there may have been more that I was not aware of. We really only just caught a few minutes with them before they were brought in for the night. This particular night I think they were shutting things down a bit early because they were doing a lunar near years light show as soon as it got dark. I think that they wanted to get the animals settled in before it got dark so that they wouldn't be disturbed by all of the guests. And it ended up being a really packed house! I actually took a lot of photos as that event and will talk about it in a separate post.

Just as they were taking in the giraffes, we heard a seriously loud ruckus nearby. It sounded like a Planet of the Apes battle commencing. The chimps are right next to the giraffes, so we headed over there quickly to see what was going on.

It turned out that it was just food time. They gave all of the chimps their own huge bunch of lettuce and they were going crazy. You can see the one on the right enjoying the core on its own after peeling off all of the outer leaves. That's pretty funny because it is my favorite part as well. I guess I ain't nothing but an ape.

Sadly I didn't get to see much in the water at all. A lot of the exhibits seemed to be shut down for maintenance or whatever reason. I did see this one critter pop up out of the water a few times though. Ricky was pretty excited about it!

And now we come to the most untamed of all the wild animals, @little-ricky. This kid was running around like a headless chicken. I don't think I've ever seen him run so fast. I think I spent a great deal of the day just trying to keep up with him! It is surprising to me how quickly his run upgraded from a fast walk (for me) to an outright sprint. This kid can really move. And to make matters worse, he is tiny and can maneuver between people in such a way that it's hard to keep up with him.

I have a feeling we are going to be spending a lot of time at the LA Zoo this summer. At least I've found a new way to burn off some of his energy!