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November 20, 2005
Dallas Zoo - Part 2 (0)
Giraffe Junior High
I have had so few enjoyable trips to the zoo because many of the animals make me a bit sad. Many times the cages their kept in are too small and don’t look a thing like the environment that they are used to. When I saw Giraffe Junior High, I got that sick feeling in my stomach. The amazing thing is that the two giraffes at the Dallas Zoo are the oldest in captivity.
Mirror Woman
The other thing that bothers me at the zoo is the way the people visiting it act. We ran into one of the more glaring examples of poor patron behavior when we saw the mirror lady. I don’t know her real name, but I know her husband’s. “Artie, get over here!” was constantly screamed by this obnoxious woman. If only she could have seen his eyes roll on one of those occasions. I imagine her giving him an even bigger earful.
We first ran into mirror woman and her brood of grandkids at the chimp exhibit. Unlike Giraffe Junior High, the chimp exhibit follows a more modern zoo trend—larger, more realistic habitats. This woman shows up and states, “Let’s see if I can get him to talk to me.” She pulled out a mirror and started shining it into this poor creature’s eyes. That went on for a couple of minutes with little reaction.
“Ever since that article came out, everyone’s been doing this, so it doesn’t work as much anymore.” That was news to me as I had never seen it before. Maybe there is a way to do this mirror flashing briefly that wouldn’t seem so cruel. “I sure got one of them bamboons…bam…baboons to talk.”
Elephant Shower
Later in the day I saw two other things that I had never seen before at a zoo. The first was an elephant that was playing and happy. The zoo keeper was giving the elephant a spray with the hose. While this happened the elephant got into the pond and splashed around, playing with and old tire.
Mmmm....Lunch
We also got to see a tiger as close as I have seen one. They had a large, nice habitat, but this tiger enjoyed sitting on a rock two feet from the glass and string at the people. I’m sure he was imagining how tasty each visitor might be. The woman in charge of the tigers was there with someone else from the zoo, but spent several minutes answering all of our tiger questions. That was a real treat.
Posted by Rich at November 20, 2005 11:41 AM
