Zoo Outing With Masks - New Rhino Exhibit

Today we went to the zoo for the first time since COVID-19 hit.  We donned our masks and walked around much of the zoo.  Some of the buildings were closed, but we were able to see the kangaroos hopping around, the tiger up close and growling, and the new rhino exhibit including a couple rhinos.

We tried taking a selfie with the grizzly bear in the background, but couldn't get the bear in it.

The rhino exhibit is very large, but we didn't see any rhinos in it, until we moved to where some people were looking over the fence.  There it was, right against the wall where people could barely see it:

Right after I said it figures the rhino would go to the place where the people couldn't see it but then the rhino did get up and move around in its new exhibit that just opened this summer.

 Have you been to the zoo yet this year?

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Do You Know What a Snow Leopard Sounds Like?

We finally made our first winter visit to the Cleveland Zoo this year on President's Day.  We spent most of the day walking our dog but visited the Northern Trek late afternoon.  It was a fun hour because the tigers were quite lively and vocal.  I got some good closeups of all three of them.  The wolves were fun to watch too!  They ran around and one leaped to the little island in the beaver pond.  It was the first time I saw a wolf on it!  The biggest surprise though was when the snow leopard made noises!  It sounded like a cat--more like a meow than a growl.  I did manage to get a couple of the noises the snow leopard made on video.  I was surprised that only the sloth bear was out and not the grizzlies.

One of the biggest benefits of getting a zoo membership for the year is being able to go anytime we feel like it and spend as much or as little time as we want there.     

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Got to See the Tigers in New Exhibit at Cleveland Zoo

I had a great start to my vacation today.  The weather is sunny and 80 degrees, pretty blue sky with a nice breeze.  After breakfast at Golden Coral (paid for with a gift card), we visited the Cleveland Zoo determined to get some pictures of the tigers in their new exhibit.  The exhibit is 1 acre which is about 10 times bigger than what they had before and with so much  more!  They are slowly being introduced to it but at least we got to see both the male and female tigers in it.  The female was walking around quite a bit when she was let out of the inside enclosure.

275 lb. female tiger saying hello to the visitors

She settled down in a shady spot under a big log.  They also have what they call climbing posts that look like telephone poles without the wires.  The volunteer told us that the tigers will eventually climb these poles to get some meat that will be placed on top for them as they get more comfortable in the exhibit.  

There is also a long ramp they can walk up that crosses over where the people stand to watch through the glass.  There are a couple pools of water, one on each side and lots of grass with some logs to crawl on and small bushes.  It is so much nicer than what they had before and I'm sure the tigers will be happy to be able to stay outside at night as well.

Male 375 lb. tiger

We look forward to checking on them often to see them discover all the new things they can do.  I would love to see them climb those poles!  Down the road, the zoo is planning to get some tiger cubs, but not from these two who are in their teens.  That will be something to see, but for now, we'll enjoy watching these two big cats!

After the zoo, we rested for a bit and then played some tennis and now I'm ready to do some reading on the porch while Gerard and Abby go for their walk.  Loving being off work today!


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Join Us At The Cleveland Zoo

The zoo is always fun, especially if you like seeing the animals! Right off, a dinosaur greeted us (animated, of course. During the summer, there is a special dinosaur exhibit that costs a little bit extra to get in ($2 for members.

I'd have to say the animal of the day was the meerkats--there were six of them and all were busy! Plus they are so cute too. A close second were the Grizzly bears. Even the tiger was awake and in a good mood--even posed nice and smiled for the camera! The animals are much more lively on cooler days than on hot days of summer. The temperature was in the 60s on the days we took this video.

I tried to show some of the interactive things that the kids enjoy. In the rainforest is a machine where you can easily create a conservation poster.  Here is the one we made.  On warmer days, the playground up by the Primate, Cats & Aquatics building is crowded with young children and their parents.  There are some donkeys, goats and sheep that you can pet for free with soap and water close by.

One little boy was having a great time jumping down the stairs in the rainforest.  There are lots of snacks available throughout the zoo too, including Ben & Jerry's ice cream by water fowl lake.

The most popular fun spot though for kids I would have to say is the Yabba Tree House.  To enter, you walk across a swinging bridge and then there are things to play with like a cannon and a ship wheel.  The animated crocodile by the waterfall is very realistic and there are some small exhibits in there too as well as curving staircases.  It's pretty high up so there is also a nice view.

When was the last time you went to the zoo?  Hope you enjoyed our video!  Do you have a favorite animal?

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Aww Mondays: Baby Rhino

This is the new baby rhino at the Cleveland zoo--very playful!

Join in the AWW Monday hop!

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AWW Mondays: Black Bear and More

I'm watching you . . . see my long sharp claws?

This black bear was resting when I saw him at the Cleveland Zoo last Thursday when we went to the special Breakfast With the Animals zookeeper event. I thought he was verycute. On our arrival, we had a breakfast of yogurt, a muffin, fruit and water and got to pet the possum and armadillo that one of the volunteers brought over. I took a picture of the possum but thought I already had a picture of an armadillo but later found out I didn't. The armadillo's shell was flexible and had hairs sticky out of it. It was a hairy armadillo and very cute. It felt like petting bumpy rock.

I grow thick fur when it's cold.

I look kind of like a donkey.

There was a new animal that we hadn't seen before up in the Northern Trek called a Persian Onager that was very nice. It was all the way on the other side of the exhibit but came over for me to get a good picture of it.


Be sure to stop by to see the pet Blogville Olympic games today: 

Beach Ball ~ http://www.twofrenchbulldogs.com/

Cross Neighborhood Walkabout ~ http://cutecorbin.blogspot.com/

Hiding ~ http://housecatconfidential.blogspot.com/

Competitive Napping ~ http://hufflemawson.blogspot.com/

If the Olympic pictures aren't up yet, check back later.

Find more cute AWW Monday pics and some more at Jodi's Journey.

(We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.)

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6 Things We Learned This Week 16 of 2012 (golf, words, TV, zoo, animals)

 

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. We like to share what we've learned each week.

1. Bubba

   I was thrilled to see an unknown golfer (art least to me) win the Masters this year.  Bubba Watson won using a pink driver! Here's a link to the post I did about him: Congratulations, Bubba!



2. New Talk Show

   Guess who is going to have a talk show in September. . . Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor! I'm going to DVR it at least for a week to check it out. I like him and am curious as to what topics he'll be talking about. He twittered about it.

3. Zoo News

   

   Aye-Aye (image source: Zoo magazine)

   A new animal that I never heard of arrived: the aye aye. It is a small animal with big ears, long claws that looks kind of like a lemur. Here's a link to National Geographic to learn more about this unusual creature from Madagascar.


4. May 12, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., people can come ride their bikes all through the Cleveland zoo!


5. Kallie, a 29-yr.-old female elephant arrived from the Pittsburgh zoo and already knows three of the ones here from being with them before.

6. Doula

   This is a word I just heard last night at our Women of Wonder ("W.O.W.") meeting from one of the ladies at my table who said she wants to be one. I had no idea what it was, but she explained it's someone (a non-medical) person who focuses on supporting a woman giving birth, kind of like a labor coach. According to Wikipedia, the goal of a doula is to ensure the mother feels safe and confident before, during and after delivery.

(50 cents per legitimate comment during April goes to Paralyzed Veterans of America.) Share this:

6 Things We Learned This Week 48 of 2011 (free, donations, Carols, hens)

Free ebooks

You can download free ebooks from www.cuyahogalibrary.org for your Kindle, Nook, Sony reader, ipad and more with no late fees and available 24/7.

Zoo Free

On Thanksgiving, we went to the zoo in the afternoon and the parking lots were pretty full. Admission if free to everyone on Thanksgiving Day!

Donate Your Bike

I learned that Wheels of Change ships used bikes from the U.S. to Africa. You can find a donation facility near you at www.wocinternational.org. If you are getting new bikes for Christmas, you might want to donate your old ones.

Get The Eggs Where You Want Them

Over at For Love or Funny I learned that if you put a glass egg in a nest, hens will lay more near it! She tried this with a dollar bill on her table to see if more money would come, but that didn't work. This is a blog that is usually funny with great pictures to go along with the posts. I visit it regularly and now she is even having a $35 Amazon Gift Card giveaway! I suggest you go visit this upcoming romance author.

Christmas Carols

I was pleased to hear actual Christmas Carols playing in CVS yesterday! At least one store still play Carols. Do you know of any others?

Comment Count

Our comments were up last month--238 which resulted in $119 more for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, our charity for November! Thanks to all of you who took time to comment.

For more Friday Fragments or to link up yours, visit Half-Past Kissin' Time.

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Meeting The Grizzly Bear Cubs (Aww Mondays)

These two Grizzly bear cubs are new to the Cleveland Zoo. Gerard and I just visited them Saturday and got there just when they charged into the exhibit. I think they are SO cute and mentioned that several times in the video--sorry for repeating myself! They were very active: forging for food, getting a drink, walking the log down and up the hill, playing with the big ball and just lumbering around their exhibit. We were fortunate to have a zoo volunteer there at the time who was able to answer our questions about these two bears so if you turn up your volume, you can hear our questions and the answers on the video.

Find more Aww Mondays at Comedy Plus and feel free to link up a picture that will make us say "Aww."

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The Cleveland Zoo Elephant Crossing Exhibit Is Spectacular

On May 7 we went to see the elephant crossing exhibit for the first time and were very impressed! It just opened May 5. There are five elephants now and five acres for the exhibit! When we arrived, the trainer was calling the 11-ft. tall male elephant over to cross to the other side so we got to see how the gate worked. It is so cool! It separates the two big sections of the exhibit and the elephants cross through one way and then the people can go across and walk in the same place the elephants did.

There was so much to see we spent an hour just exploring it. I had planned to take pictures for this blog post, but my battery died so went back around 4:00 to get more but they had just brought the elephants inside. In  the video it shows how close the people can be inside and how we can watch the trainers move them along. The mole rats (little mice) and a python is in the elephant building too.

I wanted to go again on Sunday right after I got done teaching my Sunday School class, but Gerard didn’t realize that. I expected him to read my mind but he didn’t. We started on our way after lunch, but since mothers got in free for Mother's Day, it was packed like I thought it would be. In fact, the traffic was all backed up almost to our street! We decided to take Abby to the park instead—see how flexible we are? Turns out it was a good idea because Monday, we heard that the zoo had closed all their parking lots at 1:00 because they were all full!

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Merry Christmas!

I know some of you have seen this before since I made it last year, but I realize I picked up a lot of new readers this year so decided to post it again.  (After all, I did pay for the download so might as well use it, right?)  I am thrilled to have so many followers.  I never expected this many when I first started blogging.

Yesterday I enjoyed my day off and went to the Cleveland zoo in the morning.  It was a good day to go, not crowded at all!  The first thing Gerard and I did was visit the Rainforest and decorate some Christmas cookies!  It was fun!  Gerard made the tree with chocolate frosting and I did a star with vanilla frosting. 

Then we ate them up right away and went off to be entertained by the otters, orangutans, the fossa, the snow leopard, monkeys and many other animals.  We did skip the Northern Trek though today because it was getting cold, we were getting hungry and time was flying by.

We all wish you a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.  Hope you have good weather if you are going visiting. 

Red, White Day and Zoo Enrichment at The Cleveland Zoo

UPDATED AT 3:10 P.M.:

It is very hot today so we took along our water bottles and a book so we could sit in the shade and read along the way. It worked out well--neither of us got a headache or heat stroke. Above is a picture of us sitting in the shade by the giraffe exhibit catching a small breeze before we trekked on up to the wolves and bears. Normally we don't go when it is this hot but today was a special Red, White Day with animal enrichment special treats so we went.

The zookeepers prepared unflavored gelatin with grapes and raisins in it for the swamp monkeys. They went after the grapes mostly but the Wolf's Guenous monkeys weren't interested at all. It was sad but it still served for enrichment because they were very cautious and inquisitive.  I asked how they decide which animals get the special treats and was told they actually test them out to see their reactions and then have the ones with the best reactions get treats when the public can see them.  I was surprised that the Howler monkeys did not respond to the special treats because they are always active and vocal, but the girl said they ignored it and just played with each other.  They did not test the Wolf's Guenous monkeys ahead.  Now that is a job I would love!  Too bad I have no training for it. 

Below is the video of the swamp monkeys enjoying their treat and the lemurs. We missed seeing them get their treat and also did not hang around long enough to see the bears with the blocks of ice with fish and fruit inside but we did see that other years. Enjoy the video--it's cute.



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6 Things I Learned This Week--Part 47

Catster-Dogster Cat show & Dog Show

Lots of cat and dog pictures to look at over at the Catster & Dogster show. Judges choose winners of the categories but anyone can vote once for the best in show for one cat and one dog. I had a tough time choosing! Go check it out: The World's Coolest Dog and Cat Show. Our friend Harley is up for two categories! He has some very stiff competition there though! We didn't know about this contest soon enough to enter our pets.

Toxic Flowers to Cats

I knew Pointsettas were poisonous to cats but in playing my trivia game at the top of my blog this week (like I hope all of you do) I learned that daffodils, tulips and especially lilies are also toxic for cats.

Weight

At Greed Girls Guide I learned that it actually is good to get weighed every day. It helps you make good eating choices through the day and makes you aware early of any unwanted weight gain before it gets out of hand. I also liked the interview with a personal trainer. It is a Q&A format on video with the trainer. Very interesting and well done.

Sandy Alomar

Thanks to the PLAIN DEALER, I learned that the Cleveland Indians former catcher, Sandy Alomar, will be back with the tribe as a first base and catcher coach. Welcome back! Now, if only we could get Omar Vizquel to be the manager!

It's A He

Surprise!The Cleveland Zoo tortoise named "Mary" was discovered after many years to actually be a male and was renamed "Terry" this week.

Traditions from Shell In Your Pocket

I found a blog this week through SITS that shares great holiday traditions at Shell In Your Pocket. Here are just a few that I was especially impressed with: Mini-Van Express--neighborhood tour of Christmas lights with special fun and excitement built in, Thanksgiving table cloth with things the family has written that they were thankful for over the years, advent boxes with something small for the kids each day, surprise Christmas Eve box decorated to look like it actually came from afar delivered to the door by a neighbor with a special ornament and DVD for each child and many more great ideas. Be sure to go check out this great blog by Sandy Toes.

Click to find more Friday Fragments at Half past Kissin' Time.

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Things We Learned At The Cleveland Zoo Saturday

Last Saturday we did something spontaneous again because it was such a nice day. We went to the Cleveland Zoo to see the baby Red Pandas but learned a lot of things while we were there.

Red Pandas

The baby red pandas were inside the Primate/Aquatics building and were resting when we got there after playing an hour. They had stuffed toys in their exhibit that they played with. We were sad to learn though that they will be transferred to some other zoos as part of the conservation project because there are so few left.

Poop

Even in the gift shop we learned that paper can be made from elephant poop! We bought a calendar with paper made from elephant poop! It doesn't smell at all which surprised me so we bought one! The elephant exhibit is being remodeled and won't be done until 2011. We miss our elephants but once it's done, we'll have even more than the three we had before!

This is a note at the bottom of one of the calendar pages about recycling the poop in the spring:

Octopus

Did you know octopus have beaks--the only hard spot on them? The docent had one in a jar that we could see close up.

Giraffe

How much does one of the bit giraffes weigh? We were shocked when we heard a big giraffe could weigh up to 4200 pounds!

Animal Inventory Website

The zoo docent also told us about the International Species Information System, www.isis.org, which is a site that shows what animals are in what zoos around the world.

Teeth

Shark teeth are pointy and in layers. If a tooth breaks, another pops up to replace it in 20 minutes. Wish we had teeth like that! We saw the skull of another fish that eats plants and its teeth were flat like ours (can't remember what kind).

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7 Things I Learned This Week--Part 40

New Blogger Commenter Widget

This week I learned how to get a Blogger commenter widget for my blogs that shows a cumulative total for the last 500 posts! If you'd like one, I got it at www.bloggerplug-ins.org

Breast Cancer Odds

At Grugger's Way I learned that 1 in 8 women get breast cancer and some time during their lifetime.

CAT Scan

I had my first ever CAT scan last week which was no big deal. Monday, I saw this interesting video of an orangutan getting its annual examination at the Cleveland Metropark Zoo's veterinary clinic:
Visitors are allowed to walk through but every time we have, no animals were actually being examined. I liked watching this short video and thought you might too.

Bumpits

When visiting "A Brunette Making It One Day at A Time" I learned what bumpits are. I never even heard of them before but have seen them. I just didn't know that's what they are called. They are little plastic things that you hide in your hair to make it look poofier.

New Disclosure Rule by FTC

In the Book Blogs forum I learned about this new rule by the FTC regarding testimonials and endorsement of products by bloggers. We need to disclose if it's a paid endorsement or if it was a free product. Here is an excerpt from http://www.ftc.gov/

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

So if you do book reviews and get the book for free from the author, that should be disclosed. (Our books that we review come from the library and no one pays us to review them.) Bloggers can be liable for up to an $11,000 fine for being caught promoting a product without disclosure that they were paid to endorse the product. So make sure whenever you are accepting blog opportunities that you are complying with these new FTC rules which will go into effect on December 1st 2009.

NFL blog

Through Blog Catalog I discovered a great football blog that is a collaborative effort which covers all the NFL games and chats about all the teams. It's called NFL Gridiron Gab. If you miss a game, want to discuss a game, this is a must read blog for football fans! In the left column under the "Sports Gab Network" separate links to blogs for each team are listed.

The Biggest Loser Training Tips

I watched "The Biggest Loser" this week and Jillian shared an eating tip: She said to substitute cauliflower for mashed potatoes and that it tastes about the same but is healthier. I never tried cauliflower but love mashed potatoes with corn. Can anyone confirm that it tastes like mashed potatoes?

Trainer Bob had two easy exercises that he recommended for people who sit all day at a desk to help strengthen their backs. One is called table top and the other is Supermans. For table top you get down on all fours and extend one arm and the opposite leg and hold for 30 seconds to a minute or so, then switch sides. Supermans are harder (at least for me). Lie on the floor on your stomach and lift your arms in front of your head and your legs as high as you can.

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Dinosaurs at the Cleveland Zoo --Watch Out!

Sunday we went to the Cleveland Zoo especially to see the dinosaur exhibit. As we approached the exhibit, one little girls was blocking her ears because she was afraid of the loud growling dinosaurs! She was cute! The dinosaurs looked realistic with movable heads, tails and legs. The foliage around them added to the feel that they were real and many of the little kids were scared. The dinosaurs growled at the people and one even spit! It's a great exhibit. I edited the video by just using some photos in parts rather than the actual video footage to make it shorter because it was 4 min. long. I hope you take a little time to actually view it.

A Visit To The Cleveland Zoo in Winter

When I wrote about a familiar place, the Cleveland Metropark Zoo, on Mountain Woman's Red Pine Mountain blog, I realized I didn't have any winter pictures of it even though we have gone in the winter. So, the last Saturday of January, since it warmed up to near 40 degrees, we went to get some winter pictures. Waterfowl Lake was frozen and the ducks were out on the ice with some holes in the ice for swimming.


Australian Adventure was closed so I had to take a picture of the Wallaby through the fence, but we did get to go into the Koala Hideout to see the Koalas and the tree kangaroo (he's sitting in the tree slightly right center of the picture if you look at the slide show).

The water fall for the bears and tigers was frozen. Here you can see what a nice open area the bear has with no bars which is very different than how it used to be a long time ago. Visit "My Funny Dad, Harry" blog to see some pictures of how the bear exhibit looked years ago.

Unfortunately, we couldn't see the new Mexican wolves because they were all hiding way in the back by the fence in their wooded area.

Of course, the Rain forest provides a nice break from winter since it's kept at 80-85 degrees in there year round.

Waterfowl Lake was particularly beautiful with all the snow but we didn't sit on any benches like we do in the summer. As you can see, the snow was sort of blocking them.

Being Seniors Today!

Tuesday, we started off our day with breakfast at Eat-n-Park enjoying the senior buffet for under $5! This is our first ever "senior" special. It was very good! I love breakfast food best anyway so had three plates which included scrambled eggs, toast, strawberries, French Toast with maple syrup, Small pancakes with blueberry syrup, bacon and a blueberry muffin. It may not be the healthiest breakfast, but it sure is the best! YUM, YUM! Then we walked to the library next door to renew the book I'm reading ("Relentless Pursuit").

We decided today would be our zoo day and to our surprise, there was a group of older people going around with a tour guide! We just tagged along and later found out it was the Cleveland Hiking Club, and Mary, the one talking about the different animals does it every year for them. It was a very good time and I learned quite a bit such as:

1) The stone fish looks like a stone! It is the most poisonous animal at the zoo. I asked if it was even more poisonous than the little pretty frogs and Mary said yes, because the frogs at the zoo are not poisonous because they need a special type food to make their poison and they don't get it at the zoo.

2) The male giraffe was moved to a different zoo because his daughters are all here at the Cleveland zoo. They didn't miss him, but were more interested in the extension being built onto their building.

3) The elephants were being moved to the Columbus zoo today but their keepers get to move with them and still be their keepers at the Columbus zoo for 3 years until they return to the new Cleveland exhibit.

4) Most of the animals are taken inside at night for their safety. Some people in the past have actually shot at them when they used to be out at night. Very bad people!

5) The big cats get the same kind of shots that our pet cats get annually.

6) The most boring animal in the zoo is the Koala--sleeps 20 hours a day!

7) Monkeys do not like water. That is why they can be put on little islands with no fences. The only monkey who likes the water and is the exception is the swamp monkey.

There was more stuff than this even that we found out, but at the moment, these are the things that stand out. Mary was very interesting and we were fortunate to be at the right place at the right time to meet up with this nice group--no one shooed us away and several said they liked my hat and Mary liked my cat shirt!

Farewell to Our Elephants!

Yesterday Gerard and I went to the Cleveland Zoo for a farewell party for the elephants. It was fun! After all, how often does a person get to attend a party for an elephant? They are being transferred to the Columbus zoo for three years and are scheduled to return to a brand new HUGE exhibit at the Cleveland Zoo. The new exhibit will be big enough for 8-10 elephants plus other animals will be in with them. We signed a jumbo farewell card for them, kids made elephant ear headbands, a special fruit cake was given to them at 1:30 (which we had to miss because of a previously scheduled for Dr. appointment). It always seems like we usually have no definite plans, but whenever we do, something else comes up at the same time. Why is that? If I could choose to have a super power, it would definitely be to be able to be in two or three places at once!

A party atmosphere permeated the entire zoo. Even the other animals were more lively than usual in spite of the heat! The swamp monkey went for a swim in a big tub, the gorilla tore open a suitcase to get food out of it, the golden bellied monkey kept mooning the crowd from up high on his log near the ceiling. We also got to pet a lot of different furs from a gazelle, a lion, a cheetah, a zebra (felt like a horse), a colibus monkey and the snow leopard which was soft like our cats!

Gerard and Leo posed behind these two "elephants" who were playing music. I felt sorry for them in those heavy costumes on such a hot day, but they did have a fan set up blowing on them.

Creature Comfort Day at the Cleveland Zoo

Saturday we spent the majority of our day at the Cleveland zoo. It was a special day because it was Creature Comfort Day. That is the day when the keepers give the animals special enrichment activities to let them use their natural skills and challenge them. Right at the beginning were some free give aways--hats and enrichment toys for our pets. We got a real nice adjustable cap, a rubber toy for our neighbor's dog that they can put peanut butter inside, a couple cats toys for our cats, included one I made myself! It's a ball with a bell inside with a rope through it. (My cats sniffed it some and walked away.)

Me trying to get Spunky Doodle to play with the handmade toy.


Playing with Manny with my handmade toy.

There is so much going on at the same time that you have to choose which ones to watch. We chose the lions, the polar bears, the tigers, the orangutans and the African Savannah tour which included giraffes, vultures, and zebras, and gray parrots. For the lions and the polar bears, a paper mache' animals was put into their exhibit that contained food for them inside it.

The polar bears also got a watermelon! The idea is to let the animals use their natural forging skills and work at getting the food like they would in the wild. They seemed to enjoy tearing it apart.


The tigers got bones that were frozen in a giant popsicle and dumped into their water. They seemed to enjoy fishing them out.

The orangutans had some baby food put inside a hole in their door and they used a small branch to stick in and scoop it out with like we would use a spoon.

The giraffes were given a bunch of leaves on some branches that were strung up high for them to chew off. They really liked that and the one chased a Canadian goose that invaded their exhibit until it finally flew over the fence.

The vultures were given bones with meat still on them which they devoured as a team. Two of them would pull on it together getting the meat off.

For the zebras, they just spread their food around so they'd have to hunt for it.

The cranes were given extra bugs but they were inside a paper mache' lady bug which they had to poke at to get the bugs out.

Different kinds of fruit were hung in the gray parrots' cage that they had to work for a little bit to get.

The keeper of the African Savannah animals said for those with dogs, you can spread some of the food around the back yard for them to hunt for to give them a little challenge and let them use their hunting skills.

We had a good time and the weather was on the cool side which is perfect for the zoo. We would have longer, but me feet were starting to hurt a little and Gerard wanted to wash the car. I took some video with my Flip camera, but it didn't come out very well because we were too far away. The zoom isn't very good on the flip camera so sorry, no video to show you this time.