To the Zoo! Part 1

It seems that one of our family hobbies is checking out zoos. Well, perhaps not a hobby, but we seem to do it a lot. Joshy, in his nearly six years of life, has been to five zoos and one major aquarium. Before marriage, I had been to four, and Eric had been to three. So it seemed fitting that on Eric's day off we would go to a zoo!

The Columbus Zoo is around a two hour drive for us. We were anxious to go as it's heralded as one of the best zoos in the country.
The weather was awesome (not too hot, yet really sunny) and the crowds were thin. Eric was supposed to work Labor Day weekend, so he took a random Monday off in August. This was great because everyone else was either at work or at school, but it was too early in the school year for class trips, so there were no lines for anything. I took an insane amount of pictures and video, but here's just a few of the highlights:

One of the most astounding exhibits for me was the fruit bats. I literally gasped aloud as I rounded the corner and saw these creatures. I had first heard about fruit bats in this really great book called "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon and could barely imagine a bat that large. Until this:
Yes, those are actual bats. Real bats. Live bats. They were just hanging there, their thick canvas-like wings wrapped tightly around them, like black capes. We all found this fascinating. I wish we could have seen them fly. They are also known as "flying foxes", and now I totally understand why.

Mari's favorite animals was "the teeny tiny baby orange monkeys", otherwise known as Langurs. There were two babies, in fact. One was five months old, and the other was only two days old! A zoo volunteer was there answering questions, and it was amazing to learn more about these creatures. For instance, the female langur that is holding the baby is not the baby's mother, but the volunteer told us that the females are very nurturing, and this female did not have a baby so she was "borrowing" the baby from the mother. The mother, rather than being upset, used this time to attend to her own needs and would go get the baby when it was time to nurse. Another thing is no one knows why the babies are orange. They turn to the darker color within a year of their birth. Experts speculate that the orange color is there so that the mothers can spot their babies easily in case of danger. I think God is just wild. Whoever thinks God is boring needs to spend some time at a good zoo, or better yet, in nature.

It was hard to get a great photo. This one is the two day old. He was unbelievably cute and tiny. Mari said, "I can't wait to get to heaven so I can hold a teeny tiny baby orange monkey." And she hasn't stopped talking about it since.
Here's a shot of the five month old, who was playing around and learning how to navigate the branches. The orange is just so bright!
Personally, my favorite exhibit was another baby, but a much bigger variety. This is Beco!
He's a five month old Asian elephant, and I found him hopelessly adorable. I told Mari that while she's holding her orange monkey, I'll be playing with a baby Asian elephant. I could have sat there for hours watching this little guy and his mama Phoebe.
Besides watching animals, Joshy and Mari liked exploring the "extras", like this, which shows how high a tiger can reach.
They were pretty impressed that their Daddy is almost as big as a tiger! And they liked playing on the numerous life-size sculptures the zoo had placed all over the grounds.
Sophia, on the other hand, mostly did a lot of this:
You know, hanging around in one of her favorite perches (she actually took a very long nap there). Oh, and of course she spend time in this favorite place too.
Gotta love baby-gear that really does make life easier!

And speaking of babies, by the time we circled back to the indoor exhibits, Beco was inside, so we got another chance to watch him play. See his ball? He was practicing being in a circus.
So cute! Look at his funny little legs! And his tiny trunk! And I really think they are both smiling. Actually, I think Asian elephants look like they are always smiling. Who wouldn't love an animal like that?
I think I just love mamas and babies of all kinds. But especially Asian elephants.

Ok, I think I'm done with the elephants. I don't think there are any elephant pictures in "Part 2". But I'm not making any promises.