Seneca Park Zoo Totem Pole

  There are still some miscellaneous things to show you from the New York trip, and I have nothing better. So have a totem pole that was at the Seneca Park Zoo.

Uncharacteristically, I forgot to take a picture of the interpretive sign, so I can't tell you very much about it. At the top is an owl, and below that a seated woman.

At the bottom is a beaver who has just chewed through the stick it was holding. Interestingly enough, totems were usually associated with West Coast Tribes, while the Seneca Nation is more relevant to Rochester, NY. See our visit to Ganondagan last year. So why is this here? Now I'm really annoyed that I didn't take a picture of the interpretation!

In other news: It was a frustrating day. I did a lot, but didn't finish anything. Worked on the freezer cleanup, worked on Dead Mule Swamp Singer pre-publication stuff, worked on the trailer with much frustration and one possible "victory" (stay tuned). Went to the store. Spent an hour watching videos to try to learn something that doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere, but I finally figured it out, and did learn one other thing that will send me right back to the store tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll actually complete something tomorrow.

See Seneca Park Zoo

Seneca Park Zoo- Mostly Big Beasties

  Today was a travel day, and apart from driving several hours in heavy rain it was uneventful. But there are more zoo pictures available. I think I mentioned that it was an exceptional zoo day in that almost all the animals were visible. The last time I was there, the Polar Bear never came out at all. This is Anoki. We got to see her spend some time in the water, and then she climbed out on the rocks.

One of the favorite offerings at the zoo is the Red Pandas. There are supposedly babies this year, but we did not see them. We did see Mom and Dad, but I don't know which is which. They are so adorable, it's hard to remember they are rather viscious.

The snow leopards also have babies. Not only did we not see them, we only saw one of the adults. But he did come out and walk around quite a bit.

The otters are not as exotic, but they were sure fun to watch. Most of my pictures are just streaks of fur in the water. Minnows had just been released in their pool, and they were busily chasing down their snacks. Most of the water animals have viewing areas where you can see below the water surface to observe how the animals swim. That was a lot of fun, but they were still really fast!

We also thought we weren't going to see the tiger, but it was out when we went past the second time. This is an Amur (Siberian) Tiger, native to far eastern Russia, China and Korea. It's status is Threatened. They are generally pale with brown stripes.

And that's all for today. I think there will be one tiny adventure in the morning, and then I'm off to home.

See Bright and Weird

Seneca Park Zoo - Bright and Weird

  I'll show you more of our zoo visit today. Too bad these beauties are poisonous. The yellow banded, and blue poison dart frogs are native to South America. Apparently they are not a danger to each other since they stopped for an afternoon chat.

If I were ever going to go to the expense and trouble of an aquarium, it would be a salt-water aquarium. I don't know the kinds of fish, but they are swimming among corals and anemones.

Here's another frog from Central America. This is the Panamanian Golden Frog. It's critically endangered. I know he's hiding, but at least I got a glimpse of it.

This one is totally weird. This is Henkel's Leaf-Tailed Gecko from Madagascar. There were two of them just plastered flat to the glass like this. From the top side, they looked like dead leaves. You know what's really weird? The front feet seem to have the suction pads in the right place, but look at the back feet. It an animal spreads its back legs out straight, the tops of the feet would be touching the glass. But these geckos seem to be doing just that and there are suction pads holding them in place.

Finally for today, I'll show you an animal which is native to the northeast U.S. But I've never seen one in the wild. This is a Hellbender. It's a giant salamander- the gray blob beneath the log. They are really unique in that they breathe through their skin. To be honest, I thought these were the same as a mudpuppy, but they are not. I'm glad it wasn't completely hiding. This one was only about a foot long, but they can get almost three times as big.

Today was our last day. We finished the book we've been reading together, we played our game, we ate whatever we wanted. It was a nice relaxing day. This blog is supposed to be only the good stuff, so I'll try not to tell you that I'm sad. Tomorrow we each head home although it will take me a couple of days to get there. It's been wonderful!

See African Animals

Seneca Park Zoo - African Animals

  This is the zoo that Irene and I went to 2.5 years ago. We really had a spectacular experience today. Almost all the animals came out to show off for us. I'll just show you the African animals today. They were almost all indoors on our previous trip beause it was winter. Gotta love the giraffes.

I hadn't ever really grasped how much bigger they are than zebras before today.

The elephants are fed part of the time from high feeders to simulate what they would need to do in the wild.

The white rhinocerous was mostly just walking around, but it was startled by a small machine that was moving some materials, and I thought this was a more interesting picture.

The lions were mostly sleeping, but they were fun to watch- acting like any cat of any size. Finally, the male looked up. Check out the one on the hood of the bus in the background.

Finally for today, there were a number of baboons. They were playing and grooming themselves. I liked this one.

Here we are: Irene, Marie, and me. We had a really good time, and there are more pictures for another day.

One more day for Marie and me to spend together. We plan to just chill and enjoy it.

See Seneca Park Zoo- Mammals

Seneca Park Zoo - Other

 
I've changed locations, and it's all great. More on that tomorrow. But I want to do one more zoo day, because I can't leave out my little scaly and slimy friends. These were all in the Africa House.

The is a round-nosed plated lizard. A lady who comes to the zoo often said it's the first time she's seen it come out in a year, so I feel pretty special to have gotten its picture.



In the same terrarium were the pancake tortoises. I actually didn't notice until I looked at the picture on the computer that there are two of them!



Finally, a frog. No label or sign. Don't know if it's something special, poisonous, or ordinary.



Tomorrow I'll switch to telling you about where I am now. Final picture for today is Irene and me. It's a horrid selfie, and I don't even think this looks like Irene. But it's "real."

	See Seneca Park Zoo - Birds
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Seneca Park Zoo - More Mammals

 
Since we've been snowed in here all day, you'll get to see more pictures from the zoo. I can't complain. It's not as cold here as it is at home. About zero with some snow. But the area here is not getting hit like the Midwest this time.

I'll start with the star of the entire zoo visit. This was my first time ever to see a red panda, and he was eating and walking around before he settled in for a nap, so we actually got to watch him do things. The female slept through everything. They are at least as adorable as they are portrayed.



The gray wolves were mostly pacing around although they did lie down after a while and seem more relaxed. It was an interesting time to see them, since the chapter I'm writing is about the one hike on which we saw a family of wolves.



The baboons seemed intent on showing us their behinds, but at least I can bring you one in profile.



The African animals are housed inside for the winter. I couldn't get a good picture of any of the elephants, and this is the best I could get of the white rhino.



The giraffes were a lot of fun to watch. And if they'd been eating I could have gotten pictures without wire, but I guess they weren't hungry.



Another exhibit I really liked was the naked mole rats. They are strange creatures. They were displayed in a connected series of burrows with windows, a lot like a complex hamster cage. I didn't get any really good pictures. There are about six of them in this shot. I remember when they were discovered. I was taking the National Wildlife Federation magazine at the time, and they made quite a stir.



If tomorrow is more of today, you'll see zoo pictures again. But I am getting some writing done.

	See Seneca Park Zoo- Big Cats
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Seneca Park Zoo - Big Cats

 
Since the next two days are supposed to get brutally cold we decided to go to the Seneca Park Zoo today. It was around 20 degrees, and we just bundled up and it was fine. Since we don't plan to do much the next couple of days I'll spread these pictures out. Today... here are some big kitties.

Let's begin with the snow leopards. They were pretty awesome. I know they are fearsome predators, but when we came back past their enclosure, they were both asleep, the female was in a green turtle-shaped sandbox filled with straw. She looked pretty much like a really big house cat.They seem to get along fine now, but we understand they did not get along at all when they were first put together.



I didn't realize how long their tails are.



The lion enclosure was harder to get pictures without wire, but I managed a few. The male climbed on this rock where there were pieces of food for him to find.



He had two females with him. Here's the best picture of one of them. Later, he spent quite a while sort of growling. It sounded more like he was getting ready to barf, though. Kinda funny!



We thought we weren't going to see the tiger, but she was pacing around when we came back past her cage. No way to get rid of the wire for her.



Lots more really cool stuff. It's a small zoo, but I saw several animals I'd never seen before. Stay tuned for tomorrow.

	See Rest Day
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Royalty

 
We did a whole lot of things today. I'm saving a bunch of the people stuff to do all at once, so I'll show you a couple of regal critters.

The University of Northern Alabama is in Florence, and their team symbol is the lion.



What, you want the real thing? Oh, OK.



This is Leo III and Una, brother and sister who live on campus. I could only get a good picture of both of them through the barred section, but trust me, their habitat is very nice. The weather was really warm and they were more interested in sleeping than giving us a good show. I was pretty impressed with Una's paw.



Later in the afternoon we went to find an eagle nest that Loretta knew was at a local park. We had no idea if it would be in use. It certainly was. Dad was on watch duty while Mom was off looking for dinner.



We only know this because there were a number of people there with cameras set up, waiting for the daily feeding schedule. They said the birds were quite regular. But Mom didn't show up before we had to leave. However, I did catch one of the little ones waiting for her.

	See Parent of the Amazing Baby
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