Summer Travels: San Diego Zoo Safari Park

 We headed to the Safari Park. We immediately went straight back to the Safari Tram. On our way, we spotted a lizard on a rope in the gibbons enclosure.

Megan, Me, U and Matthew. We were on the first tram of the day.

We learned a lot on the tram. For example, this antelope has what is called a threat mask. It makes other animals think it is bigger than it is and also think that it is a predator. Deer and antelope may look like they aren't paying attention to us but they are very aware and they keep a flight distance between themselves and predators.  If they raise their tails, it means they have seen you.

A group of giraffes is called a tower. A group of zebras is called a dazzle.

This moth came along for the ride.

We wandered through the African Outpost where we saw lots of birds diving under water to eat. We continued to the African Woods where we saw the okapi, a relative of the giraffe.

U, Me, Matthew and Megan with a southern white rhino. The San Diego Zoo is working to breed northern white rhinos by creating fetuses and implanting them in southern white rhinos.

Looking down onto the African Plains. 

We went to the elephant viewing area where some work was being done. We waited a few minutes for it to finish and are glad we did. The elephants were excited to be out of their night enclosure. One of the baby elephants appeared to be waving its trunk as it came down. The elephants hurried to eat some leaves before the dominant matriarch got there. We saw some of the elephants taking mud baths. We learned that elephants are scared of bees and that they walk 6-7 miles per day, even at the zoo.

Coming out of their night enclosure.

Megan, Matthew and Me with the elephants enjoying some leaves.

Matthew and Megan with birds in one of the aviaries. The jungle aviary was especially nice.

Anteater wandering around its enclosure.

We enjoyed going to the wildlife show. It was cool with a lot of birds flying right over our heads. The tortoise wasn't sure about coming out but eventually did.

U, Megan, Me and Matthew

Nestling Matthew

We enjoyed our time in Walkabout Australia. We saw both the male and female platypus! (The female is often hard to see.)

We went to see the kangaroo and wallaby a few times. They were mostly resting.

Tiger prowling around.

We went on a wildlife safari which was awesome! It was neat to get our on the plains closer to the animals.

We learned a lot. For instance, male giraffes will taste their mate's pee to determine if they are pregnant. Giraffes need to drink about a gallon of water per week. That is good since they get into an awkward position to drink which makes them susceptible to predators. (Humans are very inefficient with our water needs.) Giraffe poop is about the size of deer poop. The calcium deposits on the heads of male giraffes are appealing to the females. Giraffe males use their horns to fight. 

Secretary birds kill vipers and lizards. 

Herd females will react to any male herding them in the absence of a male of their species. There was a little male antelope that was bossing a lot of the other bigger females around a while back. They removed him from the plains but the other antelope species are still not nice to the species that that male belonged to.

Matthew and Megan waiting for our safari (by capturing some Pokémon).

Some of the bigger antelope.

It was one of these little male antelope that bossed all the other antelope around.

We had some curious giraffe visitors. It was fun to watch them for awhile.

Nobody messes with the Cape Buffalo!

Matthew and Me with the kangaroos one last time after our safari.

After leaving the Safari Park, we took U to the airport for his flight home. We were glad he was able to spend these days with us.