Zoo

Today we went to the zoo in Apple Valley to celebrate a birthday.  Once I recovered from paying admission ($18 each plus $7 for parking) I had a good time enjoying the plants, birds, animals, fish and people.  We spent a lot of time in the tropical area where the green leaves, the humid air and the smells were a great relief from the cold, colorless, stark world outside.  I enjoyed seeing the Victorian crowned pigeons (as in the photo), the lesser flamingos, the rhinoceros horn-bill, and the Asian pheasants.  There is so much to see at the zoo that a person can't catch it all.  Sometimes I feel bad for some of the animals.  After all, what kind of life can an animal have in a cage?  Some animals will live a longer and healthier life in a zoo.  And the zoo helps endangered animals come back from the brink of extinction.  But I saw a wolverine pacing back and forth in front of a window in what looked like a state of caged insanity and it made me sad.  The coral reef fish tank was cool even though the coral was fake.  The unicorn fish have extraordinary long nose that makes me wonder what the evolutionary purpose of such a big snout would be.  We came at feeding time.  A diving zookeeper went into the fish tank and fed the fish while explaining everything.  A zebra shark bopped him in the head as he fed the smaller fish.  What I think the zoo does best is cater to the little people.  There are kid sized niches and caves for them to explore and see nature up close.  And anytime you can get a kid interested in nature, you help protect our one and only planet in the future.