Into the Oakland Jungle

I love zoos. But only good ones. Ones that focus on conservation rather than spectacle, that have happy animals in large habitats with plenty of fresh foods and interesting enrichment activities. Ones with engaged communities, active docents and zoo keepers, and plenty of educational signage that goes beyond encyclopedias to tell the story of these animals in this zoo. For those who doubt my enthusiasm for zoos - just ask me which happy zoos I've visited and what I liked best about each. There's a list, and I plan to keep adding to it. Also, if you love zoos and cute zoo babies, get the app and/or visit the Zooborns site. Also available for liking on FB, of course.

Enough propaganda. The Oakland Zoo. Worth visiting. Try and remember if it's a national holiday before you go if you want to park in the actual parking lot and avoid the most loud children. Or, go anyway, get a parking spot with a view, and be entertained by the stuff kids say at the zoo. Like a very energetic, "¡Hola, Pumba!" at the warthog exhibit. Just don't get trampled by 6-year olds.

Our parking lot at the zoo, down hill from the main entrance.
When we left, we saw that they had eventually parked cars along the exit road all the way to the final gate.

Signs like this were all over the zoo. You can just imagine how well the kids followed the instructions. My ears are still ringing from some of the shrieks. On the other hand, could you imagine parents shushing their kids at the zoo? Seems kinda wrong.

The docent at the African Elephant exhibit had a crowd of very engaged kids.
He was great.

Meerkat at the lookout post

Chubby meerkat.

Meerkat catchin' some rays

The only visible lion, and he was tough to see. This is all the way zoomed in. The lions had a nice big, woodsy habitat.

Talk about awkward drinking.

This younger giraffe was sticking out its tongue at an Eland sharing its enclosure. Because they were in the shade, it was too difficult to get a photo of both of them, but just imagine an eland with its back to this giraffe, ignoring the sass.  This actually happened for a really long time... so long that my sister moved on to the next exhibit while I kept trying to get a good picture of the situation.

I'm pretty sure this is Oakland's newest giraffe (born 1/12/12) and her mom. There was a cute moment when the mom kissed the calf's back, but I didn't catch it on film. Giraffe mom kisses are adorable. 

When we arrived at this exhibit in the Children's Zoo, both the pigs were sleeping soundly. Then this one woke up and just started rolling a ball around with its nose. It was pretty entertained by the whole thing, and we had fun watching. Note: This is not a speedy pig.

At Oakland, they've gone with a No Hand-Feeding policy in their goat/sheep yard. It makes for very non-aggressive animals that you can walk among. Rocks are off limits to humans, and the sheep were very chill, kind of meditating with their eyes closed while they chewed their cud.

This Pygmy goat came close enough for folks to pet.

By far, the most popular animal in the sheep/goat yard was Lily, a shelter rescue who lives at the zoo to teach children about responsible pet ownership. She was the most docile and sweet dog ever.

Lily knows she can get on the rocks for a breather from the petting festival.

River otters on land. I think these might be the ones born earlier this year. They also played in the water, but it was impossible to get good photos because the sun was shining in my face/lens at that viewing point.

Kid next to me at the tortoise exhibit said: "I don't know what they do with the trampoline if they can't get on it."

The Children's Zoo also had "Old World Rabbits" on display. Several of them with little hutches dotting a grassy hill. They all just sat there like this. We weren't allowed to pet them.

One of the gibbons on Gibbon Island. They were very active and quite the show-offs.
This one held its pose for a very long time, just soaking in the attention of the paparazzi.

The other gibbon we saw in mid-swing. His feet are pointed at the camera.

Tiny cotton-top tamarin comes over to say hi.
They're usually bouncing all over the place or hiding and very difficult to photograph.