The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. - St. Augustine
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Seoul Zoo
Seoul Zoo is affiliated with the Toronto Zoo!
Right after the admission staff took our tickets, we walked through a corridor of germ killing (it’s just a guess?) mist. For a strange reason, I felt like we were being welcomed by an entourage.
Lazy elephant. Lazy me.
There was a revolving display with a series of pictures of a cheetah and a gazelle. If you spun the display quickly, the cheetah and gazelle would look like it’s running. I felt so sad for the cheetah because it could spend an eternity running, but it would never catch the gazelle.
A tortoise in it’s shell. He was like that before I came so it’s not my face that he’s scared of!
I really enjoyed this. To tell you the truth, maybe I liked it too much haha.
In jail with a gorilla. Much to the dismay of one angry wife.
This is how the crazy man got in.
There is something tasty on the wall. Two giraffes came to lick to exact same spot. Did you know that giraffes have even longer tongues than this? I took the picture with the tongue already retreating into the giraffe’s mouth.
The zebra had a happy moment. In the time it took for me to switch my auto focus to manual so the zebra was in focus instead of the bars.. it was gone.
I love the design of his strips! It’s so beautiful.
My mother alerted me to a pooping ostrich. I tried to take a photo of it, but I wasn’t fast enough.
When I was organizing my photos from this trip, I noticed something weird in one of my ostrich photos. Zooming in, I realized that I caught some poo in action! This is a cropped version of the photo I actually took. It is all black. Where does the white stuff come from?
I found two of my absolute favourites decorating the wall of a washroom building. Side by side! What are the chances? I was so happy, until I realized my elephant was missing a trunk.. It’s not an elephant, but I’m not sure what animal has a tail, beak, stumpy front paws and claws in the back.
I was so excited when I saw this dolphin fountain. I really wanted to drink water from his spout but it didn’t work. I think the water is turned off during winter.
Some of the animals were on open display so I could see them from above without a lawyer of glass. I felt so much closer to them that way even though sometimes they are actually closer when we are separated by glass. I liked watching the small animals because they are so much more active.
I spent a lot of time watching the lemurs! I’ve never been so close to them before. They often leaned against the wall to get heat from the rocks. They were so interesting. I really got a sense of community with the group living here.
I spy an elephant!
I was really really disappointed in the elephant exhibit. Since it is winter, many of the animals are moved to indoor areas to be protected from the cold. It made me so sad to see the three Asian elephants confined in such a small area.
There was nothing in their shelter apart from concrete and steel. There was no water source and just a little bit of food on the ground.
One of the elephants were separated into her own compartment. She was constantly rocking and swinging it’s head back and forth. There was traces of green paint on her body and head from scratching on the barrier between the three elephants. The paint is gone from all the easy scratching areas. I think it would take a long time to leave such visible spots of green on her skin. It makes me wonder when’s the last time she’s had a chance to wash herself.
There was a moment when she left her corner and walked to the open end of the barrier with her trunk searching the air. It crossed over to the other side. The elephant on the other side of the barrier quickly swung her trunk out and smacked the inquiring trunk away. Elephants have such individual personalities. I always find myself learning so much from them. I’m glad I could see that little interaction.
We took the zoo shuttle bus after I had a look at the elephants. We debated on whether or not to see more of the zoo but we decided to leave after the shuttle bus got to the front entrance.
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