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Entries in Zoo (67)

Saturday
Jun182005

Zootastic

We became members at the Detroit Zoo this year and in some ways it has become a second home.  We love to stop in  whenever we have a few extra hours and have even begun to imagine personal relationships with the animals (yes, I swear that the Nilgai gets mad at us when we miss a weekend!).  Thus far I think we are most attached to the baby polar bear.  She was born in December and we are determined to watch her grow up.  We have seen her play in the water, antagonize her mom, nurse, nap, and bounce in the grass and we never get bored (maybe that says something about our lifestyle?).

         

And finally today, after several unsuccessful wolverine visits, we got to see the two kits that were born in February.  The keepers don't yet know what gender(s) they are (no skirt lifting here), but they seem to have different personalities; one of them was constantly rambuctious, snipping around with mom, while the other was off chewing on sticks and bouncing in the water all alone.  They are learning to fight through play and quite often mom is the instigator, but at 4 months they are already almost as big as she is  (brave woman!).  They bounce, they pip, they grrr, they roll, they jump...they are constant balls of motion, even sometimes just one ball of motion together!  Hmm... suddenly our dogs seem like less of a handful.

         

Monday
Jun132005

A wolverine by any other name...

...would smell as sweet? We heard that the Detroit Zoo was renaming its newborn wolverine kits, yielding to pressure from numerous Michigan sports fans. As a joke, the zoo-keeper (a Michigan State grad) had originally called them "Sparty" and "Bucky" after the mascots of Michigan's chief rivals, Michigan State and Ohio State. After a flood of e-mails and phone calls from offended visitors, the zoo changed their names to Tamarack and Tilia, the names of Michigan trees. A respectable change, though not nearly so distinctive. Michigan fans obviously take their sports very seriously.
We have yet to see the wolverine kits for ourselves, although we have heard a full-grown wolverine scampering around in the moat around his habitat. Perhaps we will see them this weekend as we visit in order to see the new rhinos!

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