BambooBraden

BambooBraden, originally uploaded by Tawny Fowler.

My sister, my nephew, and I went to the Birmingham Zoo one quiet Monday. The Zoo offers a variety of animals for us humans to enjoy seeing and experiencing. It's a nice area, trying to integrate natural surroundings for the creatures while keeping conveniences, such as a tiki-like food bar, a restaurant, bathrooms, a gift shop, and water fountains and sanitation stations, nearby. I can't help to feel sort of sad, though, whenever I am visiting. They look so bored and out of their elements (well, most of the rambunctious monkeys do not seem to mind hooting and hollering when they're in). The Gorillas just sit and stare, one putting his head on his hand like he's the thinker and mentally sighing at there being absolutely nothing to do. Or maybe the two gorillas were just mad at each other and that's why they sat at opposite sides of the cage, I mean friendly fake environment? Of course, if it were not for the zoos, I would never have seen so many exotic or ruthless animals so up close. But the ruthless don't seem so ruthless inside a glass case. Maybe that's why those idiots who got into the tiger cage thought they were tame. They weren't tame, they were bored! And obviously hungry.
Anywho...this particular zootastic day we wanted to see the Giraffe petting and Lion feeding. The zoo did neither, but my sister paid for my ticket and my lunch, so I took photos of any animals that weren't reflecting light in my camera with their glass encasement.
Shooting through glass can be a pain to get right. I should know, I've been working on it all semester! But my nephew seemed to have a good time. They built a rock playground with rope ladders and a rocking bridge for the kids since the last time I've been here, so he had himself a good little time in between animals. They have a petting farm with goats, sheeps, a chicken, two roosters, and a llama! (I'm super excited about the llama). And we went right before Halloween so there were all sorts of decorations made by local classrooms, including Candy Lane, all around the park.
Also, for your future information...the time right before Halloween is turtle-mating time, apparently. My nephew asked his mother what this weird noise was when they were coming to the reptile section. She didn't know until I pointed it out later. I had walked in earlier and saw a male turtle trying to get into a lady's shell and she was not having any of it! When I met up with my sister and my nephew back at that same spot, I found the male stuck on his side against the fence grabbling for a way to turn himself over. I graciously flipped him onto his little feet but sent him away with "You have no game with the ladies here."
Among the turtles, my favorite animals growing up that I loved to oogle at were: pygmy marmosets (my favorite monkey of all time, and the tiniest. I've always wanted one, I would probably lose it the first day though)
komodo dragon ( I used to think I could win at his staring contest I presumed he was having. When I did win, I filled with glee, he probably not so much)
the sloth ( it does absolutely nothing.)
whatever birds they have that has it's own little aviary where you can go in and feed them (and most likely get pooed on), their tongues creep me out, it darts out of an outer casing inside their mouths, like they have two tongues and one is hiding until you bring them food.
tigers ( I just like tigers, why must I have a reason?)
and pandas if there visiting. I'm asian, pandas look asian. Plus, because of this video: