I thought you deserved one written in your own language for a change !
It's been fun having my mom over for 3 weeks (she leaves on Tuesday). She's having a ball visiting during the week, while I'm at work, and on week-ends, we go for walks she hasn't done yet. I wanted to spend this entire week-end in the Blue Mountains, but she'd rather save that for when she comes back with Peter, who couldn't make it. The Blue Mountains are an equivalent of the rocky mountains as you see them at the border between the US and Canada - as far as I can tell for now, from brochures and talking to people.
Last week-end, we went to the local zoo, and here are a few of the pictures I took :
We'll start by the local lizards ; the one in front's called a Blue Tongue... I'll let you guess why. Incidentally, a beer has the same name, and tastes really really good :-)
I think the one in the back is called a Dragon Lizard, or sumthin'....
Moving on to the inevitable kangaroo. This one's probably thinking "I'm sooooo booooooooored..."
And no, John, that's just his tail...
There were some lions. This male was resting 'n all, minding his own business...
and (typical), the females had to stir something up, and spoil it ;-)
I could have left my mom the entire time in the tropical bird aviary. Here are a few typical ones from Australia :
This is a Musk Lorikeet.
This is a Rose Crowned Fruit Dove. Incredible colours !!!
Since it was quite dark in there, and birds move a lot, most of our pictures came out fuzzy.
I was just in time for the tiger feeding...
Yummm....
Tasty... Wonder what it is they're serving. Better not to know, I think !
The koala cage got more interesting than last time I came in April : some joeys were born !
This mother koala is carrying her joey on her belly. It was impressive to see her jump from branch to branch with him clinging on.
On this picture, he's cuddling facing outside the left hind leg of his mom :
I got this close-up a bit later
Then, there was too much movement, so he had to do a bit of back climbing...
And it's back to tummy side again !
This was feeding time also for them, so the keeper told us a whole bunch of interesting things on the furry critters...
This old koala needed a hug ! Isn't this the best job or what !!!???
Koalas live an average of 15 years.
When they are born, they're the size of a jelly bean, and they crawl all by themselves to the pouch ! Momma can't help, because her claws would create too much damage...
Then, they find a teat in there, and secure themselves to it for the following months.
The only reason koalas don't die when eating so much eucalyptus leaves, is because their digestive system contains special bacteria that digests it for them ! No other animal has those bacteria in them.
Now for the gross out part: Momma can't pass these bacteria onto the baby... So what happens is her poo changes from the hard, Vicks Vaporub scented, consistence, to a very liquiddy and foul smelling form, which the baby catches with its paw as it passes by the pouch...
Hmmmm. I'm glad we can do without the bacteria !!! Koalas can keep the eucalyptus diet, for all I care now !!!!!!
Last but not least, I finally got a better shot at those snow leopard cubs !
I think this is the female here, as well as in the two other shots
How's that for a paw ?
In April, they just WOULDN'T budge from the rock platforms on which they were resting.
Whereas here, that cub at least came down ONCE, for a drink, before crawling back to finish his nap. He's still got some water droplets hanging from his chin.
They have an amazing tail ! It's twice the length we see on this picture, and very bushy. Overall, they look soooo soft and cuddly !
Well, that's all for tonight.
I'm writing this on a very late Friday night, but will only have access to the net at work on Monday morning. So in the meantime, I'm sure Mom and I will have shot hundreds of additional pictures.
Mighty hugs to everyone !
