Monday, October 15, 2012

The Zoo

Today was Caleb's first trip to the zoo!  My parents are currently in Duluth, and if there's one thing my family knows how to do, it's finding the nearest zoo and having a good time among the animal kingdom.  (I cannot tell you how many zoos we went to growing up...too many to count!)

The Lake Superior Zoo is a delightful little place with lions and tigers and bears, oh my!  As it turns out, a Monday in the middle of October is a great time to be at the zoo in Duluth because no one else is there.  We practically had the whole place to ourselves, and it was a sunny and beautiful day to walk around and see the animals.

Some fun facts:

* The lions stay out all winter in the Duluth cold!  They can go inside if they want, but they often stay outside and lounge around a heated rock in their enclosure.
* The Angolan colobus monkeys have four chambers in their stomach (like a cow) which allows them to eat food that other monkeys can't eat, which also allows them to produce more gas, and thus belching is socially acceptable in their monkey society :)
* The grizzly bear came from Anchorage, AK, and was flown to MN in a giant crate on a Northwest airline flight in the luggage compartment.  He was sedated, but woke up because there was also a carton of fresh salmon on the flight with him and he was making a ruckus because of it and the pilot had to come on the speaker and tell the passengers not to worry: the plane wasn't malfunctioning.... it was just the grizzly bear making noise in the belly of the plane!  (Can you imagine!!???)

Needless to say, we had fun at the zoo today!



Mama Horn, Caleb, and the snow leapord



with Grandma and Grandpa Clark



at Enger Tower, after our trip to the zoo


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