Welcome to California,good luck on your travels! In other news, the Los Angeles Zoo has just gotten their Tasmanian Devils in,if that's something you're interested in.
Yes. I'm still here, mostly having a great day. However, the lion's mane jelly outgrew its tank, sea snakes are off exhibit, and I haven't seen a flower hat jelly anywhere.
Photos will be up in the gallery... When I feel like it. Probably after I get home. Tomorrow is L.A. Zoo, can't wait. Rushing straight to Devils and LAIR, then hippo encounter (yay baby hippo). As for now, I woke up about 18 hours ago. I also only had half a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. I'm gonna crash soon. Have a nice day/night/morning/evening, all.
Saw devils, uakaris, mountain tapir, and most of the other stuff. Japanese mountain hawk-eagle is here, but behind the scenes. Hippos are slimy. I know that because of the hippo encounter .
The zoo also now has two Chinese giant salamanders instead of one. They are looking to start public Tasmanian devil feedings, the first was today at 2:30. I was impressed by the zoo overall, but the monkey roundhouses were annoying. Loved the mountain tapir, and got a decent look at the red uakaris. For anyone visiting, I advise heading straight to the devils if you wish to see them active. I did not see any Panay cloudrunner a out of their three exhibits, but they are not nocturnal exhibits and they all contained multiple nest boxes. This zoo has a nice Australian section: Tamar wallabies, yellow footed rock wallabies, southern cassowary, southern hairy nosed wombat, sugar glider, brush tailed bettong, short nosed echidna, western grey kangaroo, Tasmanian devils, and just the right amount (6 or 7) of koalas. However, it is missing the traditional laughing kookaburra, or any bird but the cassowary, for that matter. It also doesn't present any reptile species, but Komodo dragons are adjacent to this area (and in fact can only be viewed from this area). It is missing tree kangaroos also, and there should be more diversity in the kangaroo and wallaby species if the zoo wants to call the section great. With Tasmanian Devils becoming more and more common in North America (next zoo to receive them is Saint Louis I believe) the devils only temporarily bump this zoo's spot up.
Yesterday I visited the San Francisco Zoo. It was raining all day, but I still thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I saw maybe 65% of the animals, and will not be reviewing the zoo. However, it is one of the most beautiful zoos I have been to as of yet. I unfortunately will not be visiting the CA Academy of Sciences or the Oakland Zoo. Today, I started off with the Marine Mammal Center. The viewing of the animals was honestly terrible, but as a rescue facility, that is much more understandable. I saw a northern elephant seal, a few northern fur seals, and some sea lions. The center had an astonishing 81 northern fur seals on the day of my visit. After that, I visited Aquarium of the Bay. Note: if you want to visit this facility, don't use pier 39 parking, if you are ok with walking. It is $9 an hour! Anyways, Aquarium of the Bay is a small facility located on pier 39. None of the exhibits were too extensive, but they had a nice local collection. They are also home to the only known pacific angel sharks that were born in captivity, which I saw three of. I also took the feed the Sharks tour, in which we learned a lot about the behind the scenes aspects of an aquarium, including food, water quality, captive vs wild, and so on. We also obviously got to feed the main deep water tank, which was home to two species of mackerel, rainbow trout, white sturgeon, broadnose seven gill sharks, soupfin sharks, bat rays, and much more.
I drive away from Monterey Bay Aquarium slightly disappointed. The aquarium would be much much better if it had more space. If they could keep all of their special exhibitions (not otters, that one is not as additive to an aquarium experience) then the aquarium would be so much more fun and interesting. Tentacles was amazing, but still less than I expected. There should be many more unique species in the exhibition, but I loved the two squid species. The aquarium really needs the vampire or glass squid, or the adorabilis octopus to bump this up a little more. The giant pacific octopuses are really wasted space, the aquarium already had two and now it has four. On another note, Open Sea was also underwhelming. While seeing approximately 28000 sardines in one tank was a wonderful experience that I won't soon forget, the tank should be bigger in my opinion. The open ocean is not simulated well when one can see the back wall. I enjoyed the tuna and mahi mahi. I sadly did not get a good look at the skilfish.
