Swimming's Safari Adventures!

Simon & Garfunkel-At The Zoo

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo....
What a peculiar day it was for Swimming this past Sunday. Easter Sunday coincided with Swimming's Birthday! To celebrate, she and some buddies decided to head out for a little safari at the zoo. Oh my ears and whiskers the things we saw! I must admit that I am very impressed with the high-profile animals that are staying at Cleveland Zoo. They don't give many facts about them so I decided to look up some facts and posted some below. Here are some pictures of the amazing creatures. Disclaimer: all pictures are zoomed, I was not actually that close to the animals.

Here are some lions. Did you know that Males with darker manes are more likely to attract female lions (lionesses)? Also, they only live to about 12 years old in the wild. I used to think that lions might be my spirit animal and like this woman they'd see me and want to give me a hug. From these ones, however, it does not seem like they want much to do with me other than to eat me.

How good-looking are these elephants? The African Elephant is the largest land mammal. Did you know that an elephant calf often sucks its trunk for comfort like a human baby sucks its thumb?

A Malayan Sun Bear and little baby bear. They have gorgeous long fur and really like honey! They are the smallest of all bear species. These folks are mainly living in Southeast Asia.

Here is Sir Tiger. Most tigers have yellow eyes except the White Tiger which has blue eyes. Also apparently their urine smells like popcorn!

Here is a Giraffe Family. Giraffes usually sleep for 1-12 minutes! They also have very pretty eyelashes. Surprisingly, I felt these creatures were very serene and could easily slide into first place as my new spirit animal.

I'll end with sleeping Koala. Koalas have two thumbs to help climb trees and eat eucalyptus. Along with the kangroos, their babies are also known as Joeys! Here's a great Koala survival story. Apparently they have the best insulating back fur among all other marsupials. This fur is highly resilient to wind and rain and their belly fur can reflect solar radiation. Amazing!

Lastly, as a Birthday present, I've adopted a panda from the WWF. Here is the photo I received--I like how my panda is posing, so chic! In keeping with ancient Chinese tradition I will be naming my panda after 100 days, but look how pretty it is!

All-in-all, Swimming had a very interesting birthday, filled with fun and a few mishaps and a wonderful video card from one of her best buddies playing one of my favorite tunes on the violin! After noticing that I've sprouted a few new gray hairs I've also come to embrace becoming older and transforming into a Golden Girl.