Zoo Babies

We don't live too far from the zoo so our visits are weekly.  Most of the time it is just before the gates close and we have the place to ourselves.  Because of this, my kids feel like they know the animals personally (they also refuse to enter if they count more than 5 school buses).  

James has been following Christine the elephant closely ever since he read in the Hogel newsletter about her IVF treatment.  That was almost 2 years ago (gestation period for an elephant is 22 months) and we kept watching to see if she was getting bigger.  We even asked a caretaker whether it was a success - the poor employee had no idea what we were talking about.  To our delight this summer we read a posted announcement celebrating the arrival of a new baby elephant.  To our greater delight baby "Zuri" was released to the viewing area just last week.  Typically we spend no more than 5 min on any given animal but this last visit we were entertained by baby Zuri for almost 20 minutes.  Henry clapped his hands and squealed, Maryanna tried climbing over the fence, and Peter announced he no longer wanted a goat for our future farm, instead he insisted "a baby elephant would be more fun".

Zuri wasn't the only addition to the zoo this summer.  We have already been following and watching the baby giraffe, meerkats, snow leopard, and tigers.  Some of them barely look like babies anymore but it sure has been fun.  William noted that there was similar behavior between babies humans and other animals.  I agreed as I watched the elephant try to climb on its red ball, roll off clumsily then run to the safety of its mother's leg.