Colorado Trip - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo - Part 2

After the harrowing experience just getting to the zoo, (Which you can read about HERE) we had an awesome time. This zoo is so cool. The whole thing is built into the side of a mountain, so as you walk through the zoo, you're walking up the mountain and the view just keeps getting better. This was the first view after we got to an overlook.

As I said in the last post, the main draw of the zoo, besides the views, is the fact that you can pet the giraffes. They have one of the biggest giraffe populations in the US. They also have an indoor area, and in there they were training young giraffe.

They also have okapis. :)

Like I said in my first post, these things are everywhere. :)

View #2.

Part of the giraffe exhibit as seen from above.

This reminded me of Lost. :)

View #3.

The giraffes weren't the only things you could pet. They also had some wallabies out and about.

We all had to take turns getting our pictures taken petting them. :)

These two ladies even had a baby out for visitors to pet! :)

It was adorable!

The colors aren't the greatest in these pictures, the lighting was strange in many places in the reptile house. It was very cool looking, but it didn't make for very good pictures. This room was the coolest. They had snakes in these tanks with all different colors of glass rocks, along with pieces of art. It was so unique. I wish more of my pictures had turned out.

Another visitor to the zoo walked up to this little guy and handed him a piece of popcorn. He took it!

If you look closely, you can see a mountain lion, which Sasha is photographing.

That's all my pictures from the zoo. If you still want more, I have a few more of my best pictures on my photography blog, which you can find HERE. I still have more pictures to come from the rest of the trip, so stay tuned for those!

A Trip to the Zoo

Monday I went to the zoo. Not that this is something new to me, but this time I went with my brother Joel, and my cousins Shaina and Sarah. We went in the morning and meet up in the afternoon with our friends Alex and Amanda, who are sisters, as well as Robert and Rachel, with their daughter Ariana.

Of course, among the first stops were the okapis and giraffes. :)

Shaina and I posed by the baby giraffe statue.

We rode the skyfari up to the top of the zoo and walked back down.

One of the sea lions had given birth just a week ago. Have you ever seen a sea lion nurse?

The baby is pretty much adorable beyond all reason. I want one. :p

After walking all the way back to the entrance we met our friends.

We had waited on the three most important exhibits so we could go through with them. First up was the completely renovated aquarium. I have more pictures from one of my solo trips that I will post in the future. The new Jellyfish room is amazing!

Next stop was the jungle, where we spent most of our time.

This happens to me a lot. :) This has to be the most interesting angle so far though. :)

We also went through the desert Dome and the Kingdoms of the Night. When we got out we found Rachel's parents sitting in the shade. We talked for awhile, and then most of us went on to see the cats and bears.

After the zoo we went to a Greek restaurant called King Kong. Most of us had gyros. They were so good!

After supper, most everyone wanted to do something else, so we went to the Old Market. Shaina and my feet were really hurting though, so we stayed behind and watched some shows on my computer. I'm sure there will be a next time though. We are already planning to go see Brave on opening night! I can't wait!

Legendary Creatures Around the World

I have been working Extremely hard these last two weeks getting everything completed for all my classes. Last week I finished an almost 6 page report on Legendary Creatures for my Geography class. I just checked on my grade and aside from a couple “Grammatical Errors” which he did not point out, I aced it. Generally the teachers in the online classes do not write much for reviews, but my teacher did have a rather complimentary, if brief bit of praise to offer.

So far one of my favorite papers since I've been teaching this class (3 years now). I enjoyed the subject matter immensely.

I now have a final exam to complete, and then I will be completely finished with this class, and as this test is the last thing I need to complete for any class, I will soon be done with all of this semester’s work. Woo Hoo!
I know some of you have enjoyed reading my other things about cryptozoology, so I will share my paper here for those of you who would like to read it. :)

Legendary Creatures Around the World

By Jonathan North

The deep forests in the North America, the deserts of the Australian outback, the icy depths of a Loch in Scotland, the snowy peaks of the Himalayan Mountains in Asia, and the dense jungles of the African rainforests; all these are places today that have significant legends attached to them, legends of fantastic creatures. Creatures laughed off by most as just stories or superstition. But what if these stories are more than just stories? What if these creatures all really exist?
Today there are creatures in zoos all over the world that were once laughed at as creatures of myth and legend. Kangaroos, pandas, and many other creatures at one time were disregarded as myths by the scientific community until given absolute proof. In fact, one of my favorite animals was considered a myth until the late 18^th century when Europeans were first introduced to a living giraffe. They had heard of giraffes from ancient Greek and Roman writings, but having never seen such a beast for themselves, it was thought to be an animal that the ancients had invented. Similarly, the giraffe’s only known relative, the okapi, was also thought to be a myth until its official discovery in the late 1800’s by Sir Harry Johnston. In 1903 the first live Okapi was captured, and today you can find them in zoos all over the world.
When explorers brought the remains of a platypus to England from Australia they were accused of creating a fake animal by piecing together parts from the bodies of real animals. It was not until sometime later when scientist saw for themselves living, breathing specimens, that they accepted that the platypus was not a beaver with a duck’s bill taxidermied to its face.
Some scientists think there is a definite possibility that there is truth behind our modern day myths, and have dedicated their lives to trying to prove them as truth. These scientists, working in the relatively small, and often maligned scientific field of Cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals, ask a very simple question. Is it possible that mythological creatures have some basis in reality? While it is unlikely that all these animals are exactly as the stories depict them, I fully believe that for every legend there is, or was, a real, live creature behind it.
All over the world, and throughout the ages of time, every culture has stories of fantastic beasts that great warriors fought and killed. When the great beasts are called a bear or a lion, it is generally accepted that such a story truly happened. The hero’s deeds may be exaggerated for dramatic effect, but generally such stories are thought to have a grain of truth to them. But what about the stories with a creature we don’t recognize?
Many countries and many cultures all over the world had legends of monstrous and unbelievable beasts. Native Americans told of massive birds with such huge wingspans they created thunder as they flew. Sailors have long told stories of encounters with strange creatures, such as mermaids, and fearfully large creatures, from the massive Kraken to enormous sea serpents that would attack ships and drag them to the ocean floors never to be seen again. And many, many cultures have legends of gigantic reptiles called dragons. But these were all just stories, right? Maybe, but legends had to start somewhere.
What if these legends were stories that these cultures used to explain real life animals that they did not understand? It is generally accepted now, that the legend of the Kraken might have been based on encounters with giant squid, an animal undocumented by science until recent years. Similarly the stories of mermaids, may have come from sailors, dehydrated and not able to see straight, who saw sunbathing seals, or swimming manatees. Why is it so different to believe that a story of a dragon was based on a real animal?
While this explanation is usually laughed off by mainstream scientists, Creation scientists have hypothesized that the dragon legends of cultures all around the world, from ancient Babylon, to ancient China, to even more recent examples like the medieval European legend of St. George and the Dragon, were based on encounters with dinosaurs.
Since Creationists see fossils as evidence of a world-wide flood in the days of Noah, they see no problems in believing that dinosaurs were alive at the time of man. They obviously would not have been called dinosaurs, a name coined only in 1840 by Sir Richard Owen, but could they have been known by the name dragon, or other names throughout history, depending on the culture who tells the tale? Since most Dragon legends end with the dragon slain by the valiant hero, perhaps the reason for the dinosaur’s extinction was the same reason that so many species are in danger of going extinct today; us. Humanity is generally thought to be the cause of the Mammoth’s extinction. Humanity caused the Dodo’s extinction. Humanity wiped out the Passenger Pigeon, the Moa, and the Tasmanian Tiger. If the dinosaurs did not go extinct millions of years ago, is it such a stretch to believe that we caused their extinction?
Some people, not just creationists, even believe that some dinosaurs may still be alive, as there are stories all around the world to this day of creatures that fit the descriptions of dinosaurs. There are stories of multiple creatures in Africa, the most famous of which, the Mokele Mbembe, fit the description of a living dinosaur. Australia also has stories, as do the Native Americans here in our own country. Ancient artwork occasionally depicts creatures that do not resemble any known creature today, and some of them look vaguely like dinosaurs.
But dinosaurs are not the only creatures around which legends might be based. All over North and South America, there are legends of giant hairy ape men. To the natives in Canada, these creatures were known as Sasquatch. To Americans, who more often use the name in derision, the creature is known as Bigfoot. In South America they tell tales of the Mono Grande, “Big Monkey”, a giant tailless ape.
Without solid proof, people who claim to have seen such creatures are laughed at, but to scoff at such stories has often left the scoffers with egg on their faces. Until about 200 years ago the scientific community laughed at African natives who claimed that giant, hairy, wild men lived in the jungles of Africa. Their laughter turned to astonishment when a French explorer brought back the body of a gorilla. Is it so difficult to believe that similar creatures could exist on one or both of the Americas?
Similar to these stories is the Abominable Snowman in Asia, or as the native people refer to him, the Yeti. A wild man said to live in the Himalayas. Is it possible that this “wild man” is a type of ape? In Australia, they tell of a creature called Yowie, and their descriptions are also of a hairy ape man. To me, so many similar stories all over the world, can’t be laughed off as coincidences.
Another famous beast, beloved by tourists and derided by scientists, is the Loch Ness Monster a giant beast said to live in the Loch Ness in Scotland. Most accounts told of the creature describe it as what looks to be an extinct marine reptile, similar to a plesiosaur. Scientists say that there is no way it can exist there, but researchers have found evidence of underwater caverns that may contain air, and channels that could lead to the ocean. Who’s to say that “Nessie” is just one creature? Isn’t it far more likely that what people have seen throughout history are just different members of the same species? Perhaps the Loch is just a stop on their migratory rout?
The Loch Ness is not the only body of water said to contain a monster, in fact there are stories of lake monsters all over the world. However, one lake, Lake Champlain, a lake between New York and Vermont, has been the only place other than Loch Ness for someone to provide somewhat credible evidence for the existence of such a creature. In July of 1977 a woman captured an image of the beast that is still debated today. The image shows what appears to be a plesiosaur, even clearer than the ones taken of Nessie. This was in the days long before Photoshop, so the chances that this woman was able to fake this photograph by herself are quite slim.
We humans love stories. We love hearing tales of the unknown, and stories of creatures that couldn’t possibly exist. But every story had to be inspired by something. I think it is completely within the realm of possibility that all these stories, all over the world, told by cultures throughout history, had some basis in truth. After all, The Gorilla, the Panda, and the Giraffe were once stories. Perhaps someday, our descendants will stroll through the zoo and laugh at us because we once thought that Sasquatch and Nessie were figments of someone’s overactive imagination.

Little Kids at the Zoo

There’s always lots of little kids around me when I’m at the zoo, and it can be really hilarious to listen to them as they look at the animals. I heard quite a few things that really cracked me up yesterday.

“Do you know why a gawaffe swings it taio? To get da fwies off of it!”

(This was a kid who was only about two or three, and he was talking to two kids about the same age. That’s actually pretty smart for a kid his age!)

“Dad! Wook at da ostwiche’s bottom!”

“Look! A owange!”

“There’s a BABY ostrich!”

“But WHY can’t you eat one?”

“Look! It’s a zebra butt!”

“HEY! They’re havin’ a penguin Par-Tay! HA HA HA HA!!!!”

A Cap and a Cop

Today I posted a photo study on my photo blog. It is of one of my favorite animals of all time. The okapi. You can find it HERE.

When I was pretty young, probably under 10, (It’s been quite awhile now, so my elderly brain can’t remember these things so well) my dad came home and told me he’d just heard about an animal that he thought might become my new favorite animal. Up until that time my favorite animal had been the giraffe. Then my dad introduced me to the okapi. A very rare animal and the only living relative of the giraffe. While it didn’t replace the giraffe it did become almost equally loved.

About a month ago, I was reading an article about the birth of a baby okapi. For anyone interested you can read it HERE. (The baby is beyond adorable!) Within the article was a video, and the news anchors kept pronouncing the name o-COP-i. Ever since dad had first told me about it I have pronounced it o-CAP-i. That was what he had called it, so that was probably how whoever had told him about it had pronounced it, and I never had heard of it anywhere else so I naturally called it that as well. When the first anchor called it an o-COP-i , I thought to myself, “Self, this guy is so dumb! He doesn’t even know how to say its name!” Then the narrator of the footage began pronouncing it the same way. again I thought, “Oh these poor misinformed people. They really should have done better research.”

Then the zookeeper pronounced it o-COP-i.

Suddenly my entire outlook on life was changed.

If the zookeeper, the woman who cared for these animals and knew everything about them, was pronouncing it o-COP-I, it could not be wrong! I had to know for sure. I was on the internet, finding the correct pronunciation was only a click away. I rushed to dictionary.com.

o·ka·pi

   [oh-kah-pee]
–noun, plural -pis, (especially collectively) -pi.
an African mammal, Okapia johnstoni, closely related to and resembling the giraffe, but smaller and with a much shorter neck.
 
I was wrong! All these years my whole family has been wrong! It was actually really shocking to find out! I still am trying to un-train myself from saying o-CAP-i. I got in some good practice on my last trip to the zoo though. You may recall my post from last May about the okapi. (You can read that HERE) The situation had not improved one bit, so once again I found myself surrounded by people who were just sure that this was a really strange zebra, a zoney, or a Zorse. I explained again, to those who looked like they might be open to knowledge, that it was an okapi, and this time I was pronouncing it correctly.

Next week I’ll be going back to the zoo again. I can’t wait to see my o-COP-i. :)

This is Not a Zebra Donkey

As I was putting together today’s post for my photography blog I was having a very difficult time keeping my sarcasm in. I want to keep my photography blog fairly professional, so after I finished that post I came right over here to get rid of all my sarcasm.

Today’s post on J. North Photography is about one of my favorite animals, the okapi. The reason I was having such a difficult time holding back the sarcasm was because of all the ridiculous things I heard from the people who came to see the okapi while I was photographing it. Judging from all the remarks I heard, almost no one has any clue what an okapi is. A few people wondered whether or not it was rare variety of zebra. One man marched right up and told his poor, impressionable son matter-of-factly that it WAS a zebra. Other people had no idea what it was and were asking each other if they knew. If they were kids, and their parents hadn't already passed on their ignorance to them, I told them myself. "It's called an okapi. It's related to the giraffe." I had to repeat myself many times that morning.

I heard some strange and ridiculous hypotheses as to what it might be while I was standing there. The most ridiculous of all, was from a person who was sure that it was not a real animal, but was the result of a donkey and a zebra deciding to get to know each other a little better. What do they teach in schools these days? Next they'll be telling me that a tiger is a baby lion who's mother fell in love with a carrot obsessed zebra!

>Sigh.< I suppose it’s understandable that some people don't know what it is. After all, okapis are very rare and few zoos have them. Still, you'd think that they could at least bother to read the sign posted on the fence before deciding that it's some kind of a weird zebra...

To the Zoo with Matthew

This month, instead of going to the zoo alone, I went with my friend Matthew. We had a great time and visited a few places I had never gone before. I have a ton of pictures, as usual. I will be doing my regular post here, and then I will also be doing posts of my more “Artistic” (In my opinion anyway) pictures on my photo blog.

This little frog cracked me up. I’m not sure what exactly he was looking for. :)

I finally got a better picture of this female parrot.

There were docents walking around the Animal Kingdom Pavilion with animals for people to pet. I petted this ball python. It was a lot warmer than one would imagine. Snakes are cold blooded, but that doesn’t mean they’re cold to the touch.

Peacocks all over the place, as usual.

They were really shrieking that morning.

If it were legal to own an okapi, I would. How could anyone NOT love that face? :)

I hadn’t realized the zoo had two okapis! I wonder if they just got the second one. It is fenced off from the main one.

I took a ton of pictures of the okapi. I will do an entirely separate post on my photo blog just about him.

This hornbill was pretty crazy. He kept running all around the fence trying to get people to feed him.

Blogger is not wanting to publish my post, it may be that I have too many pictures, so I am going to have to split up this post into more than one. Be on the lookout for part two soon!