a day at the alaska zoo...

my day started early as i had a pick up scheduled for some old stuff i'd decided to part with. there is still much i could part with. i fed the dogs, read the paper and headed back to bed. yes...i still read an actual paper. i like getting the local news in the morning and i could read it on line, maybe one day. for now...i like to read the old black and white.
took the dogs for thier morning walk up the road and back. rio had a busy day yesterday so i decided to go easy on her. blossom and i headed off to meet my friend, lesley and her kids for lunch. first i dropped off another package at the post. i've been really lucky so far and no lines. so i was a little late. chatted with my brother, eric en route. we still don't have a don't talk on the cell phone while driving law. we may have passed a don't watch a movie and drive as some guy caused a fatal accident doing just this.
i headed to little campbell lake for a walk with blossom. it was a beautiful day out there. the big mountain, denali, was easily seen from the trail here in town. i always love getting a peek of denali.
then....the zoo! it's been several years since i've been to our local zoo. i support zoos though i wish there was no need for them. they do have a role in education and many have breeding programs as the species are killed off in the wild at least the gene pool can be saved. one wonders what the value is if the animal will never be allowed to be wild again. so i'm always a bit torn. i was trained as a zoo keeper through the los angeles zoo and was a volunteer zoo keeper there for years. the enclosures at our local zoo leave much to be desired in many cases, but i can see that there has been some improvement in these past years. this local zoo was started i believe when a local won an elephant, annabelle, in some contest. our zoo became the center of some controversy over the other elephant, maggie. it became a big thing to "rescue" her. she was eventually moved to a elephant retirement park. from the looks of it, she has adjusted well and is happy there. moving elephants is not an easy task and it was paid for by bob barker i believe?? i think there is more effort to have animals at our zoo that naturally live in colder environments.


above is a wolverine. this guy was playing. we have wolverines here in alaska, but i've never seen one. they are generally pretty shy. i'll say that they looked a bit different than i had expected. it was fun watching him play in the water with this log and a big burlap sack.

no snow leopards in alaska...well except 2. i love snow leopards. they are one of the most beautiful of the big cats. they have these huge, long fluffy tails that aid them in "flight". their enclosure could be larger, but i did appreciate that you could actually take a photo. most of thier cages make photography difficult.

the tiger enclosure was fairly large and i don't think we have to worry about one jumping out like one did at the san francisco zoo a few years back. i love the big cats and when i volunteered at the l.a. zoo i remember being totally impressed by the size of their heads. they are huge cats. i guess there are 2 here as well. amurs now, not siberians. i'd love to sight one in the wild, but an attack by one would be horrible. they are powerful and effective killers. i watched a show the other day and they said you can buy them online for less than $500 and this is a big problem as most private owners are ill prepared to care for a huge cat. people are such idiots some times. there are far more tigers in captivity than in the wild. few remain there.

a few more animals found in the wilds of alaska. i think all the animals that live in alaska at the zoo, were rescues from alaska with the exception of the second polar bear which came from russia originally.

so above is a musk ox...which i was on my road trip to deadhorse, i may see. below is a red fox. i think they are so sweet looking. they can sure cause trouble, these sly foxes.

a few more mushrooms pictures from todays walk. guess i forgot to put in the picture of denali.

this last picture is reeds from potter marsh...my little road trip yesterday.

well...i think i may put in a net flix movie and crash. back to work for a few nights tomorrow night.