Detroit Zoo

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The boys in the underground tunnel. Polar bears and seals swim over you if you're there at the right time.


Yesterday, in spite of the omninous weather forecast, we headed to Royal Oak and visited the animals at the Detroit Zoo. We had good weather the whole time, even though it looked like it might rain any minute.

I stared at this giraffe for about five minutes, waiting for it to move, but it never did.

These prairie dogs have the right idea.

We all agree: even though there are larger and more dangerous animals in the zoo, the anteaters are the ones most likely to appear in our nightmares.

This gorilla sat directly across from a huge crowd of visitors, all pointing their cameras directly at him. But he wasn't posing for any postcards...


We all had a fun time, including the boys. The penguins were their usual funny and wierd selves, and even though some of our favorite animals were napping (hey, we understand!) it was a successful visit.

As we were sitting down, enjoying a cold treat, there was a large group of people close by, watching a very large bird of prey. We couldn't tell if the bird was a hawk or a falcon, but it was big. The crowd was oohing and aahing at it, and a big "wow!" rose up from them when the bird flew away. I didn't see what happened, next, but J did: the bird was carrying a dead rabbit in its talons, and as it flew low to the ground away from the crowd, the rabbit hit a stroller parked near some benches. The bird let go, and the rabbit fell onto the seat. There was no one in the stroller at the time, but the father who owned it lifted the rabbit by the tail and handed it to a zoo employee, who promptly put it on a cart to throw away. The zoo employee then returned to the stroller (and the surprised mom and dad) with some sanitizing liquid for the stroller.

I'm sure some culture out there considers it good luck to have a dead rabbit drop from the sky into a child's stroller. I hope the parents were from that culture, because everywhere else, that's just gross.

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