This morning we shoved off from our motel bright and early in order to catch all of the animal feedings at Mogo Zoo. We made the 10:30 feeding of the Sumatran Tigers by the skin of our fangs before moving on to the 10:45 feeding of the Otters, the 11 o'clock feeding of the Meercats and 11:30 feeding of the stunning White Lions (not to be confused with Albino Lions).
While the Tigers were absolutely breathtaking (I think they're the most beautiful big cat by far) watching the White Lions was the most interesting. Instead of the normal raw meat fare usually fed to Zoo animals, the keeper fed these felines eggs to demonstrate how gentle they can be. It was quite remarkable to see such a huge animal (probably 200kgs at the lightest) delicately crack open eggs with their teeth, taking care not to eat any of the shell, and suck out the contents. It was also really fascinating to hear about how difficult it is to breed White Lions on account of there being so few left (and they can't go breeding family members for obvious reasons). One tactic breeders are trying is to breed white lions with tigers (LIGERS!) to produce cubs with the recessive gene (oy oy oy I'm having deja vu to Ms. Niles' 9th grade Bio class. Not something i have fond memories of) that they subsequently mate with another white lion resulting in a 25% chance of delivering a White Lion.
Other than the Lions, my favorite animal by far was the uber distinguished Emperor Tamarin monkey so named for its uncanny resemblance to pretty much any Medieval Chinese Emperor.
Emperor Tamarin
Empress Tamarin
I was also really intrigued by the fact that the Zoo was maintained totally on private donations - quite a feat for such an extensive collection in such a random location. In terms of possibly story topics - I am tempted to write an article about the zoo's Keeper for a Day program where guests who pay the hefty $550 price tag are invited to shadow Zookeepers for a full day of feeding, caring for, and playing with the animals.
After a quick, unremarkable lunch stop in the town of Mogo, we made the long haul back to Sydney - stopping at a McDonalds en route where I concluded once and for all that the notion of cold coffee over ice exists only in America. I can make this deduction based on the fact that in almost every other place that I've travelled to recently (Croatia, Ghana, Nepal, England) Iced Coffee = Coffee with a big ol' scoop of ice cream plopped in. This non-american version is certainly delicious, but I'm guessing not really part of a wholesome breakfast.
Arriving back at Unilodge we said a tearful goodbye to Jenny (our lovely driver, otherwise known as Sharon's BFFAEAEAEA) and the HMS Platypus. May she ever be in our hearts.
Having settled down back in Sydney I started thinking about the main take-way points from the trip. Here is what i came up with:
1) The journey around the South Eastern Coast completely deconstructed the image (or stereotype) that I had previously associated with Australia. Yes, a lot of Australia consists of Red Rock Desert - but there is also rolling farmland and many snowcapped mountains covered in Pine trees rather than bush.
2) My favorite towns were the working towns - namely Eden. Because most of the town was involved in one of two industries - logging or fishing - the town had a much more distinct personality and I felt I was able to understand it better than the others.
3) Similarly, my favorite towns had interesting and haunting histories. Again Eden was the best example of this with its whaling background as well as the lore about the Killer Whales.
4) This might be pretty obvious by now but Eden was by far my favorite town
5) Inhabitants in small town Australia are at a loss for why foreigners would ever want to visit. I base this hypothesis on the number of "What the hell are you Yanks doing here?" (not in an accusatory or hostile way but purely out of curiosity and disbelief that anyone could find their home interesting)
6) Hard as i tried, I just don't like pies.
7) I HATE mazes.
8) I love road trips and think i want to do a similar type of road trip focused on small towns in another place (preferably english speaking which limits me to America, England, and Ireland). If i did it through America which is the most likely because i don't trust myself to drive on the "wrong" side of the road and not end up as road kill, I would LOVE to tour some of the bizarre attractions our country has to offer (ie. the World's Largest Twine Ball in Darwin Minnesota, the Toy Robots Museum in Adamstown, PA etc. etc.) and write about how they came to be.
9) I find cemeteries boring and don't recognize their historical import. Sorry Sharon!
I know there's more but seeing as my clothes smell worse than wet Emperor Tamarins, I should probably go do laundry.
No comments:
Post a Comment