I asked my son how he wanted to spend our day together today. He decided to go to the zoo. Even though we have been there several times, it is one of his favorite things to do. The weather was beautiful and the animals were more active than I have ever seen. First, we had fun feeding the giraffes. They stuck out their long black tongues and wrapped them around the lettuce that we held out. Then we went over to the elephants. They had an indoor/outdoor enclosure. One elephant was inside the large maze-like room. When another elephant came in, he quickly went outside. In a little while, we heard trumpeting. The elephant who was inside went out to see what was happening. As soon as he got out one door, the other elephant came running in the other. It was hysterical. Once we got to the grizzly bears, we heard that one of them had just come to the glass and did a big swipe at the little girl who was sitting by the window. As we watched, the 2 bears got into a fight. They were growling and batting at one another until one backed down. They did this a couple of times. Then a zoo keeper came and fed them as they showed off some of the behaviors. The otters were also tussling around under the water. Then one did some continues loops and flips. We went to the wolf enclosure where things got really interesting. When we arrived, all we could see were lots of magpies – crow like birds – who evidently thought that was their home. My son jokingly said that the wolves were going to come out and catch one. After a bit, the 2 wolves awoke and started wandering. The magpies were irritating one of them, even landing on him and pecking at him. The wolf snapped at him a couple of times, and as we watched, he actually caught him. This upset the magpies even more. As the wolf trotted around his territory with the dead bird in his mouth, the magpies – now in a flock of about a dozen – chased the wolf dive bombing him and pecking him now and again. It was quite a scene. Soon, a zoo keeper came in to talk about the wolves and feed them. The now large crowd told her about the incident. She was surprised and said she did not know that the wolf had it in him. She said she was actually happy about it as the magpies have been problematic as they tease the wolves and steal their food. But that was not the end of the animal antics. The hippos were playing with very large plastic balls. It seemed to be a game to see if they could get them under the water. Once the did, the ball would get loose at some point and come popping back up to the top. Then the hippo would throw it’s head back with it’s mouth open and splash it on the surface of the water as if it was laughing. In the reptiles, we watched one of the reptiles shed it’s skin. When we got to the primates, there were more zoo keepers feeding some of the smaller monkeys at the entrance. There was also an enclosure that held naked mole rats. The keeper pointed out that one of the naked mole rats was giving birth just at that time. Amazing. Perhaps it was Spring fever that had everyone worked up. The whole adventure was better than Nat Geo Wild.

I Found God today in the amazing behavior of wild creatures.