Free trips

Wednesday and Thursday this week were free trip days organised by the zoology department at Manchester. Man, free trips definately signal awesome department.

Wednesday saw us being taken to Chester Zoo. I've always loved the zoo - least of all because it's a chance to see all those animals I wouldn't ever see; I've barely gone anywhere more exotic than Greece (awesome as it was). Dissapointingly, I never ever see any civets* at the zoo, definately my favourite animal if I had to choose. But I did see a handful of others that I still really like. I guess I'm a little like Finn in the way that, when I see an animal, my mind starts going about how they feed, what they're related to, how they evolved...etc. But yes, firm favourites were the flamingoes, the drowning rhino (joking, she was taking a mud bath), the bat cave (I love bats), and surprisingly, the orangutan called Emma who came to see what we were all doing.

Chester zoo has recently had a new orangutan enclosure, which I highly recommend going to see. It's a vast improvement on the old one - which was little more than a dingy hangar and a little island with a few sad looking climbing frames. Now, you find yourself walking up a sloping track, to enter the building and look -down- into the enclosures. Ropes hang from the ceiling, grass and plants cover the floor, and trees are dotted around. At the far end there is a platform which obviously gives the orangs somewhere 'safe' to sleep. (Orangs build nests in trees for the night; they won't sleep on the ground). Now, this is all well and good, but when one orang swung up on the ropes to perch precariously at the viewing window (with a 20ft or more drop below her) , just to see what this one girl was doing on her phone... well it was something special really.

http://www.worldwander.com/southafrica/civet.jpg

Conversely the aquarium was somewhat of a let down after having experienced that. But nevertheless I still had a good time; my faveourite parts of the day had to be
1) watching the sea horses - anything hippocampus is so amazing
2) that catfish (yes, the one which was larger than my armspan)
3) the underwater tunnel where you could get up close to sharks

and at the top - the ray pool. Rays are so nice to stroke, they're like wet velvet almost. As soon as I walked over to their tank they started poking their noses out and swimming over to see me. And this got me thinking; did they do this in the wild, or did they actually want the attention like a cat or dog? The latter thought I dismissed - after all, they are only fish. They don't have much in the way of frontal lobes, not exceedingly intelligent imo to 'want' attention. But I asked the man on duty and he said that they actually DO enjoy a backscratch.

Word to the wise; if you're stroking a ray DO NOT stroke them underneath. If your finger happens to go into their mouth, the suction is so great you'll free your finger to find it stripped to the bone. No joking. No exaggerating.


--

1. Do you like looking at stars?

Love looking at stars. It never ceases to amaze me when you look up on a clear night and the expanse of the sky stretches 360 degrees around you in this gargantuan dome, with pinprick stars glinting - I love finding constellations I know. It's sort of a small obsession with me I guess, no prizes to who I got it from


2. Who do you say "I love you" to?

My Dad, Mum, Sister and Finn


3. Did you say "good night!" to anyone last night?

Yup - mum


4. When is the last time you felt blue?

Kinda when I was missing Finn, he went on holiday for a long, long time.


5. Tell us one of your dreams:

Haha, I had a HP dream the other night. I was a death eater, and I stood by and watched Lucius Malfoy being crucio'd. And I really wanted to help him, but of course I couldn't because I'd get into trouble. =/