Quiet weekend here at The Aerie – between having a guest visit last weekend and heading off to Las Vegas this coming weekend, we’ve been taking care of a lot of the domestic duties.
The good news is that the heat-wave broke mid-week, so we’re back to very pleasant days and nice cool evenings. And the tourists have cleared out, too!
I thought I’d share some of my favorite pictures from the Wild Animal Park trip that we took last weekend. I’ve already posted about how sad the plight of the Northern White Rhino made me – and I didn’t want it to come across that the day was a bad one.
In fact, one of their great success stories has been the breeding and release of the Southern White Rhino – nearly as close to extinction in the early 20th century as their Northern counterparts are now, this species has responded wonderfully. With habitat protection in place, their numbers have swelled to >12,000. Here’s one having a snack with a couple of the numerous antelope-type animals on the grounds.
The other “big” mammals aren’t under-represented either. The Park has a great giraffe group, and has had recent success working with African elephants that were removed from a African preserve because the “protectors” were corrupt and allowing poachers to raid the herds. Two calves were born this past year, and two more are expected this coming year. And who doesn’t love a baby elephant?
One thing I felt sort of badly about was the gorilla enclosure – of all the species at the WAP, they seemed to be having the hardest time with their captivity – as you might imagine. Still, it was a great place to watch primates – of all types.
Small animals abound as well – there is a large lorikeet exhibit (the heat drained us before we could go there) and this tortoise was having a great time eating up the grass in his area.
And this meerkat wanted nothing to do all the digging activity his compadres were doing.
Because we're members, we can get in for free and the Park is about a 20 minute drive from home, so I can foresee a number of Fall-Winter-Spring walks around the WAP.
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Stevil 
Thanks enjoyed pics. That meerkat knows how to relax.
Great photos! Know what's truly a shame? We've had zoo/wap membership for almost a year now, and have never been to the WAP (which is probably only 20 min for us too). We have gone quite a few times to the zoo, but for some reason we either forget about the WAP or it's a hot day and the thought of going inland sounds crazy. Now that it's cooler (yay!) we'll definitely have to head out there one of these weekends.
I love the zoo and other places where I can watch animals. I must say, the meerkat picture is my favorite. I'm a sucker for cute fuzzy animals.
Great pictures. The meerkat's my favorite as well.
Very cool pictures.
Most excellent. Love the giraffe picture. They are so cool.