Thursday, February 08, 2007

Say Cheese!



You're probably wondering, What is that???!!! It's a type of steer (bull). Lovely smile, don't you think? At least for an animal that has no upper teeth.

Today, Son #3, his grandfather and I went to this wildlife preserve not too far from where we live. It's a 900 acre space, fenced only along the outer perimeter. The animals just roam freely inside this fence.

You tour the property by way of a sheltered wagon pulled by a tractor (wagons, actually, as there are several of them linked together. Today was the perfect day to go - sunny, low 70's, and only 10 other people on our entire tour. You can purchase cups of feed for the animals. Of course, all of the animals are conditioned to recognize the 'feed wagon' (that would be us). I'll post as many pictures as Blogger will allow.

Below is a type of non-North American deer - a blackbuck. I like the spiraled antlers. They're pretty petite - a little smaller than my greyhound dog. To feed these guys, you just toss the feed on the ground.



Get ready to say "awwwww." Below is a 10-day old llama. He stayed pretty close to his mama llama, but for some reason, Blogger won't let me upload a photo of the two of them together.


Here's a shot of a giraffe. Yes, he really was that close. This one would walk right up to your cup of feed, stick his nose in, and steal it if you weren't holding on the cup tightly!


Well, for some reason, these are all the photos that Blogger will let me post. It tells my photos have been successfully uploaded but they're not appearing in my post. I'll try to add a few more tomorrow.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

We used to go to one of these in Oklahoma! I always loved it. It's so fun to feed the animals. I bet your son had a blast!

Nadine said...

I love the baby llama picture. What fun to feed the animals.

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

ACK! That first shot freaked me out. But I love zoos and animal parks. Lots of fun. Waiting for less frigid temps around here, so we can go again!

Anonymous said...

LOL that first one is hilarious!

Sue said...

Cool place! We have something similar here, except no one wants to go when it's 10 degrees and windy - lol.

Sounds like a fun day!

Nicole said...

My kids were loving looking at the animals while I read. In fact they are not happy that I clicked them off right now.

IT sounds like they had fun!

Elle*Bee said...

nicole, hopefully your kids will like today's post (Fri. Feb. 9).

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. It really was a fun trip. This place is a bit closer than our zoo. It was perfect for my father-in-law who can't walk long distances. All he had to do is sit back and relax.

tracey, the first shot is weird, I'll admit. But the worst were the steer. The come up to the side of the wagon, open their mouths and stick their long, blue tongues out the side. Ick, but funny at the same time. I wasn't able to catch a decent shot because I was laughing so hard I couldn't keep the camera still.

It was so neat to be able to touch the animals. I'd love to join as a member, but we'd have to go 3 times a year just to break even and I'm not sure we would.

Lala's world said...

wow so cool!