Living Treasures Animal Park: The Weirest Petting Zoo Ever
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 11:37 AM.
In the old days, anyone with a mangy bear, a mostly tame raccoon, a donkey, and an exotic chicken could set up a zoo and charge a penny to see the animals. If the bear could dance, so much the better. Anybody with a camel could give camel rides, and anybody with a hyena could put it on display. The line between circus and zoo was thin and frail.
Then we started getting advanced and complicated notions about animal comfort and safety. Zoos expanded their exhibit spaces, started calling them "habitats," and invested in elaborate water features and native flora. Degreed scientists were put in charge of food and medicine, and words like "respect" and "natural" and "healthy" were bandied about.
The bad thing about the old-fashioned zoos was that you can't help thinking the animals were miserable. The bad thing about the new zoos is that you can't see the animals half the time. They're so safe and comfortable in their nice healthy habitats that you end up saying, "Look, Suzy! There's a tuft of the sloth's left elbow! See? See it? Way back there behind the fourth tree from the left!"
Last week we went to the Living Treasures Animal Park in Moraine, PA. Well, there were certainly a lot of things there that were living.
In the space of a few acres, the owners managed to display monkeys, bears (two kinds!), lions, tigers, kangaroos, timber wolves, lemurs, hyenas, camels, alligators, a musk ox, ostriches, as well as goats, ponies, llamas, and the occasional chicken. There was a camel ride. There was a horse-drawn carriage safari through a few more acres of free range pasture where Indian deer, ostriches, oxen, and other denizens flocked to the carriage as the driver enthusiastically hurled out scoops of pellets.
Pellets. When you come in to Living Treasures, you purchase a bucket of pellets for $3, and almost everything in the park eats this generic food item. Except for the bears and timber wolves, which eat dog food. And the monkeys and lemurs, which eat cheerios. Wait a minute! You can feed BEARS? Live, actual, adult bears? Yes. Standing behind the low wooden fence, you can poke pieces of dog food into a PVC pipe that slants down into the bear's area, behind a slightly sturdier fence. The bears lie there, waiting for the dog food to roll down, and then the slurp it up.
This is how all the animals are. They wait for the food to come, and then they eat it, and then they wait for more food. Until they are so completely sated and gorged that they lie down, bursting at the seams, and try to digest some of it. This kangaroo was so stuffed she is pushing out the joey inside her pouch. She can't even fit in one more carrot:
Besides the lions, bears, tigers, leopards, and a whole slew of other animals that would have really worried me if they hadn't been so fat and happy, there was the petting zoo. Including camels, llamas, goats, rabbits, and a ZEBRA:
A nice cute, fat, happy little baby zebra that was as tame as your mother. Plus camels you could hug:
And ride:
So, while I was shaken to the core by the close proximity with bears, and while I expect that my PETA neighbors would have a lot to say about the lack of habitat for each animal, the children loved it. It was an interesting place for another redheaded homeschooling convention.
Then we started getting advanced and complicated notions about animal comfort and safety. Zoos expanded their exhibit spaces, started calling them "habitats," and invested in elaborate water features and native flora. Degreed scientists were put in charge of food and medicine, and words like "respect" and "natural" and "healthy" were bandied about.
The bad thing about the old-fashioned zoos was that you can't help thinking the animals were miserable. The bad thing about the new zoos is that you can't see the animals half the time. They're so safe and comfortable in their nice healthy habitats that you end up saying, "Look, Suzy! There's a tuft of the sloth's left elbow! See? See it? Way back there behind the fourth tree from the left!"
Last week we went to the Living Treasures Animal Park in Moraine, PA. Well, there were certainly a lot of things there that were living.
In the space of a few acres, the owners managed to display monkeys, bears (two kinds!), lions, tigers, kangaroos, timber wolves, lemurs, hyenas, camels, alligators, a musk ox, ostriches, as well as goats, ponies, llamas, and the occasional chicken. There was a camel ride. There was a horse-drawn carriage safari through a few more acres of free range pasture where Indian deer, ostriches, oxen, and other denizens flocked to the carriage as the driver enthusiastically hurled out scoops of pellets.
Pellets. When you come in to Living Treasures, you purchase a bucket of pellets for $3, and almost everything in the park eats this generic food item. Except for the bears and timber wolves, which eat dog food. And the monkeys and lemurs, which eat cheerios. Wait a minute! You can feed BEARS? Live, actual, adult bears? Yes. Standing behind the low wooden fence, you can poke pieces of dog food into a PVC pipe that slants down into the bear's area, behind a slightly sturdier fence. The bears lie there, waiting for the dog food to roll down, and then the slurp it up.
This is how all the animals are. They wait for the food to come, and then they eat it, and then they wait for more food. Until they are so completely sated and gorged that they lie down, bursting at the seams, and try to digest some of it. This kangaroo was so stuffed she is pushing out the joey inside her pouch. She can't even fit in one more carrot:
Besides the lions, bears, tigers, leopards, and a whole slew of other animals that would have really worried me if they hadn't been so fat and happy, there was the petting zoo. Including camels, llamas, goats, rabbits, and a ZEBRA:
A nice cute, fat, happy little baby zebra that was as tame as your mother. Plus camels you could hug:
And ride:
So, while I was shaken to the core by the close proximity with bears, and while I expect that my PETA neighbors would have a lot to say about the lack of habitat for each animal, the children loved it. It was an interesting place for another redheaded homeschooling convention.
Labels: field trips, living treasures animal park, travels, zoo
Choo Choo at the Zoo: Developments at the Virginia Zoo
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Monday, July 28, 2008 at 11:32 PM.
Every zoo needs a train. Thanks to Norfolk Southern, I guess the Virginia Zoo is about to have one. Did you know about this? Apparently we haven't been to the zoo for a while. We also didn't know about the piglets and about the new eagle roosts and a whole bunch of other things. Shade garden! Whoa! Step back! HOLD ME DOWN.
The zoo is torn up in preparation for the train -- they're laying tracks and providing stations and whatever else a zoo train needs to be happy and successful. Enlightening.
I remember when the zoo had a building with giant glass walls where the elephants and rhinos lived, and they had fenced paddocks to run in and those cement and glass cages to eat in. I remember thinking that the rhino was really completely huge. Unexpectedly so. I mean, I would have thought a rhino was the size of a couple of horses, but not eight horses. That was when I was pregnant with Benny and before I became a homeschool mom and educated myself on the relative size of rhinoceruses and equines. Now I know everything about everything and would never be caught off guard on such a mundane topic as the mass of a rhino. Obviously.
The zoo train looks AWESOME. I can't wait to ride it. Another change:
Benny was delighted to find that there are new signs at the crossroads.
The zoo is torn up in preparation for the train -- they're laying tracks and providing stations and whatever else a zoo train needs to be happy and successful. Enlightening.
I remember when the zoo had a building with giant glass walls where the elephants and rhinos lived, and they had fenced paddocks to run in and those cement and glass cages to eat in. I remember thinking that the rhino was really completely huge. Unexpectedly so. I mean, I would have thought a rhino was the size of a couple of horses, but not eight horses. That was when I was pregnant with Benny and before I became a homeschool mom and educated myself on the relative size of rhinoceruses and equines. Now I know everything about everything and would never be caught off guard on such a mundane topic as the mass of a rhino. Obviously.
The zoo train looks AWESOME. I can't wait to ride it. Another change:
Benny was delighted to find that there are new signs at the crossroads.
He took great pains to elaborately explain these signs to Sadie. He also went through the entire zoo "playing" the animals, making them talk to Sadie in different funny voices. She never got tired of saying, "My name is SADIE!" when the monkey or meerkat or buffalo said "Hey, there, little girl. Welcome to my exhibit! What's your name?" It was so darling and charming, it made my heart ache to hear it. He's such a good big brother, such a great playmate for her, so entertaining and also educational. Well sort of...
Benny: Look, Sadie, it's a LIZARD! A lizard from South America!
Some Girl Standing Nearby (with irritation): It's a gecko. A gecko.
Benny (kindly): Oh, it's okay. She doesn't know that word. It's just easier for her to hear the word lizard, because that's what she knows.
Thanks Benny. Thanks for shielding your sister from strange and disturbing words like "gecko."
One issue I have with the universe:
I'm really irritated with that one person who is always at the zoo, and always trailing my family, you know the I AM A ZOO MEMBER AND A MEMBER OF THE ZOO person? Who, like, calls all the animals by their proper names and remarks on the growth of each plant and tree and sighs fondly and refers to the lion as "Oh, my baby!" There was this woman, and she descended on the piglets with her smug daughter in tow, and she was all, "OH, look at our babies! See how they have grown! Now where's my favorite? Where's my favorite one? Oh THERE he is! There is my favorite!"
I'm really irritated with that one person who is always at the zoo, and always trailing my family, you know the I AM A ZOO MEMBER AND A MEMBER OF THE ZOO person? Who, like, calls all the animals by their proper names and remarks on the growth of each plant and tree and sighs fondly and refers to the lion as "Oh, my baby!" There was this woman, and she descended on the piglets with her smug daughter in tow, and she was all, "OH, look at our babies! See how they have grown! Now where's my favorite? Where's my favorite one? Oh THERE he is! There is my favorite!"
It's like translation this: "I am a zoo member and visit often because I am a member of the zoo and so in my frequent, frequent visits I have become very familiar with all aspects of this zoo of which I am a member!" You know what, lady? No one cares. Homeschoolers get in free at the zoo. Side note: The exact same behavior in a person under the age of 16 would not be intolerable -- in fact it would be adorable.
Yeah, I'm probably just cranky. After all, I haven't been at the zoo since all this train madness erupted. Maybe I *am* missing something. I'm so totally unaware of the piglets' names. But I do know that one of them pooped in their water pan. So, they're not my babies. Not really.
In other news, read about what we did today at Shez's Homeschooled Twins.
Labels: bitterness, zoo
