What's new at the zoo?

Taipei does have a very good zoo. It's larger than I thought it would be, and for only 30 NT it's really worth going. We were there for four hours on Friday, and we didn't get to see everything.

We did, however, learn that going on a major national holiday is not the best idea.















I think this illustrates something I just learned (notice that the river of people goes right up the hill in the distance). In Taipei, there are about 25,000 people per square mile. It sounds pretty scary, but it actually makes it easier to know, yes, it really is crowded. You're not imagining it.

I shouldn't be surprised that the zoo here is so well done. The island's population is 25 million or so, most within a couple of hours by train, but I was still impressed by what they had, like Insect World, here.















We considered adding this guy, a black beetle, to our list of giant inflatable animals, but he's neither inflatable nor animal. But we did take a photo 'cause he is giant.















But part of Insect World is a butterfly house. Marie and I got to see the new butterfly environment at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha over the summer, but this one was a little more fun. The H-D Zoo had many more butterflies and moths, but they seemed a little standoffish. The ones in the Taipei zoo would float and flit around the patrons, daring people to try and photograph them in mid-air. I tried a couple times, but all for naught. But they were very photogenic insects. They'd sit very still while I got the camera right next to them for a photo.















I realize now that I didn't get the names of these. Not that it really makes a difference, I suppose, but somehow it feels incomplete that I can't remember even a common name of one of these.


















Okay, except for this Monarch, here. I suspect that these are common butterflies to the region. In Omaha they had this complicated airlock system to keep butterflies in, either 'cause they're hard to raise or they could contaminate the environment. Here, we walked through a draft of air, and that was considered enough to prevent the butterflies from escaping. When we walked outside, it looked like the same butterflies were harassing the flowers just outside the building. I suspect that the environment is so people can walk among butterflies year-round.

Oh, but most of you will be happy to know I decided not to post the photo of the giant snail we saw in the butterfly house.

And we saw many more expected zoo residents.



















Most of the animals seemed either pleasantly bored like this Meerkat, or, frankly, a little crazed.

















Mama lion here was doing laps back and forth (that's a serious pane of glass between me and her). There were only a couple of lions in here, and the space was wide, but she seemed pretty wound up. Her cub was really cute. I couldn't get a decent shot of him as he stalked and pounced on her as she walked, but it was keeping a couple dozen patrons amused.



















And we watched the Macaques for quite a while. There were maybe a dozen of different ages on this island. I don't understand the barbed wire around the trees. It certainly didn't stop them from climbing the trees; at best it slowed them down a little. And I tried very hard to get a couple of action shots of the younger ones tumbling and playing, but they're just to fast for my camera.

And there's always a problem person in any group. We'd been watching for fifteen minutes and someone threw a handful of food across the water. It was pretty funny to see the big Macaque dive into the water after it, but it didn't seem very good for the animal. Worse still when the twit threw a tied plastic bag of food onto the island, which the animals wrestled over and chased until after we left.



















Personally, I liked the Austrailian tortise. Very camera friendly. I think Marie actually asked, "how do they tell them apart?" And this guy turned around and there was a big "4" on his shell. And you can't really tell, but this guy is not small. That shell is bigger than a manhole cover.
















This actually scared me a bit. There was only a concrete, knee-high wall with the chest-high rail, and a trench a couple of feet deep and a couple of feet wide between us and these couple of White rhinos. They seemed either bored or complacent, but it still felt like being a little too close. Especially after seeing the bit with the Macaques and the food. I was waiting for someone to throw something or just generally tick the rhino off. Standing here I could only remember that elephants can't jump, but I dunno about rhinos. And if they can we'd be in serious trouble 'cause I don't think that little wall would slow him down if he was even mildly grumpy.

















The giraffes were big here (at the end of Marie's nose), pardon the pun. Maybe 'cause they had a large paddock and a long rail where people could watch 'em. This was from the back of the yard 'cause I thought the photo was funny.

We didn't get to see the arctic animals or the asian ones. So we have a reason to go back, hopefully when it's not so warm or crowded.

And on Sunday we went to a movie with a friend of Marie's and a friend of hers. "Burn After Reading" by the Coen brothers was pretty good, and pretty funny, but we we all a bit surprised by the amount of violence. Marie and I had the idea it'd be more humor, less blood. There was a really funny scene when Brad Pitt's nose is bleeding, but it seemed more about the amount of comedy and stupidity in some dramatic events. Weird.

But we learned a couple of ins and outs (literally) of seeing a movie, here. One was they'll sell you popcorn and soda with the ticket, then you have to go find the stand to get the popcorn and soda. But there's no benefit to buying it with the ticket. Odd. And the really funny part was we had to buy the tickets then leave the building, cross a pedestrian area and go into another building to find the right theater.

I also have to say, I'm really glad I wasn't a teenager around here. They don't give the poor kids working at the theater an inch of self-respect. They have to wear these hats with big cardboard signs on 'em with ads for a movie or the theater.

And in our animal-zoo theme, I'll end with this, because it's funny.



















Next time, really, beach, I swear.