Zoo Tour with Alex Part 9

This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex.  If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.

This is the beginning of Part 9. 

The first animal of part 9 is this Toucan.  Toucans live where Jaguars live, in South American rain forests.  Do you know that the rainforest is coming down?  So Toucans are very helpful in one way:  If they eat a berry they’ll spit out the seed so then the seed can become another tree.  The more trees that come up, the more nature is alive.

Now we’re at the lemur.  It’s very hard to see so that’s why we circled it. 

This lemur looks like a Red Ruffed Lemur.  I think it is because it’s very fluffy. 

They eat fruits, insects, and small little critters poking around in the trees, like, maybe frogs.  They are very good climbers.

This is a Colobus Monkey.  It eat fruits like the lemurs.  It is black and white and has a very fuzzy tail. 

It also eats insects, but not small, little frogs.  It lives in the jungles of Africa.  They are also very, very good climbers.

Now we have reached the strongest ape in the world…the gorilla.  This one has its back turned, but I got better pictures, so don’t worry.  This one looks like a male, and there’s a smaller one in the bushes to the right.  Looks like a female, or maybe a baby.

Here’s a little bit better picture of the male, only it’s a little blurry, but still, it’s a good picture. 

Baby gorillas are only about 4 to 5 pounds.  That’s smaller than my huge cat, Scratchy.  He weighs fifteen pounds!

A baby gorilla is about the size of my smallest cat, Blur.  She’s only five pounds.

Mother gorillas are not like harp seals, they take care of their young until they’re old enough to be in a new group of gorillas. 

This is a mother gorilla.  She gave birth to a baby.  The baby gorilla is in front of her.  Sorry I didn’t get a good picture.  It’s a larger baby. 

You can tell mother gorillas apart from male gorillas.  Male gorillas have this big lump on their head.  And also, big males are called “silverbacks.” 

Here is the silverback male.  He is eating his poo right now.  Gorillas are mostly vegetarian, but if they can’t find any plants at all, or berries or anything, then they’ll have to eat, but they will sometimes eat grasshoppers and insects if they want to. 

Now the silverback is eating plants. 

Gorillas sometimes can be slow and sometimes can be very fast.  And small ones can still climb, but they can’t really climb on very thin trees. 

Mostly gorillas are very shy, but mostly males can also be aggressive.  Males are mostly in charge of the group.

That’s it for Part 9!  See you on Part 10, it’s the last one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction – Zookeeper Alex

Part 1 – Some Animals of the African Savanna

Part 2 – More of the African Savanna, and an Indian Elephant

Part 3 – Parts of Asia and the Raptor Center

Part 4 – Raptor Center, Komodo Dragons, Fruit Bats and Meerkats

Part 5 – Crow, Peregrine Falcon, Snow Leopards

Part 6 – Animals of Australia

Part 7 – Porcupine, Grizzly Bear, and Humboldt Penguins

Part 8 – Reptiles and Big Cats

Comments

[Kat]

Thanks, Alex. I'm really enjoying this series!
I have two huge cats, too. One is 26 and one is 28 pounds.
I can't wait to see and hear more about the zoo!
Kat