Chimpanzees: Childhood Sure Would Be Boring Without Them

My charming, intelligent, and adorable little nephew came to stay with us for the past several days. Oh, and his mom and grandma came, too.

My favorite activity was the zoo on Saturday. However, I was sorely disappointed with the children's zoo. When I was a kid, there was a petting zoo where children and barnyard animals mingled in a salmonella charged free for all. So what if we occasionally got knocked over by a goat or bitten by a duck or infected by feces-borne bacteria? It was fun, and we liked it!

Now all the animals are kept behind fences with large signs that they bite - except for a rabbit in a bucket. The children have to stand in a single file line to patiently wait for their turn to pet (with two fingers only!) a rabbit in a bucket under the watchful eye of a cranky, bored zoo keeper who probably didn't work very hard on her zookeeping Ph.D. in order to be in charge of a rabbit in a bucket. So sad and lame!

This fish tank was cool, however.



I'm not sure which I find more hilarious: this meerkat...



...or this rock hyrax.


(I wonder if it answers questions.)

Quite a few funny-looking birds reside at the zoo.









As well as bored, exotically-horned ungulates.









And then, a fricken chimpanzee flung fricken rocks and who-knows-I-sure-don't-want-to else at us.



It rather traumatized the charming, intelligent, and adorable little nephew. As I was showing him the photos I took, he would shout, "Wock, wock!" whenever he saw the chimps. And I would have to say, "Yes, sweetie, but don't worry. They'll be extinct soon." And then we would both smile with quiet satisfaction.