In His Steps: The Topeka Zoo Part 1

This semester Casey is enrolled in Biology (among other things). One of his lab requirements included a trip to a zoo in which he was to find two endangered species and then write a report about them. We thought spring break would be the perfect opportunity for us to make the trip and take Gabe too. The morning we set out storms were rolling in and it might have been all of 48 degrees. We knew this was going to have to be a quick trip if were going to be able to find the two animals before it began to pour. Due to the weather the crowds were pretty light at the zoo, well crowd may be a strong word. I think there were five other families tops besides us at the zoo that day.

Knowing we needed to get the requirement part out of the way before the rains came inbn c , I asked the guy at the ticket window if the zoo kept any endangered species and he turns around, asks another girl, and then says to me "I don't think we do. I don't really know what an endangered species is." ARE YOU SERIOUS??? This guy was at least high school age and possibly even college age. How do you get that far in life without knowing what the term endangered species means and secondly, how do you get a job at a ZOO without knowing that???

Mom told us the zoo had a mama hippo that had recently given birth so we headed for that building first. As we were walking in there was a real zookeeper and I asked him if he knew of any endangered species in the zoo and he listed off five right away. Finally! Someone who knows what they're doing! Then, he proceeded to take us to the hippos where we got the inside scoop on hippos and baby hippos in particular. He was a great zookeeper.

It only rained on us once and it was pretty short lived. When it started to rain we entered the cave to view the lions and had about two minutes of fun with the pacing lion before everyone else who was at the zoo that morning decided to take shelter in the lion cave also. There were several children that were beyond rude and their parents didn't do a darn thing about it. At the point I began addressing the children myself because they were shoving Gabe out of the way to see the lion I knew it was time to get outta there.

We left the cave, the rain ended and we enjoyed a pleasant little trip around the rest of the zoo. Gabe saw so many animals he's never seen before and it seemed that each animal exhibit had at least one animal willing to put on a show for us. Casey wrote his report on orangutans and fishing cats and received a perfect score. Zoo lab = Success!

And, of course I had my camera. I'll spread the pictures out over a couple of posts because there are so many.