Daisy, my grand-daughter, and I spent an afternoon at Point Defiance Zoo, checking out the new exhibits. Its been a few years since we've been there, and in that time the zoo has installed a new 'Asian Forest Sanctuary' that is home to Sumatran tigers, white cheeked gibbons, miniature water buffalo, the Malayan tapir, crested porcupines, and siamangs, a large gibbon. These are vanishing species of southern Asia.
The 'Asian Forest Sanctuary' is the most ambitious project ever undertaken at Point Defiance Zoo here in Tacoma. There are six exhibit areas with many viewing points, as well as a waterfall, streams, ponds, mineral licks, and a bamboo forest.
I took my video camera, and taped tropical fish, then we headed over to check the elephants, artic fox, raindeer and musk ox, the beluga whales, walrus, and sea otters. There are three large acquariums here, featuring 'A Seahorse Odyssey', the 'Marine Discovery Center', and 'Around the Sound' exhibits.
We spent the afternoon listening to lectures by trainers and naturalists in a large central plaza, the Pacific Rim plaza. Here, the purpose is education, mixed with a little fun Kids come on stage to help the parrots perform.
We walked into this little hut, where one of the zoo attendants fed a barn owl some fresh meat. She said that the barn owl was so tame that it 'talks' to her the entire time she feeds it, while it is standing on her arm. The barn owl will follow her around, due to the process of imprinting that occurred when it was hatched at the zoo. It thinks the zoo attendant is the parent. 
After lunch we went to the "Kids Zone", and these are some of the photos that I snapped while Daisy played. 
She is just about too old to climb the monkey bars and swing from bars - she is 10. I figure these are some of the last photos I'll see of Daisy acting like a little kid on the playground. You see, when it was time to go on our outing, she kept me waiting, and waiting, and waiting while she 'styled' her hair in the bathroom. She also was the one to lead me around the zoo to her favorite places, reading the map as we went.
It is amazing that in just a few short years, she's gone from a little kid needing my supervision at the zoo, to a tour guide knowing all the hot spots. I made a point of not doing zoo-shots for this post, cause elephants, tigers, and bears were more easily filmed with a zoom lens, on video, and I figured all of us have seen plenty of those.
When it was time to put my film on video-tape, I hesitated about whether or not to add the sound. But, we went ahead and included it, and in every frame, of every exhibit, there is a boisterous, overly excited 3 year old pointing out to her parents what is in front of her.
Kids chatted, making animal sounds, acting like kids, mimicing each other. I realized that this is the kind of zoo life that never gets recorded. Kids at the zoo, and parents trying to keep up with them.....or, in my case, GrandMa trying to see everything through the eyes of children. I sat and watched everyone play, and looked around at all the parents, grand-parents, and family friends. These folks were just like me, taking in the show.
