Yay, Nay, Nay

Yes tis true there is something I am going to kudo!

Angelo the male Giant Anteater has a new home within the San Francisco Zoo.

One of the original exhibits that has been unused for many years has been semi-renovated to house him. He has for some time had tummy issues due to his love of eating sand :( so relocating him will help keep him healthy :)

He previously lived at the Puente Al Sur, but his sand intake has increased and he has had to be inside the barn in so he didn't have access to his favorite snack. Now he can roam free in his new home :)

Thank you to the Staff who made this happen in a timely manner, so to limit the length of time he was stuck inside.

He seems to like his new home and was exploring quite a bit when I was there. I hope that he will at some point get some soft area so he is not on concrete only, maybe a washable surface like the cork-like stuff used around the base of the animal statues or a rubber mat type surface.

I wish his mounds were a more natural color (not white) as it looks like he is in the snow, but that's aesthetics and secondary, as moving him was priority.

I took a great little video clip of him exploring his new digs :) check it out at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS899JRyhxQ

Thank you again! Now let's work on:

*Getting Wishbone grass in his home, so he is not exclusively on concrete! and can have a soft surface to walk, sit, lounge and play on.

*Getting the grass in Goober's home back to lush and not dry stick like weeds, so he has something comfortable to munch and lounge on!

*Moving Inti into an area that is not a cage. He needs and deserves a more natural environment.

These simple and necessary improvements for the Animals would make me and the Animals happy and by gosh, I just may not have anything, much to blog about!

OK the weekend duo of Nays.

I've been continually bugged that the Zoo is apparently (from the Visitor stand-point, paying an electric bill to continuously keep a HUGE Lion Balloon inflated, when they allegedly balk at paying extra on the water bill to make sure that the Bairds Tapir's pool be cleaned daily instead of the current three times a week. I'm a Leo so I love all things Lion, but this makes no sense and its wrong to appropriate funds this way.

While at the Lions, my friend Lee was talking to Lynette, a fellow Docent from when she was in the program. During this time a Visitor was tapping on the glass, trying to get the Cats attention. After the second time I suggested to Lynette she ask the Visitor to stop. She said, "Let's see if they do it again"!!! Of course I was offended as she has the authority and its certainly part of her job to address misbehavior. This is a trend with Docents, as well some Security. I questioned why wait, when we all just witnessed this twice? She had no answer. I just walked away disgusted.

I don't know why some of the people with authority to stop Visitors who harass the animals don't.

Update: Per San Francisco Zoo Twitter information received, the Anteater's mini mountains are painted white because they needed to be sealed. Good to know, thank you for the response and information. I still think it would have been aesthetically more pleasing to have the area (and others) more natural. Painting them doesn't seem like it would have been too hard.

UPDATE 12.8.11 Please see the last post titled "FAIL Post Updates"