The San Diego Zoo to be precise. I had not been to the San Diego Zoo in about 15 years. Back then I was very disappointed by many of their exhibits, now I found the facility quite impressive. They have cut way down on the number of animals on display and are focused on animals which are in the most need of preservation. The new exhibits are both large and naturalistic and structured in 'themes' where one walks through a forest of plants with integrated enclosures exhibiting species which would be living in that particular region of the world. There were some of the older exhibits left, modified with logs and grass, but even those looked like they were on the way out for there was still quite a bit of construction.

Marsha made arrangements for us to meet with Allison Holland who works at the sealion show in Wegeforth Bowl. She and Kristie gave us a wonderful behind the scenes private tour. They brought out an African Eagle Owl named Einstein. She is 8 months old and is just learning to get used to all the activities here. She had the most striking yellow eyes. Then Jake, a young sealion was brought out and met Kat. Nelson, a 22 year old sealion who was beached as a pup full of parasites, rescued, recuperated, released twice (once ended up in a beach bathroom and once in a dentist office waiting room!) ended up coming down to the San Diego Zoo for obviously he wanted to be with people. Marsha got to meet Nelson. Nelson in particular had quite a lot of commands including 'smile' sticking his tongue out, kissing, and a whole number of other behaviors which were used later in the show.

Then we went behind the scenes and got to see a miniature horse named Hound Dog who was once owned by Elvis Presley. There was also an Andean Condor who was posturing nicely to us, well, not nicely, he was giving a threat display. A Kestrel was brought out and we all got to hold and feed him grubs. I got a number of photos of that.

Finally, the best part, meeting Akela. Akela is a young wolf who will be 2 in April. He was raised with an Irish Setter pound puppy who apparently does a good job keeping him in line. He was a bit shy and definitely lacked confidence, which is actually a good thing if you are working with a young male wolf, but he was also very, very shy of cameras and somewhat shy of men so I did not even bring my 'real' camera with that big lens down and even the digital camera kinda made him nervous so one of his handlers took photos of us and the canine duo ;-)

That behind the scene tour was quite the highlight of this trip. Not meeting the wolf, get to play with those all the time, but just talking to the keepers, trading ideas and talking with folks who know a lot about handling, management, training, and are simply great at their job. I hope that I can keep in touch with them about Akila's progress and perhaps someday they will be able to come out and meet our wolves!

After the behind the scenes tour we took in the show of course. Akila was not in the program, but the two sealions were and Nelson in particular was GREAT. It was particular impressive to see him stand on his flippers. That must be quite difficult for such a heavy animal outside the water. Of course I took quite a lot of his portion of the show.

At one point in the show a willing victim was selected from the audience. A child, who I believe was 5 years old or so. They started with some simple questions involving the food chain -- and with audience participation this kid did great. After that, Nelson was brought out and he got to feed, pet and even kissed by this sealion. That kid was all smiles afterward. What a neat experience.

After the show and some lunch, Kat, Marsha and I walked about the zoo in the last hour or so of light to enjoy what for me were totally new exhibits. I took only a few photos, of the tiger exhibit, hippos who had a huge pool and this really neat bird, but my favorite stop was the mixed monkey and otter exhibit. There was some interaction between the species with one of the otters doing an inhibited bite on a monkey's leg and then the monkey chasing the otter around for a bit. Obviously these animals get alone well, and they seemed to enjoy teasing one another.

We even got to see one of the Pandas. The sign indicated that they would not be on exhibit, but one was out anyway. We also liked the red pigs, or "Red River Hogs."

Finally it was time to part company. It was nearly 6:00pm and I had a very long drive north ahead of me if I was going to get to my final destination on this leg of the trip. I had an appointment with Lesley Harrison, a very famous and FANTASTIC artist who's website I need to look up so I can post it here ;-)