Today we headed back to the Henry Vilas Zoo. Great visit. Avery was much more interested and alert than she was the last time we went which was really fun for Sam. She loved watching Avery react to the monkeys jumping around.
The one thing I learned today at our visit was about being respectful chimpanzee viewers. I was not aware that there was so much required etiguette for viewing chimpanzees. But at this particular exhibit they had signs and a zoo keeper standing there to make sure everyone followed the rules. No waving. No taping the glass. No looking the chimps directly in the eyes. No lifting of your arms. No jumping up and down. No quick movements of any kind.
I asked the zoo keeper about all the restrictions and she said that they were really trying to encourage the chimps to bond and interact with each other. If they spent most of their day focused on the viewers they wouldn't be paying attention to each other. Plus some of those actions make humans appear larger and more threatening which can cause the chimps to respond aggressively either to our image in the glass or to each other. This was new to me. Sam was really great at following the rules. I think the zoo keeper lady terrified her more than the giant chimps.
The camera was left at home so no pictures of Sam getting stuck in a climbing tunnel and some strange man having to climb in to get her (I was not about the leave Avery unattended in the stroller, I just kept yelling at Sam to keep climbing!). No pictures of Avery's first time on the carousel. And no pictures of Sam talking to various animals; she stands there and makes noises at them and gets really excited when/if they make noises back!
But overall a great outing today. The zoo is always a favorite at this house.
In other news...this little project is out there in blog world!!
Check out a September Monthly Challenge entry from Maureen.
And a shout out about the art projects we are doing at Family and Life in Las Vegas Toddler Talk Thursday.
And my sister took my tube obsession one step further with her kids over at Jodified.
So fun when I find my little blog being mentioned by other people! Thank you ladies for helping me to grow this little project.
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The Nitty Gritty!
Not much to add to our zoo adventure from today. I have talked a lot about how to make the most of zoo trips on here before so if you need tips about how to successfully tackle bigger zoos, how to handle the zoo with kids of varying ages, how to tackle really big zoos or just need inspiration to take a trip to the zoo check out my other zoo post.
Awesome, we love going to the zoo.
Posted by: Amber | 09/24/2010 at 10:15 AM