Denver zoo visit

A few days ago, I went to the Denver Zoo and had so much fun! There were so many animals, and we took so many pictures. We stayed longer than mom expected! Like I said, there are so many pictures. But I will only show a few.

Rico the fossa

Sleeping maned wolf

Capybara!!!!!!! 

Bactran camel 

Mongolian horse 

Asian elephant 

Of course, we saw more animals than just that. We also saw lions, a tiger, lorries and lorikeets, mongooses, hyenas, an ostrich... oh, there were just so many!

Introducing...the water bear!

Want to know about the animal I think is awesome and cute? Like small animals? Then meet...the tardigrade!! This animal lives just ... everywhere.The tardigrade (also known as the water bear.) can survive basically everything! To find out more check out this site.

Just a few facts...

My dad sent this photo of a quetzal. Did you know that a large pterasaur was named after this bird?If you didn't know, it's called the Quetzalcoatl.If you think it's in snow, your wrong. That's really moss(this bird lives in central and south america.).

Boat Poem

I wrote this poem today. My mother had assigned me to write about what I would do if I had a boat.

If I had a boat, I'd sail far and wide,
Not afraid of the storm, or a great big tide.
First I'd got to the Philippines, crossing the Pacific,
'Cause it's where I was born; it must be terrific!
I would then head to Japan and China, too,
To see a cute panda, wild or in a zoo.
I would sail to the North Pole,
To see polar bears, and not to be cold,
I'd sail south down to Europe and Germany.
I could fit in there then buy some taffy.
When I leave there, I will continue south
To see a hammer-headed bat with a lip mouth.
I would sail west to Rio de Janeiro
To go to the Amazon with so many birds, oh!
I would sail through the Magellan Strait
To see some llamas, just at lleast eight.
Then to go west, all the way to Hawaii,
The most tropical state, and often say, "Ay!"
When I get back home, I 'll use a microscope
To see bacteria? A great big nope!
I would see a TARDIGRADE*!

(I spelled "lleast" with two "l"s on purpose, and I don't know that they really say "Ay!" in Hawaii.)


* See one of my newer posts.

Find a fossa

I never knew what the fossa was until today, when my mom found out that the Denver zoo has free days in November. On the zoo's website,we saw a picture of a fossa, and looked up what it was related to. It looked a bit like a fox, but it's actually related to cats.

     

Colossal Squid

For the second time, found in a fishing net! It's so big that just one half of the lens is as big as the palm of an adult's hand!! You can read all about it at this site. And here is a video of them dissecting it (warning - the video is over three hours long).

Peregrine falcons and tracks

When my family and I were hiking in the Paint Mines, I saw a peregrine falcon for the first time in the wild, and two sets of deer tracks. One of the sets is shown in the photo below. I wonder what the deer were doing at the time?    

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Pink slugs

This is unbelievable but...hot pink slugs have been discovered in Australia! Yes, very hard to believe, but it's true. And as an added fact, they can grow to be eight inches (20 cm) long. Definitely not average slug, right?    

An elephant painting elephants

Did you know that some elephants learn to paint? But they don't paint very good paintings. But one elephant that's called "Peter" paints portraits of Indian elephants and he uses elephant dung paper. Here's a picture of him:

Preserved pigment

Did you think that we'll never know what color the dinosaurs were? Think again! Scientists have found preserved pigment in fossilized skin from an ancient leatherback turtle,a mosasaur, and an ichthyosaur. (Okay, THOSE ancient animals are not dinosaurs but the time is close!) We now think that they were black and the leatherback had white bellies.