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Penguins vs. Coyotes

This week's penguin: Sometimes you can tell from the hat, though.

Actual penguin fact: you can't tell the gender of a penguin (for sure) by looking.[1] You have to do a DNA test.



[1]at least, for African penguins and their close cousins, Magellanic and Humboldt. Not sure about the others and too lazy to do the research right now :-)

The Penguin House in the Central Park Zoo

They also went to see the penguins in the Penguin House. The Penguin House also housed some puffins but the almost everybody was crowded along the window to the arctic environment of the penguins.

A Day at the Central Park Zoo

It was another pleasant weekend in the city. The sun was shining and
the temperature was cool except if you were in the sun. TH wanted to
go to the Central Park Zoo, and so Jeannie and TH took the train to
5th Avenue, which is the closest stop to the CP Zoo.

 The CP Zoo was very popular today, and there was a long line for
tickets. Admission for each adult was $10.

 The CP Zoo is a small zoo with limited exhibits compared with the
famous Bronx Zoo. Regardless of size, the exhibits equalled to the
ones in the Bronx.

 Jeannie and TH entered the Rainforest exhibit where most of the birds
flew freely in a controlled humid environment with an abundant of lush
vegetation. Some birds were easy to spot because of their bright
colored plumage. Some were above your heads. In fact, a group pointed
out there was a bat "up there". Jeannie didn't want to look because
she feared droppings from above would hit her square in the eye or
worse, in the mouth. It was best that she moved on within the
rainforest exhibit. She was also getting warm and sweaty, too.

 They also went to see the penguins in the Penguin House. The Penguin
House also housed some puffins but the almost everybody was crowded
along the window to the arctic environment of the penguins.

 Some of the outdoor animal exhibits that Jeannie and TH saw were a
pair of red pandas and the elusive snow leopard.

 The CP Zoo is also home to the Polar Bear exhibit, and he was out
albeit slightly hidden but Jeannie and TH saw him huddled in a corner
below their feet taking a nap.

 And like the Bronx Zoo, the CP Zoo also had a seal pool where crowds
can watch them do tricks for food. There wasn't a scheduled appearance
but the seals were in the pool frolicking.

 Admission also included entrance into the Children's Zoo. The
Children's Zoo was really a feeding zoo of sheep, alpaca, and a couple
of potbelly pigs.

 Jeannie and TH had a very lovely time at the Central Park Zoo but
won't be returning to it anytime soon.

               

This week's penguin: How to control your elite penguin athletes.

(Human roller derby, if you're in/around Rochester, NY tonight, Aug 29)

This week's penguin: I've always wondered what happens when you do this...

Alarming News for Bird Lovers

***This is a repost from my blog at http://www.sameoleverywhere.com that I had to share...just to get the word out.***

My wife is always amazed at my love of birds. I usually have to correct her and explain that my love of birds only extends so far as birds of prey, although I do love watching just about any other bird out there. I think it's the twitchiness, or their ability to fly, or maybe the twitchiness. I am not sure what it is about our fine feathered friends that gets me going, but I like them. And that is where the fondness ends.

I am in no way, shape, or form interested in the mating habits of the red-breasted warbler, nor am I interested in how they tend their young. My fascination pretty much ends where that of a biologist begins. I'm like the woman driving the Ferrari to the PTA meeting; I don't care how it works, I just care that it's pretty. That's right, I “went” there. And given the southerly swing of my pecks in recent years, I'm apparently becoming more like that woman every year. But, back to the birds.

My wife, in the past, has even gone so far as to recommend that I “study” birds, but again, I am in no mood to discover the bird equivalent of a cloaca and bury my finger in their to determine the sex of a bird. It's just not my cup of tea. It doesn't “tickle” my fancy. As such, I was both shocked and disgusted today when I discovered one of the most disturbing facts known to man.

BIRDS HAVE BUTTS.

What follows may be too graphic for some of my readers, and parental guidance is suggested.

This morning my wife and I headed to the local zoo, as we have done in the past, to spend the morning checking in on some of the inmates and have a romp in the water feature at the children's zoo. Well, the last time we did this, Catchr had a blast watching the penguins swim by the glass and flip him the bird. So, we headed straight for their cellblock, only to find out the disgusting truth about these particular “animals”. It appears that they may, indeed, actually be little people in tuxedos that have an abnormal affinity for aquatic adventures.

In support of my conjecture, I give you exhibit A:

Now, I don't know about you, but I was always a little bit disgusted when bird layed a turd in my general vicinity. However, I never knew that they were, in fact, using human assholes to shit on all of our landmarks, monuments, cars, and in some unfortunate circumstances, us. I now believe that birds have an intelligence that is far beyond that which we could imagine. How does all that guano hit my car in the parking lot, and not a drop hit the tarmac? Why do seagulls always seem to fly directly overhead?

And why does that penguin at the zoo have a little human asshole poking out of his fine feathered tuxedo?

This week's penguin: Infinite is infinite...to a point.

This week's penguin: Does having hatchlings melt your brain? Or make you smarter?

Let's hear it for E flat minor!