Sunrise Surprise 10/27

The "Sunrise Surprise Stroll" is a behind-the-scenes tour at the Zoo. Each month is a new surprise, but we actually have the same tour three times per month. However, guests may only come once a month.

We took care of a few little things before the members arrived and dropped off a note in the children's zoo. I got to see the baby fossa, Isa, in his enclosure for the first time since he was teeny in the nursery and barely big enough to move on his own. He's getting so big!

Isa's mother rejected him as a baby, so the keepers are raising him to be an animal ambassador- an animal that connects with people to educate about conservation. He was on a platform level with my shoulders. I leaned in a little and told him I heard he was doing so good learning to walk on a leash, and I was proud of him. He didn't know me, so he kept coming over to sniff then backing away repeatedly, not sure about this new girl talking to him. He finally came over and sniffed my nose! It seemed like a big step for him, so I stepped back. I could tell he's really inquisitive and probably a happy handful. The picture shows Isa as a baby.

We began at the lemurs and Colubus monkeys in Bear Canyon and continued down to the gibbons. Everyone was out and very active, which is always cool. We walked up Cat Canyon and had three great viewings. The Persian leopard was right in the front of her enclosure in full view, which I've rarely seen. The female cougar was lounging close to the front of her enclosure as well, and Orson the jaguar was putting on his usual awesome display, walking right up front so everyone could really check him out. They're all incredible. I always love that no matter how big or what kind of cat, when they get playing, they all act like kitties.

We wrapped up in Hunte Amphitheater where the keepers brought out Jirra the kangaroo. It was only just this month that I even learned there were kangaroos at the Zoo. There are quite a few wallabies, and several tree kangaroos, but "regular" kangaroos are very challenging to keep on public exhibit. They can leap up to twelve feet high and up to twenty feet long in a single hop when they really get going, which can be thirty miles an hour. Jirra is a red kangaroo, though the red is only somewhat evident in her underfur. The males are much more red, called "red rovers" due to the distances they will travel. The females are more of a beautiful blue gray color, called "blue fliers" due to their speed.

Kangaroos have two different motions, hopping (saltation) and the five-legged walk, both involving their tail. They can't back up; the tail, which is pretty inflexible at the end, acts as a kickstand. When a baby kangaroo is born (joey), only the mouth and front legs are really developed. The mother licks a trail up to her pouch so the joey can follow the scent. It only takes between one and two minutes to make its' way into the pouch after it's born. It latches onto a teat, and there it stays while it continues to develop. A really incredible thing about kangaroos is that they can produce two entirely different formulas of milk from two different teats, one formulated for a newborn and one formulated for a still nursing older joey.

Cartoons always show the pouch as visible and going straight across a kangaroo's belly. Actually, you can't even tell where it is from even a couple feet away, because the muscles holding it closed are so elastic and keep it pulled tight. One of the keepers opened it a little so that we could see; it was more like the top of a drawstring bag and really interesting. Jirra came over during the talk and sniffed my shoe and pant leg, then she sniffed at my face. I breathed out just a little, and she checked it out, but she wasn't interested. I've been told (and have seen) that Jirra really loves coffee breath! I noticed today that her smell was a bit reminiscent of a koala but without the stinky part. She actually smells kind of nice. I could see that she's really soft, and it was a bit of a challenge to not try to pet her. =)

The word "kangaroo" has a kind of funny origin. When the English first arrived in Australia, they saw these odd hopping creatures unlike anything they'd ever encountered. They asked some people from an Aboriginal tribe, "What do you call these creatures?" The Aborigines replied, "Kangaroo." Later, it was discovered that "kangaroo" meant "I don't understand you." =) By that time, everyone was already using "kangaroo". "Jirra" is actually "kangaroo" in one Aboriginal dialect, hence her name.