Busch Gardens, part two

Look at this goddamned aardvark.
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Busch Gardens, part three

Meet Eva, a 53 year old retired circus hippo.

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3:00 snapshot #1744: Monday

Busch Gardens selfie with Dad and Andy.

( the last few BG photos )

Breaking the ice at the living seas

The 2014 AAZK Conference kicked off with an icebreaker at Epcot Center's aquarium, The Living Seas. A dimly lit aquarium full of intimidating strangers is not the ideal place to break the ice, in my opinion, but most people were quite friendly.
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3:00 snapshot #1745: Tuesday, PLUS: Mushrooms of Coronado Springs

Disney's Coronado Springs is a hotel and conference center complex composed of a dozen or so buildings surrounding an artificial lake. There are many plantings of palms and other exotic tropical plants, in well-maintained mulch bed. The week I was there the weather was hot and humid with almost daily downpours in the afternoon. I thought I might see some mushrooms. I was right.

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More Coronado Springs wildlife

Soon after we arrived someone asked "have you seen the alligator yet?" Wait, what? Suffice it to say we spent a lot of time looking in the water after that. Then I saw one. Then I saw one every day I was there. Turns out there are a number of small alligators in the lake, they are probably fed by hotel guests, and then they are removed when they get over 4 feet long.


I'd kind of like it if they left them in there to get huge, but that might be kind of dangerous, especially with all the kids running around the place.


The alligators' companions are large soft-shelled turtles--I suspect these are rescue animals given safe haven in the lake.

3:00 snapshot #1746: Wednesday with bonus zoo bloggers and Orlando wildlife.

This is what the actual conference looked like, in case you were wondering.


Hey look! Zoo bloggers aquaristlifeforme and ktsaurusr3x were both in attendance!


That night, Dad and Andy and I went into downtown Orlando where we ate and drank and played pool and I photographed some local wildlife. This American cockroach was just running along the sidewalk--it took some doing to get a clear shot. I go around the world convincing people I'm insane by crawling around on the ground taking pictures of bugs and mushrooms.

"Is there anyone here who knows how to safely catch and handle wild animals?"

Thursday morning I came down from my hotel room to some excitement around the swimming pool. It seems that a turtle from the lake wandered over and got stuck in there. Fortunately there happened to be over 300 people on grounds who are trained in the safe capture of wild animals.


Zookeepers: Compassion and leadership in action.

Zoo day, part one

Thursday was Zoo Day--the day that the conference delegates visit the host zoo. Here's a mob of zookeepers waiting to be let in Disney's Animal Kingdom.

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Zoo day, part two

Someone pointed out to me that Disney's Animal Kingdom is more of a theme park than a zoo. It's true--the park is divided into Asia and Africa (and dinosaur) sections with lots of cultural architecture and signs like this one. Just not much information about the animals. And most of the animals are a little hard to find.

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