The Urban Pantheist

One of the most exciting things that happened when we zookeepers visited the St Louis Zoo (as part of our conference activities) was celebrity baby orangutan Ginger came close to the window!


She really hammed it up.


It's amusing to see people who work with animals for a living get all squealy and excited to see yet another animal. (I was squealing right along with everyone)

Little Joe flirts with the zoo guests.

Foreground to background: My closest zoo friend Kikipuff, my friend Jake who I knew before working at the zoo, and my friend Rachel. (and to the left, my friend Kambiri, a gorilla)

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Comparing primates. Not really fair--the prints are from hind limbs. Any guesses as to what animal it is?

Matching the gorgeous spring weather, the blue chickens are pretty and like to lie in the mulch.
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This is Nebuchadnezzar (we call her Nebbie) all curled up to protect and groom her twins, born about an hour before the picture was taken. Don't get too excited, I got exactly zero pictures of the babies. But the rest of the pictures are pretty good, and there's a video of a gorilla doing something interesting too.

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I wonder how long it's been since there was a dik-dik at the zoo?
( click for g'rillers! )

I should have a tag for Little Joe since he appears so often in this journal. Suffice it to say you can click the "gorillas" link below and see lots of Joe and his family. Joe is about to turn 20 years old, and is the largest gorilla at the Tropical Forest at over 420 lbs.

He was a lad of only 10 (but a large animal to be sure) when he became the most famous gorilla in New England when he briefly left the zoo. I'm enjoying telling guests who bring it up (there are many) that the event is now a decade in the past. A multi-million dollar redesign has ensured that no future exploits will occur.



Kambiri is the youngest gorilla in the exhibit, a female born in November of 2010. Here she's scaled a large fake fallen tree trunk in the exhibit, dangling about ten feet over the ground. Zookeepers watch helplessly and nervously as she tests the limits of her own agility.

I love this monkey, Ushindi, a ten year old mandrill.

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Okie is an 18 year old gorilla. I was watching him carry around this chair when to my surprise he plunked it down on its legs and sat in it. Everyone around said Awwww! because it was very cute to see this huge animal in this tiny chair. I was baffled that he seemed to know what a chair is for. Do chairs predate humanity?


This is Skippy, a red kangaroo. Can you see what she has in her pocket?


This was the joey's first public appearance! Welcome, baby!