Bonnie and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park one day. We had already visited a mission and had a lovely lunch, but decided that it was too early to go home. Since Bonnie is a season
pass holder, the stop would not cost us anything but some time and the gas to get there. The Wild Animal Park is part the San Diego Zoo but is at another location and is designed to be a much different place. The habitats are more natural and the park covers a huge area. One thing that is the same is that both parks are incredibly hilly. You can't get from one place to another without climbing a steep hill. There is a tram that is like a safari and during the twenty minute ride we saw everything from cheetahs to zebras to rhinoceroses.
After the ride we walked through some of the areas of the park to see the lions, monkeys and other inhabitants. We weren't very organized with our visit and I started to get tired. I wasn't sure I even wanted to walk to the top of the hill to see the tigers, one of my favorite animals. We did it and were blessed with a view of the baby elephants at play. It was so much fun to watch the smallest one following the older one, trying to do all the same things and annoying the older baby all the while. They reminded me of my kids.When we climbed back down the hill we found a place to buy a drink and then thought about going home, but we realized he had not yet seen the gorillas. I love to watch the gorillas. They are so funny and have so many human-like attributes. I can usually recognize some personality traits in the gorillas that I identify with people I know.
We were watching the gorillas for awhile and another visitor mentioned the fact that the 'old gray' was not out. That was the gorilla she wanted to see. He made a brief appearance, managed to get most of the gorillas (I think all the females) to follow him behind a rock. I realized that the rock was hiding the entrance to their living space and that if you move toward the end of the habitat you can see what's going on behind the rock. The old gray had decided to hide back there along with several of the other gorillas.
Meanwhile, one of the male gorillas followed us. He seemed offended that we would stop looking at him to go look at the old guy. He stood right in front of us and posed. Yes, he posed. He made several poses that appeared as though he was a male model working a photo shoot. My sister took these pictures of our friend. My camera was nearly out of battery and I didn't bother to take any pictures. He seemed very disturbed by the fact that I took pictures of the old gray but none of him, so he kept posing.
We couldn't help but laugh. Every time he took a new pose we laughed a little harder. He got so mad about our attitude that he finally waved us away with his hand, he turned around in a huff and went to sulk. Yes, this was a gorilla, but I could have sworn I was seeing some drama queen acting a part. We laughed all the way home.
