Yahoo, We're Going to the Zoo!

Tuesday was just too nice to stay home. It was one of those gorgeous Colorado autumn mornings -- clear, sunny, and crisp. We ditched school and went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We joined as members and had such a good time that we'll definitely go much more often! It's such a beautiful zoo and is built up against the mountain, so one gets quite a workout climbing up from one exhibit to the next.

Some pics ...

Giraffe with baby

Grey crowned crane

Meerkat

Zebra

Paige and Laura looking at some monkeys

Mountain lion

Grizzly bear

Amur tiger

Amur tiger again 

Laura with a cockatiel

Paige feeding a cockatiel

Emma holding a cockatiel on a seed stick

Alligators

Gyrfalcon

The last picture was not actually taken at the zoo. It was taken last night (Wednesday) at an Aiken Audubon Society meeting at the Division of Wildlife building in Colorado Springs. Two falconers (cadets from the Air Force Academy) brought over a 19-year-old gyrfalcon. Apparently gyrs rarely live beyond 12 years in the wild. At the AFA, they're fed, protected from predators, and given veterinary care at Fort Carson, so they can live two to three times the normal lifespan. They eat quails that are defrosted and then cut open; beak, legs, and wings are removed. 13 falcons live at the AFA, including three pure white gyrs, some peregrine falcons, and a few mixes of different breeds. The cadets went to Abu Dhabi to learn about falconry, where they were offered $250K for one of the white birds. However, they don't buy or sell birds. All birds they have are given to them. Apparently only 1% of gyrfalcons are white, and gyrs are the most rare of all falcons. The cadets handle the birds at AFA sporting events and display the birds before the games and at half-time. On one occasion, one bird, Ace, didn't return to his handler. He wasn't hungry, so he didn't bother and took off.  It was dark and gyrs' main predators are owls, so the cadets were getting anxious. A couple of cadets searched for him for three hours using a tracking device and were eventually able to lure him back (by that time Ace was getting hungry, so he deigned to return for food.) In the history of falconry at AFA, which started in 1959 -- the same year the academy opened -- only one bird has been lost (it returned to the wild.) The gyr was fairly small. Apparently hawks are larger, and eagles are larger again than hawks. One of the cadets told us that if an eagle were on a jess and leash, it could dislocate one's shoulder by trying to take off. They've had limited success breeding falcons at the AFA. They artificially inseminate some of them once a year, but it's rare for a hatchling to survive. However, one of their peregrine falcons, Aurora, recently had a daughter, Athena. Both like to nip, apparently, and frequently draw blood. The cadets complained that "Athena has turned into her mother." We'll have to go to an AFA football game some time to see the falcons in flight.