Since we had already consumed our annual portion of turkey and mashed potatoes at a friend's house the previous weekend, we decided to spend Thanksgiving Day at the Zoo downtown. We have visited more than our fair share of zoos in recent years, and even though The Zookeeper aka Milan is going through a dinosaur phase right now, he was still very excited to go to the zoo. I was excited to see so many free-roaming rodents wandering around the zoo. Okay, not so much excited as confused. What are all these strange South American rodents? Here is the scoop:
There were dozens of these cute little guys all around the zoo and they are very tame. You can hand feed them little pellets of food. They are from Patagonia and are called Mara or Patagonian Hare. A gentle deer-like rat.
Look, Mom and Beth, he has your double-jointed elbows!
These were wandering around everywhere too - a coipo or coypu or nutria or giant water rat.
Apparently they have orange teeth but I didn't get close enough to check.
And then of course the beloved capybara (carpincho in Spanish). Milan was obsessed with the pair that lived in the National Zoo in DC. We knew them by name and visited them on weekly basis. He doesn't remember that now and I was much more excted to see two dozen capybaras in this zoo than he was.
The largest living rodent! These stay in their enclosure, not allowed to wander freely. If they did I would take one home.
What is with all the rodents in South America? Since we are all about pre-historic plants and animals in our house these days, I had to look it up. According to the UC Berkley Museum of Paleontology, "...rodents show perhaps their greatest diversity of form in South America, which was an isolated continent for much of the Cenozoic." So here we are, in the land of giant rats.
The next day we took a long bike ride out into the countryside. We didn't see any rodents, but we did see a real gaucho (cowboy) riding his horse through one of the small towns. That made the hot sweaty dusty ride worth it!
No, this is not the gaucho! Milan did great sitting in this seat for two 2-hour stretches!
We took the train home for the last 10km - here Milan is nursing from Tim's camel pack!
The rest of the weekend we spent in the pool trying to cool off. And shopping for fans and screens to try to cool the house off. And Christmas decorations. Because it is almost Summer/Christmas! I am so confused.
Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!
2 comments:
Nice post and pics! I didn't know that South America boasted and unusually large and diverse rodent population. I only knew about the fried Andean Cuy. Tasty little rodent. -V
Fabulous post -- you almost seem closer now! I must say I could totally go for some of your heat! I'm starting to get really, really cold.
I think I would prefer the challenge of getting ready for Christmas in warmth; chestnuts roasting on the sidewalk, jack frost nosed right on outta here . . .yada, yada. Glad you're having such a great time, and feel free to corner the market on rodents! Bother dinosaur boy for me and give loves to Tim! Happy Holidays!
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