the globe rover

Nairobi, Kenya

One of our adventures in Nairobi was to visit The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust which was started by Dame Daphne Sheldrick in memory of her husband. The trust houses orphaned elephants that are found all over Africa for various reasons including losing their mothers, falling down wells and other manholes, or due to attacks by other animals.

On the way into the center there was a monkey sitting on top of the entrance sign. We were lucky enough to see several groups of monkeys (two varieties) wandering around the grounds. That mad my day already!

The day we visited there were 21 orphans at the center that we saw in two groups (first group was 9 orphans from 3 to 13 months and the second group was 10 orphans from 8 to 22 months). They live at the center for three years before being reintroduced to the wild. The youngest elephant we saw was Olkej (three months). We also saw another elephant that was attacked by hyenas and lost it’s tail and part of it’s ear. They are all very playful and love getting their milk by bottle and then rolling around in the mud. The keepers sleep with the orphans (in the wild they are kept warm at night by all the adults surrounding them) and feed them every three hours with human baby formula milk (cows milk is too fatty).

We were also lucky enough (sad though) to see a baby black rhino that had been orphaned and was living at the center. The other residents of the center are a group of warthogs that roam around and splash through the mud when the elephants are done.

Great experience and neat to see the little elephants up close and in person - inspiring organization!

Denver, CO

ABC.com news story:

“EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Employees Claim ‘Horrific’ Treatment of Primates at Lab”

Parker, Colorado

Anyone that knows me knows that I truly love wildlife and animals. So I have thoroughly enjoyed being back in Colorado where the wildlife is plentiful and can be seen daily. I have had fun seeing the deer roaming through the neighborhood here in Parker (including two fawns we saw last night) as well as seeing the many different animals along the trails (love the meerkats peeking out of their holes).

Occassionally there are animals that are not as “friendly” and pose a bit of a threat. There have been mountain lion spottings in the neighborhood which are not exactly welcome. It is understandable given that all this land was not that long ago full of nothing but trees and animals. As well, there are snakes seen quite often and usually around the trails (there were rattlesnakes on the bike trail when we rode yesterday).

After a great Sunday dinner (not a quite a roast unless you count the sun) with some friends in the neighborhood from England, I was heading to the house when just across the street we spotted two coyotes trotting about. We had heard they were around but I had yet to see them. A bit concerning given the number of dogs running around at any point in the adjoining houses and sidewalks. But again understandable given the recent ownership they had of this land.

Love the wildlife…just hope the non-friendly type keep to their territory!

Parker, CO

There are a lot of reasons that I was excited to get back to Colorado. One of which is the tremendous amount of outdoor activities close to anywhere in the Denver area. I’ve been back for less than a week and have already hit the outdoors.

One of my favorite summer activities here was mountain biking which I’ve been on hiatus from for the last two and a half years. So after a tune-up, some new biking shoes, new pedals (finally clipless), and a new saddle I was ready to hit the trails.

On my second ride today, I headed from the house out to the Cherry Creek Regional Trail and back for an hour and a half mostly trail ride. It was great stuff and nice to be exerting energy in the sunshine. And the best part was the nature that I encountered along the way.

The heartracer was the huge snake that was literally stretched across the entire trail (my nephew would have loved it). It took a bit before my heart quit racing and I was sure I was out of the way. I found out that it’s a bull snake and probably wouldn’t do anything but needless to say, it was a snake. A quick decision led me off the trail and into some growth to stay as far away from the snake as possible.

From there the animals got much cuter and included birds, bunnies (plenty of them along the side of the trails), and prairie dogs. I used to love seeing prairie dogs in Colorado and was so happy to see their little heads popping out of their holes. The last batch of animals I passed were horses and donkeys. There are plenty of farms just off Parker Road that I biked by. Great to see so much animal activity.

It’s great to be back and enjoying the great Colorado outdoors!

Parker, CO

There’s a new puppy around town bringing daily smiles to my life. The Anderson’s new dog, Sally, is adorable and brings fits of giggles to all. She joined her big brother Buddy who is a very well behaved lab.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love dogs and these two black labs are adorable. I’m so glad I have some dog company in the house (especially after getting used to having two dogs around and spending six weeks with my parents dogs)!

Primates that is.

I had the most wonderful breakfast ever today after deciding to join the Jungle Breakfast at the Singapore Zoo. It was worth every penny of the SD$15 entry plus SD$18 for the breakfast. And it wasn’t so fantastic because of the food.

The draw for me was the Orangutans due to my passion for primates. I had imagined that the Orangutans would be brought out and put in an area near us for us to observe from afar. But they were actually put on some tree branches at ground level about two ten feet from my table (a great couple from New Zealand and their daughter invited me to join them - thanks to Jody, Jot, and Teegan). And not only did the orangs stay there the entire breakfast, but we also got to go up and have our picture taken literally right next to them. We weren’t allowed to touch the orangs (this stopped some years ago due to the bacteria and infection that can spread so easily from humans to orangs) but we could feel their movements.

The stars of our breakfast were Binty and Banto, which were a mother and baby. They were amazing to watch and so well behaved (hard to believe they were wild animals). They were busy eating their fruit while all the humans were coming and going next to them to have their pictures taken. I was enthralled to say the least to be so close to such a fantastic animal. Talk about being a little kid - I think I beat out most of the little five years old today!

The Singapore Zoo has the only free-range Orangutan exhibit in the world. There is some controversy from Americans and other Western primatologists regarding the enclosure due to the “handling” of the Orangutans from the zoo. I spent a good bit of time with one of the senior zookeepers, Jackson, today picking his brain about the animals. His perspective is that the animals don’t do anything they don’t want to and wouldn’t naturally. The animals come down out of the trees at certain times for pictures and at bedtime. But if they don’t want to come down, then they don’t have to (an orang or two has been known to stay in the trees overnight without any food). As well, this zoo is a breeding zoo (they have had 33 orang births since the opening in 1974) and thus, these endangered animals are not released back into the wild.

No matter the opinion on the handling of the orangs, the Singapore Zoo provides a unique perspective and way to observe these beautiful creatures. 

The remainder of the zoo was quite good as well. The entire zoo feels very open and like a walk through the jungle and rainforests with a few footpaths and exhibits placed here and there. The zoo is heavy on primates (great for me) but also had some other interesting animals such as the Asian elephants (we watched the elephant bath in the morning), white tigers, pygmy hippos, and plenty of other “standard” zoo animals.

What a fantastic way to spend the day and a big thanks to the great and friendly zookeepers at Singapore Zoo!

Where else in the world they do eat their coat of arms?

According to a local Sydneysider, only in Australia. After our BridgeClimb, we were given a recommendation to go to The Australian Hotel in the Rocks for some gourmet pizza.

First three pizza options:

• Pepper Kangaroo
• BBQ Emu
• Salt Water Crocodile

Given that John and Michael had eaten Kangaroo the night before and we had a dinner cruise to come, we opted to share a half and half pizza with Emu and Croc. Experience is the key, right?

The BBQ Emu was quite good and tasted a bit like a barbequed beef pizza (the meat was sliced thinly and was tender and flavorful). On the other hand, I wasn’t a fan of the Salt Water Croc. The flavor was a bit fishy and the consistency chewy, which didn’t make for an enjoyable experience for my pallette. Chalk one up for another different food experience.

Thank goodness the Aussie’s don’t eat their Koalas!

Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia
Sunday, September 24th, 2006

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an affinity for animals and especially primates. So as I always do in a new city, I joined the Sydney Zoo and started to pay attention to their special events. Last night was one such event which was a unique and exciting time…I slept at the zoo! The event is called Roar and Snore and most nights during the season they allow 20-30 guests to camp out at the zoo and do some neat behind the scenes stuff. So a couple of friends from work and I packed up our overnight bags and headed to the zoo. Easy camping, an adults only night, and an adventure with the animals here we come!

We started the afternoon with Bedtime for Chimps (another Taronga Zoo Member event) which allowed us to go to the back of the exhibit to watch them be put up for the night. Amazing to get so close to 19 chimps ranging in age from 2 ½ to 59.

They are amazing and playful creatures and made us all smile as they ran around their den eating their last meal of the night and using the shredded paper to make their nests. The rest of the evening was spent touching and learning about different animals such as crocodiles, lizards, snakes, insects, wallabies (the one we played with was eight months old and great fun) and then a night tour through the zoo in the dark. Very cool to see the place after hours and get a glimpse of animal behaviour at night (and no kids running around screaming). Then this morning we had another animal visit with a very friendly koala and then another tour through the zoo before hours.

The most unique thing we got to do was go into the giraffe exhibit and feed the five big giraffes carrots! Their tongues are long and slimy but they are amazing animals.

It was such a fun and different way to spend a Sunday night/Monday morning and I feel so enriched having learned about animal conservations and the lengths the Taronga Zoo goes to in order to make the environments as close to the natural habitat as possible. Good stuff and a highly recommended event for animal lovers!

Bondi Beach, Sydney Australia

I went to the beach in Australia for the first time on Saturday. It was great…a Saturday at the end of September with warm weather and blue skies. And of course, Sydney is synonymous with water and beaches so I knew I needed to jump right in and get out there.

Not five minutes from the walk to the beach did we see helicopters flying suspiciously low. Sure enough we show up and there was a police helicopter circling, two jet skis ripping through the waters, and all the swimmers out of the water. Turns out there were between two and three sharks that had probably followed in a school of fish. Needless to say, I didn’t make it in the water but I’d like to think it was just because the water was so cold. It was an amazing day at the beach though. I could get used to this lifestyle….