Tiny large creatures

The other weekend, I took the Fort Worth girls to the Fort Worth Zoo.  They had a lovely time—among the highlights were that we got to see a baby bonobo way up close, touch a live snake, feed cockatoos and parrots and other such brightly plumed birds, and eat ice cream with crocodiles, turtles, and strange fishes.  (The ice cream parlor shared a wall with the submarine level of the croc tank, so I'm not kidding—we were spending quality time with those crocs—but thankfully with glass between us.)

(And yes, dear linguists, I am a proponent of regularizing the plural form of the word "fish."  And "moose", and "deer", but those probably won't catch on anytime soon.)

And everyone knows the main reason I go to zoos.  And at the Fort Worth zoo, there are TWO zoo-born babies!

Read about Belle's birth

Read about Bowie's birth

We walked by the elephant habitat pretty early in the day, but it was rainy, so only one of the adult male elephants was out and about.  We didn't linger there long because the girls were anxious to see the snakes.

As the day went on, it looked like we weren't going to see the baby elephants.  I wasn't the only one sad about this—one of the girls was particularly excited to see the babies.  But then, just before we were planning to head home, I suggested we swing by the elephant habitat one last time to try to see the babies.  The girls heartily agreed, and so we made the quick walk back to the eles.

The timing was perfect—the babies were running around being absolutely adorable with their mothers and aunties!  As we watched them, the zookeepers came out and brought the family some branches for lunch.  The adults stripped the branches of their leaves (delicious).  We watched them eat for a good few minutes before going to get some food ourselves.

Look how teeny-tiny the babies are!  Bowie (I think the one on the left in this picture) was born in August, weighing 230 pounds.  And Belle (probably on the right) was born in July at 330 pounds.  Okey, so "teeny-tiny" is a relative term.... But look at the fuzz all over them—and their huge baby eyes!  Absolutely adorable.