Smithsonian National Zoo

On May 5, 2009 we went to the Smithsonian National Zoo


Here's a meerkat, keeping watch on her rock in the Small Mammal House. This exhibit hall is also home to LOTS of golden lion tamarins, giant elephant shrews, armadillos, lemurs, naked mole rats, and squirrel monkeys. There are so many golden lion tamarins at the zoo because they were "critically endangered." Thanks to the zoo's conservation program, they are now in the slightly more optimistic category of "endangered."


We got to hear a lecture about octopi by the keeper of this beautiful female octopus. He was obviously very enamored with this octopus and talked to us for a full half hour! There are also nautiluses in this exhibit area. The keeper told us that nautiluses live for about 12 years in the wild, but only 2-3 years in captivity (unlike most other captive animals, which tend to have longer lifespans). However, zoos use nautiluses to teach people about the death of coral reefs, so it's a tragic trade off: the nautiluses die earlier in captivity, but raise public awareness about the coral reefs.


We visited the Orangutan Think Tank, where scientists work with orangutans to study cognitive and learning behaviours, such as memory. The orangutans can travel on the O-Line, a series of ropes with which they can travel from the Think Tank to the Great Ape House. These ropes are outside and directly overhead the zoo walkways--sometimes you can see them traveling right over you!
Are orangutans risk takers or will they always go for a sure bet? (video)


LION! This guy roared REALLY loud while we were visiting.


Oddly enough, the zoo exhibit includes an audio exhibit in which small annoying children can press a button to hear lion roars. This poor lion could hear the roars, and kept answering back.


Another big kitty!


Just like a cat...always turning his back on us!


Turtles at the Turtle Pond! Oh, so cute!


Here's a spectacled bear, hanging out in his tree fort.


And here's Matthew, cheesing it up with the spectacled bear!


Now we enter the Amazonia Habitat, home to
all manner of bizarre-looking fish.
We like to call this guy the "bulgy brain fish."


Check out the size of this arapaima!
These guys go waaaay back in the timeline.


Very weird looking...


Just another pretty fish face in Amazonia!


We got to watch a training session with the seals.
This particular seal was very lazy, and was constantly
reprimanded by her keeper.


Hey look, can you spot the Tired Feet Mahri,
a very rare species, in the background?


Wow, hippos eat A LOT OF FOOD! The keeper just kept
throwing food into this hippo's mouth. We were
supposed to be watching the elephant training
session, but we got distracted by the giant mouth next door.


Here is one of the elephants, trying to compete with the hippo next door!


And of course, the highlight of our trip: the Asian river otters!


It started raining so we headed inside to the Great
Ape House. It was dinner time, so we got to watch the Western
Lowland Gorillas chow down on hay, leaves, and twigs.


Here's a Western Lowland Gorilla chillaxing in the corner. While this
picture may not show it, the Great Ape House is actually
very nice and spacious. They have many different rooms to
live in, and lots of trees and ropes to climb.


After the zoo, we tried to go out for drinks, but...

...it's impossible to find a decent happy hour in DC!
But we still had fun!

The zoo has tons of great live web cams; you can check them out here.