SZ Tale 14

Zoo was different today because decided to do a biodome tour instead as I thought I'm on duty alone. However another docent came along, except we still decided to do tour haha (less preparation, more impromptu).

It was rainy though so less crowd. I met a lovely family of 4 from London and wife from NZ. The eldest boy had just done a rainforest project thus seeing the biodome (replicate of a rainforest) is an awesome experience for him. Pointed to them the tree kangaroo, mouse deers and lemurs. Still remember the lemur family pose - the 4 of them will huddle together on this particular branch. They did that again with tail dangling from branch tempting the boy to grab it. Of course he is refrained from doing so. Oh they also caught the lemur shitting haha. Then when one of the lemur was above me, the little boy “warned” me (Aww so sweet!).

They asked about the feeding habits for sting ray. (Wiki says "Stingrays feed primarily on mollusks, crustaceans, and occasionally on small fish.")

Last stop was the mangrove. The little girl was telling me how she got stung by a spiderfish in Italy (and freaked her mother) and how her brother got stung by a jellyfish. Haha they do travelled a lot from what I gathered.

One of the sloths was pretty active today as it was found in different spots at different times (i.e. it was exploring about). The female sloth and baby only came out during feeding time. So were the mousedeers. Unfortunately my camera seems to be unable to take a good photo of these. Manaaged to take the Red Lory though... (another active creature)



Animals not in action include the white-saki monkey (in the cage) and the butterflies (due to the droplets). Sadly….

Killer animals

Source: Australian's Women Weekly May 2008

The 10 top threats
1 Mosquitoes - up to 3 million people a year through malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever
2 Snakes - 125,000 deaths a year
3 Scorpions - paralyse prey by pumping venom through the stinger in their tails, causing 2000 fatalities a year
4 Big cats - e.g. Lions are responsible for 800 deaths a year
5 Crocodiles - these prehistoric creatures strike prey at speed, clamping their jaws onto the victim before performing a disorientating death roll, killing about 800 people a year
6 Elephants - weoghing up to seven tonnes, this herbivore kills around 500 people a year
7 Hippopotami - kill 100 to 150 people a year. They can outpace a human on land, and are also known to upturn boats and canoes
8 Box Jellyfish - sting can kill human within minutes. Causes an estimated 100 fatalities a year
9 Shark - of the 360 species of shark, only four (tiger, great white, whitetip and bull) will attack humans. They cause around 100 deaths a year
10 Bears - cause 5 to 10 fatalities each year, but the number of attacks are on the rise due to the continued destruction of their natural habitat

Wonder how's the white tiger in the zoo now...

And I wonder if human is considered in the list, what position will it be?