Saskatoon Forestry Farm and Zoo 2012 - 1

This year has had a very nice start to the zoo trips. The hills are becoming a bit less challenging the more I visit, the plants are filling in and blooming and the zoo residents are growing in number.

We had to wait our turn a bit yesterday as buses of wild animals were set loose in the zoo. Their keepers had a very minimal hold on their reigns, if any. :)

This calf was one week old yesterday. Sorry for the blur due to fences. Just can't get close enough by wheelchair to shoot through the holes in the fences.

Some fine families of the cutest week old babies. How that little big horned sheep got up there at only eight days old, I'll never know.

A few days ago the Zoo Society reported on twitter that twin pygmy goats were born but as the mother was not very interested in them they were being kept under quarantine to be safe. Paprika's kid, pictured below, was doing just fine.

I normally keep to myself and think hard before I speak or write. Today I am choosing to write about something I almost spoke about yesterday.

As a friend and I made the round we regularly crossed paths with a mother with her young daughter. Their full sugar Sprite was disappearing fast from each of their bottles in the mid-morning hours. No, it wasn't water. i heard the hiss when they opened them. Whatever. Who am I to judge your choices for your child's nourishment and hydration?

We observed other impolite behaviours by both while among other zoo patrons who gave head shakes or dirty looks as these two carried on. It was when the mother encouraged the child to chase the peacock so she could pet it that I felt irritated to the point of wanting to speak up. They must have tried for five minutes to catch that poor bird.

The last thing I observed was the mother repeatedly throwing grain and shouting at the above pygmy goat to try to wake it up. I was ready to leave for the day so kept my trap shut.

It wasn't just the ignorant behaviour. Our poor zoo is crumbing in places. It needs some funding quite badly. The last thing it needs are fewer patrons because or other ignorant visitors or a lawsuit because a peacock harmed a child who was encouraged to torment it.

My apologies for the rant. Did it help anyone? Probably not. I just do not want one of my favourite, accessible, peaceful places any less inviting.

Tomorrow will be something far more beautiful than these words.