ZooParc de Beauval

(This deserves an entire post dedicated to itself. It was such a fantastic adventure.)

The next day was the best day so far. Sam and I went to the Zoological Park de Beauval. It is so far one of the best zoos I have ever been too. The animals are all so happy and constantly having babies. We got there at about 10am and didn't leave until 7pm that evening. Our bodies were hurting, but it was worth it.

Of course there were critters we had seen before, but still just as happy to see them again; especially in France!

We got to see a spectacle show with birds of prey followed by a show with sea lions. The birds were interesting.

It started with smaller birds of prey and gradually worked up to larger birds of prey. The birds would fly over from one trained person to another by a subtle flick of the hand. The birds would swoop low into the audience, not close enough to touch but close enough to make the audience scream and cry in terror and joy.

Some birds were having a rough day and didn't want to participate in the swooping, so occasionally they would ignore their handlers and just wait until they were good and ready. The handlers were not irked in the slightest by this, which I really liked. It seemed that the general consensus was, “I won't make you do this show, but I sure would like it if you did.”

There was one bird that really wanted to stretch his wings, so he flew around the “arena” in circles, landing whenever he felt like it. The handlers didn't mind! They tried a couple times to get him to come back, but they weren't panicked by it in the slightest. It was like everyone understood that this is just sometimes what happens. And that is that.

The same things sometimes occurred with the sea lions. A couple were supposed to jump through a hoop, and they just didn't. Either they missed or didn't feel like jumping through the hoop, but the handlers loved on them anyway and thanked them for trying.

I've never seen a spectacle show before, but I always assumed they were terrible things where the critters are manipulated by use of fear. This was not the case.

Sam and I enjoyed many of the critters there. Sam saw a capybara for the first time in the flesh, not just through the interwebs, as well as the ever-funny looking mara. I got to see an American bald eagle. We both saw, for the first time, what a hyena looked like in person (a big big BIG dog!) as well as what happened when you put an entire crochety group of hyenas in a small cage together because their much-larger enclosure was being worked on. I am not squeamish when it comes to blood, but I was quite horrified by the amount I saw. I was terribly concerned for the hyena that was being beaten and bitten, but all blood and gore was coming from his shoulders and not any vital part of the body. I assume it was some family dispute—the same kind that occurs when you go on a road trip, and its been five hours on the road, and all you want is that your brother should stop messing with you, and so you snap and all hell breaks loose.

I loved seeing the meerkats, although they made me miss my babies terribly. There was a little gap I found where they were able to stick their very long claws through and scrape the same way the ferrets will fruitlessly claw at a closed door. I touched one of their long nails and wanted to wiggle my finger in further to touch their noses. But I had to remind myself that their teeth were probably much sharper than MoMo's, and I had to remind myself that I did not actually enjoy it when MoMo or Rudyard bit me—it was just something they did.

The porcupines were also fantastic. They were snuffling around, acting like bunnies or pigs with enormously quilled armor. The ledge for their area was not terribly high and I was able to sit on it and lean in some. I really wanted to reach in a grab a quill they had shed but knew better. I'm not THAT crazy, although this trip is sure making me sound like a nutter.

The park was also filled up with ducks. Everywhere there were ducks ducks ducks. Sometimes we were followed.

We visited the Great Apes.

The silverback gorilla was irritated with everyone.

The alpha chimp was feeling like a no-nonsense fellow.

But the alpha orangutan was very interested in Sam's backpack. I was trying to get a picture of him resting but couldn't with the current lens, so Sam and I sat down infront of the glass to switch out the lens. Papa Orangutan gets up suddenly (slowly, but still suddenly and with interest) and heads over our way. He plants himself in front of us, directly on the other side of the glass and presses his face against the glass. We see him of course and continue switching out the lenses, but very slowly. He watches us with intense interest. Once we are done with Sam's bookbag, Papa Orangutan stands up, collects some hay, and makes himself a pillow-bed in the corner.

We stayed with the orangutans for a while. There was a new baby who was learning all the things babies learn when they are growing up. Eventually, we even got to see Momma Orangutan put Baby to bed. It was awesome.

One of the last things we went to was the Nursery (for birds). Sam coaxed a bird to jump on his hand (I say coaxed, but really the bird just hopped onto Sam's hand without dispute and shimmied on up his arm to his shoulder). After that, we all got to try out the bird. It was very well behaved, better than most pet-store birds I have met.

When we were done walking about the zoo and revisiting all of our favorites, we ran into the Zoo's Boutique. I hunted high and low for any merchandise resembling a capybara or mara, but alas. The zoo's boutique was mostly Animal Cracker Animals—lions, tigers, elephants, zebras. There were some sea lions and parrots, and even a few tapirs. But no capybara. I contemplated purchasing a meerkat but decided the one item they had that was a meerkat was too ugly. Plus it was a figurine. I was looking for something more like a plushie, something that could hang out with my stuffed otter, my ferret puppet, and my black footed ferret.

When we got home I was ready to fall asleep and never wake up.

For Your Supreme Enjoyment, Here Are Some Animal Pictures:

An agouti, eating a coconut.

 

 Gorilla Mommy with her baby

And the ever-grumpy gorilla daddy

 

Capybara feeding time

 Lemur, looking for some noms

 Red lemur who's favorite past-time is sun bathing

 Mara, a type of Cavy and relative of the Capybara

 Rocking Penguins

 Resting porcupine

 The grande brown bear, something foreign to these parts of the world

 White tiger mom

 Sea lion resting after its vigorous show

 Manatee coming up for air; another creature incredibly foreign to this part of the world

 The 'Roo Family

 The meerkats made me mega-happy

 OLIPHANTS!

 Chimpanzees

 Orangutans

 Pygmy Marmoset

This guys followed us around a lot, begging for food. We didn't give him any, but we sure appreciated the company.