What a beautiful day for a zoo trip!
Don't get me wrong, it was a HOT, eight hours--but surely we survived! All three LC cohorts were meeting at the zoo entrance early this morning, which I was quite pumped for. No rush hour traffic! Yay! Well, as I drive past the zoo exit daily on the freeway I always see a sign that reads, "Zoo parking full!" Well, this got me a little nervy so I decided to park and ride the max the one stop it takes to get to the zoo. When I arrived to the max station, I quickly realized I made the wrong choice. Did you know people use the max to commute? What? Who knew!? Well, needless to say there wasn't a single spot to be seen throughout the four levels of the parking garage. I was determined since, at this point, the hope of driving to the zoo had diminished with each tick of the clock. FINALLY, the heavens opened up and I was able to park in the last of all last parking spots: a compact. Well, no problem! I drive a little Ford Focus, I'm compact! uhhh huh.... [to be continued later]
I arrived at the zoo, where I started for my "chimp" group mates! Since all three cohorts haven't converged since that first orientation day, I guess the zoo seemed like the perfect time to integrate. My group, the chimps, quickly split into smaller sub groups that would each choose a specific focus (animal behavior, habits, or ancestry/evolution) and tour the zoo keeping that topic the main direction of conversation. I decided I was interested in animal behavior, and was joined by three other girls in my cohort. Two other members were from cohort 3. Anyway, we headed off to study the different animals traits. We were also required to incorporate art into the trip--so, we did contour sketches of all the animals from which the data was collected.
It was extremely interesting to walk the zoo with a specific focus, as opposed to aimlessly wandering taking time to view the animals and chuckle at the little kiddos smacking the glass panes. We found that all the animals had very similar repetitive behaviors. They would sway back and forth, keeping their feet stationary or pace a particular path back and forth. We wondered if they was natural behavior (perhaps indicating stress?) or primarily due to living in captivity? The zoo speaker who gave us a small presentation at the end of the day said they don't quite know why the animals do this. He assumes it's because many of the exhibits have recently been remodeled, meaning the animals have to readjust to the new habitats. This all makes great sense, expect...I feel like these are the same patterns you'd see on any given day!
We met with our Art, Culture and Creativity's professor at the giraffe exhibit where we became major road blocks in the path as she lead a lesson on contour drawing. We looked brilliant as we squinted one eye and put our pencils in front of our eye to measure lengths and angles. Boy, we were cool! Actually, I did end up with a drawing that I was quite pleased with. Jan, my art professor, even said it was "beautiful" and "striking!" I was ecstatic! Especially with her last remark, "You got it, Makenna! You captured it!" YES. darn tootin, I captured it!
Cara and Katie were also quite happy with their giraffe drawings!
James and Charlene [cohort 3 had a hat theme today, I'm not sure it was planned...]
After we left Africa, we headed over to make a quick stop in Asia to see the elephants. One elephant had an extremely intense behavior pattern, and swung his trunk back and forth--It was actually quite sad to watch. I didn't care for it so much, regardless of how cute it seemed at first glance.
"Eww! You smell bad, Momma!"
"oh yeah??"
"Oh dang. Foiled."
The polar bear exhibit also lead to an interesting conversation about their provided habitat. But they were sure playful and active today! Even in the 95 degree heat!
Cara sketching. Cohort 1=Pure Talent.
Well, the rest of the day was quite nice. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the Africa Cafe with more of our cohort, and sketched away all the lovely little (and not so little) animals. We laughed, we sneezed (dang allergies) and we observed.
zoo day= success.
That is... until I arrived back at the Max station.
But we'll save that story for later when the sunshine isn't waiting for me!
Until then, later gators :)
-Makenna
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