Exploring Wildlife Up Close: My Ultimate Zoo Visit Experience
Introduction
Visits to the zoo are experiences that does not happen always. They are experiences that should be treasured and remembered always. Visit to the zoo are always accompanied by taking of photos and posting to social media. This is to help you treasure that moment at all time.
I still remember clearly the day i visited the zoo. I had good experiences that day and coupled with the fact that i went there with people that were explaining the animals we saw there, that made the visit even more memorable for me.
At the zoo, i saw a lot of animals that amazed me even some animals i have never seen around or in the television. I remember one of the animals that looked exactly like a small tiger and to my amazement, it was not really a tiger. In this article, i will be discussing on 3 of the animals that i saw during my visit to the zoo. The 3 animals amongst others are zebra, porcupine and tortoise.
Zebra
On that special day, i remember seeing a zebra. They were two in the zoo. I guess that is the male and the female zebra. Zebra is an animal that almost everyone has seen but that's not for me. For me, i can proudly say that that fateful day was the very first day that i saw and came very close to a zebra.
Zebras are like horse and we can say that they belong to the horse family. They are unique as well as their stripes. From my observation, no 2 zebras have exactly same stripe pattern. This characteristic makes them to be extremely unique.
Zebras have high speed and can run at the speed of 60 km per hour. This speed is more than the speed of a car that is running on rocky road. This speed that zebras possess help them to successfully run away from some of their predators. Some of the predators that normally attack zebras are lions are hyenas.
After i saw the zebra in the zoo, i had to make some research on zebras. Unlike human beings that have gestation period of 9 months, zebras' gestation period exceeds 9 months. Zebras' gestation period is between 12 to 13 months as the case may be.
New born baby of a zebra is called a foal. Zebras give birth like human being in terms of giving birth. That is to say that they give to a single foal at a time except in a case that they give birth to twins. Zebras can live up to 25 years or more in some cases.
Fig 1: Porcupine
Porcupine
I remember vividly that i saw a porcupine on that fateful day. I guess you know what a porcupine is. Porcupine is an animal that if it falls on you or you fall on it, in either way, you will still be the one that will get hurt. Porcupine is an animal that have sharp edges that looks like arrows and it can enter your body if you are careless with it.
These sharp edges are known as coat of quills. People actually thought that porcupines shot their quills when they are angry however, that's not true rather, it is the quills that easily detach from the body of the porcupine on its own. The quills on its body helps to protect it from predators.
In Africa, Porcupines are normally seen in savannahs and forests. They can survive in both cold and hot weather condition especially when there is enough vegetation around the area. Porcupines are herbivores. That means that they feed on vegetables and they need that to survive.
Unlike dogs that can give birth to up to 6 puppies at same time, that is not same with porcupines. Porcupines have low reproduction rate. That is to say that they can only give birth to one or two kids at same time.
A porcupine baby is called porcupette. You might be wondering why the quills does not affect the porcupines while giving birth to the porcupette. This is better the quills of a porcupette is very soft. It only hardens over time.
Depending on habitat quality, porcupines can live for several years before they die.
Fig 2: Tortoise
Tortoise
The picture above is the picture of a tortoise, probably the male and the female tortoise. When i was growing up, i was told that tortoise was one of the most cunning animals that ever lived.Tortoise are herbivores. That means that they eat grasses, fruits, leaves etc. They are solidary animals and can actually take their time to cover some distance.
Tortoise have a long life-span. Some species can live as long as 100 years.
Unlike other animals, tortoise lay eggs. The female tortoise normally dig am hole into the ground and lay the egg inside it and then cover it. Depending on the specie, the eggs hatch after some months.
Thank God for zoos and wildlife reserves else some of the species of tortoise would have been out of existence by now.
Because of the slow and steady way tortoise move, they can be used to symbolize patience and endurance in most Nigerian cultures. There are lots of folktales that was told us about tortoise when we were growing up. I will be writing one of the folktales below.
Folktale on Tortoise
I remember the folktale that i heard from my grandparent about tortoise. I remember the story that was told above tortoise where he changed his name from tortoise to all of you. He changed his name because the animal kingdom was meant to go for a meeting and food must be made available. He knows that once they are there, all of them will be called to come and carry their food.
Because of food and greed, tortoise changed his name to all of you. When it was time to go to meeting, the other animals helped him to climb to the height because the meeting was meant to happen on a height.
When all the animals helped him to the meeting place, he informed the animals that his name is now all of you. When it was time for food, the sharer said "All of you come and carry your food". This automatically made the food to be his alone since his name was all of you. This made the tortoise to eat the food alone and in return, that made the animal kingdom to be furious with him.
When it was time to go back after the meeting, the animal kingdom decided not to help him down the height. Since no one is willing to help tortoise down the cliff, tortoise requested that someone should him tell his wife to prepare a soft landing for him.
Instead of the person delivering the message, the animal told tortoises' wife the opposite and that is to prepare a rocky landing for him. On the day of the landing, the tortoise landed on the rocky landing and that cracked his shell.
From the folktale told to us, the story above shows exactly why the shell of the tortoise is cracked and the moral lesson of the story is for us not to be greedy. Greediness has its own consequences and for our own good, we should not be greedy for any reason.
Video 1: Tortoise video
The video above is the real time moment with the tortoise at the zoo. The video made me to clearly remember all that happened on that day. For me, my visit to the zoo was fun and worth it. The zoo visit was sponsored by my office and if given the opportunity, will love to repeat the experience again.
What do you think? Would you like to visit the zoo too? You can share your thoughts in the comment section.
0 Comments