dolphins_log

Juli and I spent the day at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium yesterday. Wow! It's been a few years for us. The PDZA is really getting upscale.

THey have 2 Tigers now, in some very nice exhibits.

gilmorelion may be familiar with Java, the male. Java just came over from Denver. I don't have any pictures of Java prepared for posting, but I do have some info. Apparently Java has lived indoors all of his life. He DOES NOT LIKE RAIN!!! He just experienced snow this winter. Snow is right out!.

Currently Java and Jaya, the female, have been kept separate. The keepers have been trading their enclosures so they can get to know each other's smell.

Jaya was born in Seattle at the Woodland Park Zoo on December 16, 2002. She is 6 years old and is a svelte 204 pounds. She likes walks in the rain, playing with empty beer kegs in the swimming pool, and she just experienced snow for the first time. She loves it!
She likes men who are energetic, playfull, and enjoy sunlight swims.

The polar bears were in fine form.

My pictures of the belugas didn't turn out very well, but here are some otters.

I learned something I did not know about otters. There are two different subspecies of sea otter. There is the Northern Population that ranges throughout Alaska and down into Puget Sound. The two in the photo are Northern. Then there is the Southern Population that ranges from mid to Southern Oregon down into Mexico. There is a bit of a gap between the two on the Southern Washington / Northern Oregon coasts. So far there hasn't been any evidence of interbreeding even though there are two Southern in this display as well.