Dr. Rhyolite

I WENT TO A BIG ZOO THIS WEEKEND!!! AND I TOOK SOME PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT LULZ.

It was great because those of you who know the real me know I have always loved zoos and even spent my childhood summers doing book reports on "Zoobooks" FOR FUN. Yes, I had friends, so that's not really the issue.

Unfortunately, I was very disappointed that one of the best zoos in the country had absolutely no Lemur troop. Again, those of you who know me know that Lemurs are what I dream about at night. So much so that if my art and archaeological conservation career doesn't pan out I'll probably head down the line as a primatologist.

Anywhoo, my disappointment was quickly muffled when I saw they had Bonobos. I like to think of Bonobos as the chimpanzees', smarter, kinder, and prettier cousin. These guys share over 98% of our DNA AND they have the capability (if worked with extensively) to use a lexigram to communicate AND EVEN LEARN TO MAKE FIRE. Plus they're too busy having sex and loving each other to attack and kill. (well, unless you're a smaller species of primate.) Which means I don't know if there has been a real problem with these guys ever attacking a trainer or zoo keeper- unless they're abused, because these guys can rip your arms off if they wanted too.

ANYWAY I DIGRESS,

Here are the photos:

This was a mama Bonobo. She recently had her third baby about a week ago and is sheilding her newborn from the eyes of onlookers. She has lost a lot of hair which can mean anything from stress to natural disease. I don't really know what it was caused by in her case.

This is another mama Bonobo, only her two children (about a year and some change apart it looked like) were mobile and exploring.

This is the older of the two babies. Its very hard to get a photo of either one because they're constantly moving and playing- being the true primate children they are.