We are back from our trip to San Diego. Neither David, Miss Leyba nor I had visited San Diego before and we all enjoyed our trip immensely.
One of the main highlights? Four days spent at the San Diego Zoo.
This was my favorite moment from our zoo excursions:
Video: Play time at the zoo from Carrie on Vimeo.
Meet Tutapenda, a two year old Bonobo (more here) who lives at the zoo and is just three months older than Miss Leyba.
Miss Leyba and Tutapenda played like this for about 20 minutes. Benobos are among the most endangered of the primates and I believe that this experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It certainly was one of the most remarkable events of my life and I believe you can hear the emotion in my voice (I was definitely tearing up during this interchange). For those of you who don’t know, my undergraduate degree is in biology and I’ve had a lifelong interest in Great Apes. So much so that I wrote my thesis in college on orangutan rehabilitation and, yes, I was choked up at that exhibit at the zoo too.
Bonobos are considered our closest living relatives (genetically) and I think it’s clear that developmentally Miss Leyba and this little guy are very similar. Thankfully, she doesn’t climb twenty foot tall trees (yet!). That would be too much for this Mama to take at this stage in life.
More on our trip coming soon…
oh my goodness, i just went to the national zoo last weekend with a 2 yr old as well, and had the exact same experience (although with a meerkat, not a bonobo)..! the same type of exhibit set up, and the meerkat spent 20 minutes running back and forth playing w/my friend’s 2 year old (who spent the entire time squealing too). adorable!
too cute!
That is so great!!
The San Diego Zoo is such a fabulous zoo. At least it was a long time ago when I was there!