Fluffbuff

  Yesterday we spent the day in Palm Desert for a special family celebration: Ben's parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Before getting in the 16-seat hummer limo (my first drive in a limo ever) with all of Ben's brothers and their families to go to the restaurant where Steve and Carol re-exchanged vows and new custom-made rings, we all went to The Living Desert, a local nature museum, or rather a zoo, that displays flora and fauna typical of various desert regions around the globe.

Greeting us at the entrance was a museum attendant holding a South African Scops owl. The little fellow has a genetic defect to his right eye and cannot be released in the wild, where he couldn't survive on his own. I like owls a lot. We have some around our house, but we only get to hear them.

The coati, native to the US and parts of Central America, is part of the raccoons family.

This little birdie was hard to spot among the dry plants, but was very obliging and kept still while we were taking pictures.

Cacti of all shapes and sizes, from Teddy Bear Chollas (because they look fluffy from a distance)…

to giant cacti …

to purple cacti…

to round cacti.

The bright flowers of the desert.

I enjoyed watching a family of meerkats for a while. One was standing guard, or so it seemed, while three or four others were digging in the sand.

In the African section, a small herd of antelopes was grazing in what looked like a desert patch with no grazable food. A few pumpkins scattered around provided entertainment for them. This antelope kept charging a pumpkin as if it were an adversary.

This serval looked rather forlorn in his small enclosure. The sign outside the cage explained that he used to be domesticated and grew accostumed to small spaces and uncomfortable in spacious environments. He also has some physical problems that affect his capability to deal with what would be considered his natural habitat. I am glad for the explanation, because my first reaction was one of disbelief and anger at the size of the enclosure for such a large size animal.

An explanation of age determination based on horn rings.

Two bat-eared foxes taking a nap.

Two Abyssinian Ground Hornbills

and some African wild dogs taking a nap.

On our way out, the Scops owl was gone and a new attendant was showing an Australian bearded dragon.

Reptiles are cool, especially those with legs.