Indianapolis, Day 4

Day 4 was Tuesday.  Probably the hottest day of the summer.  After camp (which included my FIL and I searching the campus for a lost Hugh), we headed to the Indianapolis Zoo.  This is a really nice mid-size zoo.  Lou's husband is on the board of directors and arranged a "Behind the Scenes" tour for all of us, as well as his daughter's friend and her nanny.

The main part of this tour was the orangutan house.  The zoo has been fundraising for a new primates exhibit, but somehow (I didn't hear the whole story), these furry guys became available before the new exhibit even has broken ground.  So a home was built for them "backstage".  It was a long hot walk to the exhibit, but worth it!

 This guy on the left is the dominant male.  His hormones will inhibit any other male from developing the hair growth and facial structure that makes him so fascinating.

 They like to drink from tetra boxes!  I think the big guy's name was Larry, and the keeper says he's "Lazy Larry" and she hand feeds him.  They are really smart, and can be trained to do things like give a urine sample on command (one of the ladies has diabetes).  The keepers do not go in the cages at all, so that's pretty fascinating!

One of the girls is named Lucy!  We couldn't go up to wire, but had to stay about 5 feet back.  The keepers have never seen any indication that these guys could be harmful, but you never know.  They are still animals.

After spending some time with these guys, we headed off to the dolphin show.  Man, the backstage areas of the zoo are very sunny!  It was SO hot!  We were already running low on water!  We could see and hear some bits of exhibits, but unfortunately we really didn't get to see much of the zoo.  The dolphin show was fun to watch, and the kids got to be "Junior Dolphin Trainers"!

 (My new camera has an "aquarium" setting!  I really wish I had had it for this trip!

Next up was a stop at the new tiger exhibit.  Nothing "behind the scenes" about this, except that we did have a tour guide.  I think there are two tigers here, but I could be wrong.  Although he looks skinny, he is actually perfect...tigers aren't supposed to be plump!

 Then we went into the bat exhibit.  Yawn.  LOL!  Watching them stretch while sleeping was exciting as that got!

We tried to look at other exhibits, but since Lou's family comes all the time, they weren't really into sightseeing in the hot weather, and wanted to get to the splash pad.  That was fun too, although I'm sure we could have gone to a park to do that, I would have liked to see more of the zoo, however, since all the adults were on the trip, and Rob and I were that night's chefs, we had to get home.  I'd highly recommend spending a day at the zoo if you ever visit Indianapolis!