The Lion Sleeps Tonight

C and I had a different sort of adventure last night.  We spent the night at a sleepover at the Riverbank Zoo (Columbia, SC) with his Cub Scout Pack.  Fortunately, being mid-January, we slept in the education bldg rather than outside.  With 78 in the group, including parents and some siblings, many with large air matresses, we pretty well maxed out the floor space in the bldg.  They had pads we could use so we were comfortable enough.  Even with be treated to a symphony of snoring all night long...  Most likely from the male homo sapiens rather than the more exotic creatures of the wild.

We were treated to 4 tours and a night hike.  The first tour was of the commissary where we were shown where the food is prepared for the all the animals.  Each animal has a card describing what food they eat each day of the week.  We saw the refrigerators and freezers where it is all kept.  Interestingly, the most difficult animals to prepare for are the birds.  There are so many species with varying diets and they must mix the foods together for them in minute amounts as birds don't eat much.  In contrast, the delivery chart showed that elephant food is delivered daily because the 5 or so elephants eat so much. 

The second stop was the hyenas.  We went through the staff enterance to see them in their cages.  The keeper had a brush to rub them so they acted like dogs or cats getting a scratch.  The keeper got them to "laugh."  It was a strange, deep sound that really didn't sound like a laugh (though it had a rhythm like a laugh) but it made us laugh.  Then we went back for a snack:  a small bowl of popcorn and probably the worst hot chocolate I've ever had.  Those who got the lemonaide said it wasn't any better.  Perhaps we should have snacked at the animal commissary...

The third and fourth tours were of the reptile and bird bldgs.  We stayed in the public areas of these bldgs and saw only parts of the bldg.  And the night lights were on so you couldn't see much in many of the exhibits.  Most of what we got out of those tours was the info from the guides.

The highlight of the evening for me was the night hike.  We walked around to many of the large animal enclosures to see which ones were out.  The guides had spotlights.  We got to see ostriches, zebras, several of the small monkeys and cats, the tiger was out prancing around, the lions were sleeping outside and seemed slightly perturbed at having spotlights on them.  But then, lions usually look slightly perturbed.  And I would be perturbed if my sleep were interrupted by a spotlight and dozens of chattering Cub Scouts.  The guide said that more animals were out than on a usual night.  It was a good night for a walk; it was cold but not frigid.  I brought our knit hats but we didn't need them and our hands were fine in our pockets w/o gloves.

In the morning, we all went to see the tiger, who again was strutting around, showing off.  Because the tiger always seemed to appear on cue, we thought we might be at Disney.  But he didn't sing.  The monkeys were very active and two birds (the kukaberra and something else) we screeching at each other and everyone was amused by them.  We had breakfast and then most of C's den walked around the zoo together, seeing many of the animals we hadn't seen the night before.  C would get very excited, running on the next exhibit and then calling for us to come on to see what he found.  He also like to feed the giraffes.  We got to see the penguins being fed.

I had never thought of a sleepover at the zoo and thought it was a cool idea when we got the email invting us to go.  It was as much fun as we had hoped.