Lancaster Diary
12/2/04
Hey folks!
A week from Monday I will be landing in Boston!!! Needless to say I
am so very excited. While I am having a blast here it will be so
nice to see my parents and to celebrate Christmas with them. I
return on Saturday the 7th, so it will be just enough time to cure
any lingering homesickness.
This past week we took a fieldtrip with out BIOL 371 (Conservation
and Management) class to the Blackpool zoo. Blackpool is about hour
drive southwest of Lancaster. We were given a talk by the
conservation and education manager of the zoo who showed us three
endangered species and discussed how they link to other species.
Through this she explained how species conservation is so important.
She also had examples of various stuffed and unstuffed skins, animal
heads, and illegal animal products confiscated at London Heathrow,
Liverpool docks, and other travel destinations. The amount of
objects was sickening. Some of these exhibits were even confiscated
within the past three months!
We were then allowed to go off and view the park keeping
conservation issues in our minds. Here, I will talk about my three
favorites species we saw: The Blue-tongued Skink, Asian Elephant,
and the Sea Lion.
The endangered Blue-tongued Skink is native of such areas as
Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Their normal habitat is
woodland edges or semi-deserts. They are dark greenish/black in
color with a turquoise to bright blue tongue and they range from
about 40 to 60 cm. long. They are really friendly creatures and it
was really neat to see a species up close that I had never heard of
or seen before.
Next were the Asian elephants. These huge creatures are smaller than
their African relatives with smaller ears, smaller in stature, and
less visible tusks. They are native to various Asian locations
including Vietnam, Cambodia, and Nepal. We got to see these huge
animals feed on hay and potatoes. Some of them strategically stepped
on the potatoes to mash them up before eating. They were trained
elephants and were quite good at their teachings. We saw a few of
their routines and it was really cute. They are treated very well at
this zoo, and training does not decrease the quality of their life.
I was really surprised at how smart these animals actually were.
Last but not least was my absolute favorite: the Sea Lion. Cute and
blubbery, while watching these fast swimmers I couldn’t help but
think of Adam Sandler’s best friend the Sea Lion in 50 First
Dates. There is a big difference in weight and length between
males and females of this species. Males are larger and can grow to
be over 8 feet and over 600 pounds while the females can grow to be
over 6 feet and over 200 pounds. They are the fastest swimming
aquatic carnivores, swimming up to 25 mph.
The zoo trip was great fun. This weekend we are going to Amsterdam,
which should be quite the interesting experience!!! Check back for
Erica’s update. See you all later!
Jen
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