Day 3: Florida 2009-2-10

Well we made it to Florida. We stopped at the Jacksonville Zoo ( http://www.jaxzoo.org )which is just north of the city about 5 minutes from I-95. Barbara had a buy one get one free coupon so it only cost us $13.00 to get in. The first thing we wanted to see was the talk on Bald Eagles at noon. We had some time to kill so we got a chance to see the African Flamingoes, and a strange bird I think it was called a spoon billed egret. Then we walked over to where the eagles are and waited for the talk. It was not much of a talk but the person from the zoo explained that the pair of eagles they had both had an injury and they could no longer fly. This pair still mates but the handlers take any eggs away and replace them with fake eggs. They do this because of government regulations and due to the fact these eagles would not be able to teach any young how to fly and hunt. The eggs are destroyed and the shells given to Native Americans who are the only people who can have anything from eagles. We went to the other side of the zoo by train and went into the primate area. They had cute little squirrel monkeys, gorillas and a cousin of the chimpanzee called Pygmy Chimps or Bonobos. The next stop was to go feed the giraffes. That was great fun; the giraffe’s tongue is so long, and quick. When we went over to the Jaguar habitat the black jaguar was in the water trying to catch a fish while her sibling ( the two jaguars the zoo has are from the same litter) was trying to get her attention from the log that was over the water. The black jaguar kept diving under the water and trying to catch a fish, and these where pretty big fish, it was great fun to watch it. There where a few other animal areas along with the jaguars including a giant anteater. We where tiered by then so we got on the train and took it back to the main entrance and headed to our B&B, House on Cherry Street (http://www.houseoncherry.com ). We will be here for the two nights.