Day 58 - Animal Planet.

Day 58 - A picture of your favorite animal.

My favorite animal is the..gorilla. And the giraffe. I can't really choose between the two. I never let Katie skip either of them when we visit the San Diego Zoo. I guess I'll start with the giraffe. The giraffe is the world's tallest mammal. Up to nineteen feet. Yao Ming, you have nothing on the giraffe. Their long necks help them eat leaves from tall trees, typically acacia trees. If only I could reach the top of a tree with little to no effort. That's where all the delicious, untouched food is at anyway. I think that alone would make it a lot easier to be a vegetarian. If giraffes need to, they can go for several days without water. Instead of drinking, giraffes stay hydrated by the moisture from leaves. And I never drink water. I would be totally happy with just eating leaves. No more having to remind myself to drink a glass of water before bed. Not to mention, I've always wanted to go to Africa. But if I was a giraffe, Katie would have to be a giraffe or I would live a lonely life.





The other animal I love is a gentle giant. At least that's how I like to think of them. My buddies. The largest of all the primates. I totally would have loved to be in one of their troops in boy scouts. They probably had so much more fun. Not that I didn't have any. Because I did. Life in the forest would be awesome. Like living in a huge restaurant and I love food! Fruits, vegetables, bananas and ficus leaves. So..ambrosial. And I love to travel. Gorilla's don't stay in the same place for more than one day. Every day, a new home. A new restaurant. Sadly, gorillas are endangered. Especially the silverback mountain gorilla. There are roughly 700 mountain gorillas remaining on Earth, and nearly half live in the forests of the Virunga mountains in central Africa. These gorillas live on the green, volcanic slopes of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo—areas that have seen much human violence from which the gorillas have not escaped unharmed. If I could hang out with either one of these animals for a day, a week, a few years..then I would. But only if they invited Katie too.

Katie's favorite animals are the timber wolf and the great white shark. I don't know why Katie thinks deadly animals are so cute. But she does. The timberwolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf, but that's not important. Katie loves wolves in general. Wolves live in packs and Katie loves that they're so family oriented. She also loves that they are monogamous. Just like us, wolves mate for life. Well, just like most of us. Wolves communicate by scent marking, vocalizations (including howling), facial expressions and body postures. Wolves are endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Today the eastern timber wolf survives in only three percent of its original home range in the U.S. In the northeast, they have been extinct for over one hundred years. Thanks to the reintroduction of wolves in 1995, Yellowstone is the most popular place to see wolves in their natural habitat. And we saw one.




Katie's other favorite animal is the great white shark. The largest of living sharks. Thanks to Jaws, I'm not too fond of the giant fish. Weighing in at more than 4,500 pounds and swimming at speeds of forty-three miles per hour. And I wouldn't want one as a mother. When a great white shark is born, along with up to a dozen siblings, it immediately swims away from its mother. Baby sharks are on their own right from the start, and their mother may see them only as prey. And they don't chew their food. But then again, neither does our dog, Jimi. As much as I don't like them because I'm scared of them, shark attacks on humans are rare. Really rare. However, most shark attacks on humans have occurred in the waters of the United States. And I wouldn't advise swimming or playing with great white sharks, tiger sharks, or bull sharks. Especially bull sharks.