Rheas, Peccaries, and Gibbons Oh My!

Cotton-top Tamarin

    Sequoia Park Zoo has been around for 104 years making it the oldest zoo in California. It was never an ambitious zoo but always kept a small-scale operation afloat to educate and inspire the citizens of Eureka to have a reverence for wildlife. It's current stars are probably the Spider Monkeys and the Gibbons, who are both ham-bones that relish the attention. The Red Pandas are the newest addition to the family and I'm usually most eager to get to their display, however, I almost always linger by the adorable Cotton-top Tamarins, who knock inquisitively on the glass and stare into your eyes unabashedly.

The Cotton-top Tamarins remind me of little old men, perhaps because of the Albert Einstein fros, but what is unique about these New World monkeys is their naked faces which eerily resemble our own.

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There is a male and female Rhea which guard a nest of infertile eggs. These flightless birds look like prehistoric raptors, especially when they run.

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If you peer carefully into the trees as you pass, gray foxes may be found curled comfortably, twelve feet off the ground. Beneath is a lonely black bear named Rosemary with red eyes and tufts of gray fur. She sleeps the day away and yawns during waking hours.

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The new habitat that has been under construction for a year is finally open with running waterfalls and flamingos galore.

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And finally the Red Pandas...

Here is one of the two, snoozing away an afternoon in the redwood forest.

The Red Panda's broad teeth and strong jaws allow for it to enjoy a hardy diet of bamboo. These guys are usually munching on some as you pass by.

Red pandas use their long, bushy tails to balance when they're in trees.

The backdrop for the Red Panda preserve is the 70-acre Sequoia Park.

Casually strolling from its hut into a patch of sunlight, the red panda stretches its legs.