Meerkats are the Cutest! Pandas are boring…

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This Meerkat was a very curious creature when we visited him at the San Diego Zoo.   They have been made famous through the wildly popular show on The Discovery Channel, Meerkat Manor.   Meerkats live in colonies, and one or more meerkats always stand sentry.  As they watch over, the others go about foraging or playing.  If a predator is spotted, the sentry meerkat  gives a warning bark, and other members of the colony will run and hide in one of the many holes they have spread across their territory.  The San Diego Zoo has a huge exhibit, if you stop by, I am sure like me you will be mesmerized by these interesting animals.

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Some people find Panda’s interesting, but I honestly find them pretty boring.  Like this one, most just lay around and sleep.  Quite the life!


Ever been face to face with a Rattle Snake?

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Have you ever found yourself next to a Rattle Snake?  Last year while hiking in the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, I had the opportunity to find myself in that exact situation.   Torrey Pines Park is the home of our nation’s rarest pine tree – Pinus torreyana.  Once this tree covered a larger area, but the  fragile environment it requires now only exists here and on Santa Rosa Island off the coast near Santa Barbara.  As my wife and I walked down a trail leading to the ocean, which was completely obscured by an incoming fog bank off the coast, we suddenly heard a very loud buzz.  This was a sound I had never heard in my life, and immediately started my heart racing.  I jumped backwards and sprinted back up the trail.  Turning back, I pulled out my camera and took a few shots before he slithered off into the brush.  He was easily over six feet long and as wide as the business end of a baseball bat.