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stoutfellowOne of my favorite books, when I was a kid, was a picture book displaying and briefly describing a range of exotic animals. Through that book, I was introduced to the anoa, the babirusa, the chevrotain, and a host of others, and when I go to a zoo I always keep an eye out for the animals from that book - at least, the ones that I remember. (I still recall my first sight of a chevrotain, at the San Diego Zoo.)
And so it always startles me - unjustly, I admit - to run into an educated adult who isn't familiar with those critters. One of the bloggers at the Volokh Conspiracy has just become acquainted with the coati... There's an exhibit of coatis at... it might be the San Diego Zoo again, but I think it's one of the zoos around Tucson, probably the Sonora Desert Museum. They are delightful creatures, almost as much fun to watch as prairie dogs or meerkats.
How can you get past the age of, say, thirty, and not know coatis? (Don't hit me.)
And so it always startles me - unjustly, I admit - to run into an educated adult who isn't familiar with those critters. One of the bloggers at the Volokh Conspiracy has just become acquainted with the coati... There's an exhibit of coatis at... it might be the San Diego Zoo again, but I think it's one of the zoos around Tucson, probably the Sonora Desert Museum. They are delightful creatures, almost as much fun to watch as prairie dogs or meerkats.
How can you get past the age of, say, thirty, and not know coatis? (Don't hit me.)
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Date: 2006-06-08 08:33 pm (UTC)I didn't learn about meerkats until reading an Andre Norton novel; now they're all over LJ. :) [Maybe I should hunt that book up again; I've been several people since then. It's always interesting to see how the books hold up over time. Fortunately, Andre's very reliable that way.]