"Time is making fools of us again."

Another week has raced by and I don't even know how time could fly so fast.

Ellie is still at the intern house, and is doing ok.

Little Maximus left for San Diego yesterday, and we are all a little sad. He is in good hands and will go on to be an ambassador for his species at his new facility. We are so proud of him!

In other news, Tsavo and Enzi got to meet face-to-face with their new girlfriends as their two prides shared an enclosure on Monday for the first time. Love was in the air, but the boys aren't quite sure what to do. Watching the whole thing was like being a chaparone at a middle school dance. Boys on one side, girls on the other. You could almost hear Enzi asking his brother, "Do you think she likes me? Should I go talk to her?". Tsavo was not a very supportive brother. In fact, I think he was a little jealous. Everytime Enzi would slowly approach one of the girls, Tsavo would get all up in their faves like "HI I'M TSAVO AND I LIKE WARM HUGS!"  Needless to say the boys have different approaches to women. Tsavo may be more dominant, but who can resist a handsome, sweet, gentle lion?

Enzi's approach: "La la la, you can love me if you want to.... Oh, no? Ok, I'll go over here..."

Tsavo's approach: "YOU WILL LOVE ME NOOWWWWWWW!!!"

The girls were initially a little off put by this, more abrasive approach, but by the second day, Mtai was rubbing all over him. Unfortunately he didn't understand what this meant so he and his brother mounted each other instead. Sigh. They'll figure it out one day. They just need to let each other be for a bit. 

I don't have any good pictures of the lion intros, but one of our docent/volunteers is a great photographer and got some nice shots. Depending on privacy settings, you can see her photos on Facebook (she tagged me in a handful of Maximus feeding photos, and they are in the same album): Sheilah Forbes Swanson. 

Last Saturday we celebrated Bear Awareness week with an event called Teddy Bear Picnic. This consisted of booths where children could bring in their damaged teddy bears for a check up and repair (we had docents with stethoscopes and sewing kits at the ready), among other fun crafty bear-themed activities, and a chance to "feed the bears". Kids were allowed to decorate a paper bag, which we filled with bear food (fruit, nuts, donuts, etc), and we piled families into the encounter vehicles and took them out for a tour of the bear areas (you have to drive through most of the park to get there so its like having a personal tour guide of Wildlife Safari). Once we get to the brown bear drive through, the kids were allowed to toss the sack lunches into the bear enclosure, thereby scatter feeding the bears while simultaneously providing enrichment. Hence, teddy bear picnic! I think the whole day was a huge success, but boy was I tired of talking by the end of it. At one point, I was sitting in the dome (where the crafts and bear first aid was) explaining some bear artifacts to people, when a little blonde girl from my last tour comes up and tries to sit on the wall next to me. She was around 3 years old, and too short to easily climb up on the wall, so this didn't really work out, but she managed to get up, and kept scooting closer and closer to me. We started talking about bears and decided to name one of the bear skins on my artifact table (it had a face). She was too cute. Her mom came up and told me that she picks a best friend wherever they go and that she would be talking about that person for weeks. This week it was me!

So, its been a great week, despite how fast its gone. My weekend has almost escaped me. We have had new interns coming in all week, and more still to come for the summer. It's gonna be a full house y'all!

Until next time,

Mischief Managed.