The Adventures of Gary at the Washington Zoo
As many of you are aware, our very own Head Bean Hisself was presented for his
This is our very own HB petting Orusha, a 45 year old hippo from Tanzania who weighs 4,000 pounds (WOW, more than THB!) Next to her is her son, Happy, who weighs in at 6,000!! Their skin is cool and rubbery, and their whiskers rather prickly! Can you see another desk animal coming from this guy?
Notice the resemblance??? This is our zany HB with a Golden Lion Tamarin. These little guys (the monkeys, not Gary!) are very endangered (although Gary would tell you he's endangered!) since they live in our rapidly diminishing rain forests! What you don't see if that Gary and the family had all of the monkeys eating grapes from their hands! (At least they weren't jelly beans from his shoes! LOL)
Courtesy of Laurie Anne Greez and Lions', Tigers and Boyds, Oh MY!!!, this is the article written by Barbara Perry.
The
MOBsters (Mad Over Boyds), a wonderful group of collectors who meet and
chat on AOL, gathered together to give the Head Bean a very special gift.
In honor of his 50th birthday in February, the MOBsters contributed $1,000 to
adopt the Giant Panda, Hsing Hsing, at the Washington National Zoo in Gary's
name.
To learn more go to www.bearlovers.com.
Hsing (pronounced Shing) is a grand old panda, and a quite fitting bear for our
distinguished Head Bean. As part of his gift, Gary received a private
behind-the-scenes visit at the Zoo. Called Encounters, only a very special few
have the opportunity for these amazing tours. As a MOBster and a volunteer in
the Elephant House, I was privileged to arrange the tour with two fellow
volunteers and friends for our very special Head Bean and his family.
To fully enjoy their encounters, we met early one morning in August in the
Elephant House before the zoo was open. The animals are quite different
before the house is open and the public is inside, and we had arranged
individual encounters with three of our keepers for the hippos, elephants, and
rhinos. Starting with our mother and son hippos, Arusha and Happy, who
came over to the side of their pool to be fed and petted, the Lowenthals had an
opportunity to meet these 6,000 pound creatures up very close - and put apples
in the wide open mouths! The cool, rubbery whiskered feel of their faces is
quite wonderful! Moving to the elephants, Nancy (our African elephant) and two
of our Asian elephants, Toni and 51-year-old Ambika, came up to meet Bailey and
Matthew, Tina and Gary. They all had the opportunity to feel the wrinkled
elephant skin and have the inquisitive trunks come out to greet them.
Since they favor apple biscuits, the elephants were happy to come up to meet and
greet!
Then it was on to our two Greater One Horn Asian Rhinos, Meechi and Mohan. It
was especially fun to see the children beam as they fed them food from their
palms! Mohan particularly enjoyed having his tummy rubbed!
(We are talking a VERY big creature here!) As we moved from keeper to keeper,
the Lowenthals asked insightful and interesting questions and had a chance to
learn about these incredible, and for the rhinos and elephants, endangered
animals. It was evident that all of them have a love of animals, whether in the
wild or in their menagerie at home. We knew that Bailey and Matthew enjoyed
monkeys, and
had arranged our next stop: a tour of the small mammal house. Covering the
whole building, the Lowenthals were able to see where the food for so many
different animals was prepared and learn about their care. I think we would all
agree though that the highlights were our opportunities to actually go into the
large cages with some of the animals. It was a pleasure to watch their
smiles as the monkeys and lemurs took grapes from their
fingers!
Although that was the end of our up-close-and-personal portion of the tour, my
fellow guides are extremely knowledgeable and we spent time with the orangutans
and gorillas, reptiles and snakes, big cats, and other assorted creatures
at the zoo. Hsing is struggling with kidney disease (he is a very old panda!),
encounters with him are not being conducted now. We did stop by the Panda House
so
that Gary could at least see his "adopted son" -- sleeping though he
was!
I wish each of you could have shared in the tour and enjoyed a day with the
Lowenthals. They are a remarkable family and a delight to be with. Although the
Head Bean adopted the panda, we would gladly adopt Bailey and Matthew any
time! It was a special day for me and I hope for them also.