A Child Of Atom

I got the opportunity today to visit the Central Park Zoo free of charge, which I, of course, jumped on. It's a decent zoo, very small, with only a few dozen animals, but I got to see some macaques, some of my favorite animals, The polar bears were out today, and very frisky. One was ferociously attacking a barrel, which a sign informed me could be purchased if I did the appropriate search on ebay. I know I'm itching to get a mangled plastic bucket, how about you? Surely they can come up with a better fund raiser. The sea lions were also having a lot of fun today, and were good for a few minutes of entertainment.

The most startling moment was in the rain forest enclosure where a large bird was chasing a tiny white mouse around the foot path. It didn't seem like a predatory bird, it was small, about the size of a crow, with a long thin beak that (if I remember my biology classes correctly) would mostly be associated with a fruit eating bird, (right, Jess?), so I was very surprised to see it chasing and pecking at this mouse. It eventually chased the mouse into the foliage and I lost sight of them, so I don't know how the pursuit ended, but it was very strange.

It was a fun diversion for my afternoon, though I'll admit it was often more fun watching the children's reactions to the animals as the animals themselves.