al ain zoo

Since today was TGIT (thank God it's Thursday), after work we decided to go to the zoo.  It was hot, muggy and a sandstorm had just passed through.  Interestingly, it turns out women need to dress "respectfully"at the zoo and I had some question as to whether I actually was, since I was wearing a lace t-shirt that not only was short sleeved but revealed skin to the shoulder.  Talk about being self-conscious!  And I thought I brought the most conservative clothes I could possibly find!  Was that giraffe staring at me?

The 9 of us that made the trek were quite obviously part of the exhibits for most of the locals.  We do tend to stick out a bit when we go places (understatement).  We were also followed by a security guard throughout the visit, but we're kinda getting used to that too.  All the animals looked about as hot as I was - the white tiger was eating a snack when we arrived, then he went and drank at his pool for a long time, then just plopped himself right down in it.  I so could've done that too.

Here are some animal photos for both my children's classes - I know they've been working on learning about animals so here are a few different (and common) ones:

Gazelle

Nubian ibex

Chital axis deer

Barbary sheep

African wild dog

Meerkat

White African tiger

Sleepy lion

African spurred tortoise

Leopard

Gemsbok

Giraffe

There was a terrific bird of prey show, where trainers displayed the meat-in-midair catching of various eagles, vultures, kites, and hawks.  It was quite well done.  We spoke to one of the trainers afterward about falconry, which is a historic local sport here.  He told us that the royal family owns almost 1000 falcons and if you get one that has a certificate that it is from the family, the bird would be worth around 60,000 dirhams (roughly $15,000 US).  Apparently the royal family employs about 200 caretakers for their falcons.  He said you can buy regular falcons for around 15,000 dirhams (roughly $3,200 US).   #ibmcsc uae

trainer and owl

trainer and falcon (notice the hood, apparently they don't allow them
to fly until winter)

trainer and eagle