A few years ago, I was entranced by some footage I saw on a news show. It was on Halloween or maybe a day after. At some zoo, the management brought in a few truckloads of pumpkins and fed them to the animals, mostly notably the hippopotami. A man with a shovel was scooping up pumpkins and throwing them into the hippos' mouths the way you'd put coal in a furnace. And the hippos were chomping them down like mouthfuls of cheese puffs.
This past weekend, the Los Angeles Zoo had an event called the "Stomp 'n' Chomp," the premise being that at announced hours, certain animals would be treated to a pumpkin snack. The elephants, it was expected, would mostly step on them and/or kick them around like footballs before eating them. The bears would toss them around before dining. And the hippos…well, I knew what the hippos would do and I wanted to see them do it in person.
Through a connection, I arranged for us (my friend Carolyn and me) to get V.I.P. access to the festivities. We not only got to watch hippos gorge on pumpkins but we were taken into the pen to feed them the rest of their diet — Romaine lettuce and apples. Here's a picture I snapped of Carolyn's hand lobbing a head of greenery into the gaping maw of a hippopotamus named Otis. Or maybe this hippo is Maggie and the other one in the photo is Otis. Whichever one it was, it kept opening its mouth to almost a 90° angle, waiting like a trash compactor for us to throw more food in. We did…as long as the supply lasted.
We also got an amazing and impressive guided tour of the zoo's hospital where ill or injured animals are treated. The facility seemed spotless, modern and well-equipped to handle anything from a pachyderm to a pismire. (There's a room full of medicines that they call "the pharmacy." When we were taken in there, I joked that I could use some Prilosec. The "pharmacist" grinned and pointed to a crate of it on a shelf. Turns out, they give it to some animals with stomach problems.)
I was glad I saw the clinic because I've occasionally thought there was something wrong with zoos; that it was a shame for the animals not to be roaming free in their native habitats. I still think there's something to that, but I hadn't realized what excellent medical care they receive in a zoo like this one. A creature in the wild that breaks a leg might as well be dead. In the zoo, they get surgery and a splint…and of course, the zoo feeds them well and protects them from the elements and being eaten by other animals. That's not the whole story but it's obviously something to consider.
After that, we were driven over to the rhinoceros pit and taken in the back way. There, we got to pet Rhonda the Rhinoceros — amazing skin that could use a daily application of Neutrogena — and feed her chunks of melon. Here's a photo that I took of Rhonda from about three feet in front of her…
Later, we wandered around the zoo for as long as our feet could stand it. The Los Angeles Zoo is a very nice place with a friendly atmosphere and a nice selection of critters to look at. The place was a little crowded — it's their pre-Halloween weekend and it was crawling with kids. (Most of the boys were pirates or super-heroes. All of the girls were princesses.) But really, my only criticism was that the meal I got at a snack bar turned out to be largely inedible. The hippos ate a lot better than I did.
We only saw about a third of the place so we'll be heading back soon. It's one of those places that you take for granted: It's always there so you figure, "I can go next month." I'm sorry I put it off as long as I did because it really is quite a nice place to spend an afternoon. Especially if they let you feed the hippos.