Two Bears and Barry White
Explaining Why the Bear is Smacking the Other Bear's Ass
To A Five-Year-Old Child
The America's was high-lited by the brown bear paddock. This is another highly protected area. As we drove slowly around the enclosure, we could see two pairs of bears playing a little ways apart. The first pair was lazily pawing at each other and rolling around in slow play while the other two were...well, they looked like they were playing. But as we got closer, it looked like one was...hey! It had mounted the other one! My mother-in-law looked at me with shock and disbelief on her face and asked me if they were doing what it looked like they were doing.
I took a closer, more prolonged look through the video; the bear was definitely mounted, getting its ass slapped, it's neck nipped at and it looked bored and wishing it was shopping and spending someone else's money. Yep! It was definitely sex. Now, you would think we would modestly turn our heads and move along quietly to the next area. Oh, no way. We looped around the paddock three times.
The bears stopped after the second lap. They gave our vehicle a reproachful scowl and wandered over to the other pair of bears playing in the grass. I could see the look they exchanged: "Just ignore them, they will go away." "Yeah, but...honey..." "Just...let it go."
After they moved over to the other group, they started up again, not caring what was happening around them or the other two bears who politely asked them to get a room. We left the paddock and moved into Asia where we got to see the last of the animals. Tanis was starting to get a bit restless. The tour had taken a little over an hour and he was starting to become extremely disinterested in driving around looking at the animals. Rachel was still glaring at me from behind the back seat where she had been hiding for the last hour. I tried to get her to come up front seat to get a closer look at the bears, but she said something in Taiwanese and glowered at me. I think she put a curse on me because ever since I haven't been able to think about chinese food without getting a little queasy in the stomach.
We drove through the rest of The Americas where we had bison, Roosevelt Elk, a Bald Eagle, some distant Black Bears Black Tailed Deer, California Ground Squirrel, Canadian Geese, Guanaco, Roosevelt, Sandhill Crane and Wild Turkeys. The best part, again, was the energy of the animals. They were all up and moving, close to the road and mildly disinterested in us or the Blue Beast.
Asia came and went, but we didn't stop to see the animals all too much. The Bengal Tigers were behind a large fence and the cheetahs were extremely elusive to my camera. They weren't far, but every time I tried to get a good picture, they would duck behind a rise in the hill and out of my camera range. Everyone was getting hungry so we didn't stick around too long for each animal as we did in the different areas of the world.
Rachel popped from the cargo area of the Blue Beast where she had been snuggling underneath all the coats and blankets, tire chains and toolboxes. She wasn't glaring at me too much anymore and took an interest in pointing me out to the Bengal Tigers and the cheetahs. When she could see they weren't going to do her bidding, she threw a last disgusted glare my direction and burrowed underneath her new-built fort.
