For Madeline’s birthday this year, instead of having a big party, we let her invite a friend to do the Dolphin In-Water Adventure together at the Indianapolis Zoo. It was really a great experience.
I booked the adventure online. I had some troubles with the web site (why do so many good businesses have bad web sites?) and had to call for assistance getting started, but I eventually succeeded. Registration required a lot of information, like height & weight, shoe size, etc. After a few texts to the friend’s mom, I had the information I needed. We were scheduled! Each paid adventure includes one participant, who gets in the water with the dolphins, and one observer, who just watches from nearby. The girls were the participants, and the moms were the observers.
Registration for the program included admission to the zoo, so Madeline and I decided to make a day of it. The weather was cold and rainy, but we were prepared with raincoats, umbrellas, etc. I really like off-weather days at the zoo. The animals are more active when it’s cooler, and the crowds are lower. The crowds were certainly low that day. I think Madeline and I were the second group to enter the zoo. We went to the Oceans building, which is usually really crowded, and the only other person we saw in the entire building was the worker in the shark area.
After the oceans building we wandered around the zoo to the underwater dolphin dome, which is probably my favorite place in the zoo when it’s not crowded. You enter the dolphin pavilion downstairs, and a clear tunnel takes you under (and beside) the main dolphin pool. They swim around and over you and act oblivious, but I think they really know when people are there and put on a show if they feel like it. When it’s crowded and loud (despite signs asking people to keep their voices down) the dolphins stay farther away. This time, though, Madeline and I were again alone in the exhibit, and I bet we stayed for fifteen minutes watching two dolphins play a game I think of as keep-the-giant-Kong-from-hitting-the-bottom-of-the-pool. It was fun and fascinating, and very much like a beautiful dance.
When Madeline tired of watching the dolphins (I could have stayed for an hour, I bet), we went outside and were pretty much in the middle of the zoo. I suggested we go to the Plains before it started raining hard, but she wanted to visit the orangutans instead. It turned out that was a good choice. We weren’t the only people viewing the orangutans at that time, but there were not very many people there. The orangutan exhibit was a major addition to the zoo maybe a decade ago, and we really love it. There’s a large building in the center where most of the orangutans live. But adult male orangutans can’t live together, so the other males have “bachelor pads” on either side of the main building. The front of the main building is all windows, and you can watch from there or go into the building and watch from sort of the second story, from inside windows. We were inside because of the rain. On either side of the orangutan area there are platforms on this second story, right by windows that people can stand at, with a result that you’re inches from an orangutan if they choose to sit on the platform by the window.
There was a male orangutan sitting on one of the platforms, and we watched him for quite a while. He had a thing he was eating that I called leaf leather, because it looked like very long fruit leather made of leaves. He was eating it very slowly, savoring it, definitely not rushing. Way over on a ledge near the front window, a mother and baby were resting together. While we were there they started moving around a bit. Madeline wanted to stay and see if the baby did a Tarzan swing on the rope-like strap things (that I’ll call ropes) that are all across the room. Sure enough, in a few minutes, mom and baby started moving across those ropes. They don’t exactly swing like Tarzan, but they sure do get around on them. They’ll swing if they have to, but they seem to be more comfortable just moving from one rope to the next. After a bit the mom moved to the floor and started gathering all the hay that the zookeepers had obviously spread out for them that morning. The zoo worker told us that the mom likes to do that: she pushes the straw together into nests. The baby didn’t want to help mom, so he swung up to the platform next to us to see his dad.
It became obvious really quickly that baby wanted dad to share his leaf leather, and equally obvious that dad wasn’t going to. For a while, baby was staring at the fruit leather in dad’s hand, so dad put the whole thing in his mouth. But he was teasing baby by pushing a tiny bit out of his mouth and the sucking it back in. Baby stared and stared at dad’s mouth, but dad didn’t give up any leaf leather. So baby tried a different tactic; he started stroking the underside of dad’s chin with one little finger. Madeline and I were cracking up! Dad never did give up even a tiny bite of his leaf leather, and eventually baby went down to complain to mom, and Madeline and I left.
Next we went into the desert building, which has never been my favorite because it’s always too hot. This was another building we had to ourselves, and with the cold wet weather outside, hot and dry was a nice change. Madeline loves the meerkats, although it seemed like there were a lot fewer of them on display than previously. We enjoyed looking around the desert areas and pointing out animals that the other may have missed. The camouflage of the turtles and lizards really works. When we’re in the desert building we always check out the snakes, and this time we learned that they’d added some more snakes with larger habitats. Even though I don’t want to encounter any snakes, harmless or not, in real life (I had a gross experience as a teen involving a snake, my dog, and a brand new white swimsuit), I love looking at them when they’re safely ensconced behind glass.
At this point we really only had three choices left: birds, plains, or forests. I hate birds and love the other two, so of course we ended up at the birds. I don’t know why I hate birds, because I’ve never really had any bad experiences with birds, but I just don’t like them. [One time a bird did fly into the back of my head, just like Elaine on Seinfeld, and I didn’t particularly enjoy that, but my fear of birds started before that, and the head incident wasn’t really a scary event. Just annoying!]. The zoo has a couple of lovely areas where you can go in and have the birds fly around and on you, and for a small amount you can also feed the birds. Madeline loves these, and I tolerate them. We bought a couple tickets and went into the enclosure with the lorikeets. Madeline had a little cup of some kind of nectar or sugar water or something to feed the birds. While we were in there, it started POURING! We were dry, but there was an area where only the birds can go that had just mesh in the ceiling, so that the birds could get rained on if they wanted to. Some of the birds really loved the rain. They were holding onto the mesh with their claws (talons?), and fluffing their feathers to take a shower! I didn’t know birds did that. I’ve certainly never seen the robins/cardinals/finches/etc. in our yard do that. Also, that’s something you’re not going to experience at the zoo on a sunny day.
It took about a minute, but eventually one of the lorikeets came over and started eating from Madeline’s cup. That convinced other birds to do the same. Soon the first bold bird hopped onto her hand to get a better angle on the food. Next thing we knew, she had five birds on her. Two were on her hand, one was on her sleeve, and two were on her hood. The two on her hood pulled her hood off of her head, as if they wanted to see her hair or something. She was cracking up. I was taking pictures. Soon the food ran out, but the one on her back stayed a little longer. At some point a bird landed on me, but I wasn’t expecting it, and he came from behind, and I startled, which made him fly off. Oops.
As we left the bird area it was still raining hard and predicted to do so for a while, so we decided it was a good time to have lunch. We rushed to the main cafe and were happy to be inside when we arrived. We ordered and grabbed a table, and it started raining even harder! We ended up staying there until it was time to go check in for the dolphin experience. As we walked toward the zoo entrance (the education center is just outside the main entrance gate), we passed an open area that is covered by high roofs. I’d been through there before, but never when it was raining. The rooflines tilt toward interior pillars, which causes the rain to flow down the pillars and into rock beds underneath. It created a cool steam effect and made me appreciate the architecture in a way I hadn’t before in the sunshine.
We took a few pictures while we waited for Madeline’s friend to arrive, and then it was time for dolphins! After everyone had gathered in the education center, our guide walked us to the dolphin pavilion, and we went to the area of the pools that I think of as “backstage,” to a small classroom. We learned about bottlenose dolphins in general, and about the pod at the zoo. The zoo has a couple older dolphins that were captured from the wild, but they no longer use that practice. They’ve had several dolphins born here, and they have two young male dolphins who were rescues unable to be returned to the ocean. The newest is little Trooper, who washed up on shore when he was four weeks old. Apparently, he’d been in the sun for hours and had an extreme sunburn when he was rescued. A dolphin rescue facility in Texas took him in, and for a while they bottle-fed him every four hours. Eventually his burns were healed, and they sent him to Indianapolis to learn from and live with our dolphins. He was adorable and wasn’t very good at following commands, but he really liked getting fish as a reward when he did the right thing!
Next we watched the dolphin show, which has never been my favorite thing at the zoo. I feel like it’s too much talking and not enough dolphin. Obviously, they showcase the dolphins’ abilities. And the show has changed over the years. But I feel like I spend an hour (by the time you get seated, wait for the show, etc) to see about ten or fifteen total minutes of dolphin amazingness. The girls sat in the splash zone and got pretty well splashed, which is always fun.
After the show ended and everyone not doing the adventure left, our guide sent the participants into the dressing room to get changed into the wet suits and sandals the zoo already had ready for them. That’s why they needed all the information at registration. While the participants changed, the observers got to hang out near the pool and watch the dolphins swim around. Our guide pointed out that the dolphins were excited because they knew people sticking around meant something was up. Then, when the first people came out in wet suits, the dolphins got really happy, because they knew they were going to meet new people. One cool thing about being there outside of the show was that you could really see the dolphin’s personalities come through. When there’s a big crowd, they’re just performing, but later they were being curious or playful or bold, depending on who they were.
Finally it was time to go to the small “backstage” pools with the dolphins! The participants started out on one side, and the observers sat in stands near the middle. We were kind of far away but got to watch our participants meet the dolphins. Madeline was able to rub the dolphin’s tail. This is a “husbandry” action, which basically means something done to make the dolphin familiar with it so the keepers can perform grooming and medical wellness actions on the dolphins without freaking them out. They didn’t say, but I’m guessing if they need to insert an IV, it goes somewhere in the tail.
Next we went out to the big pool, and each participant went deeper in the water, where one dolphin came up to them and let the participant grab its fins, like they were dancing. The guide stood on the side with a good camera and took some really nice pictures. I loved the way the dolphin wiggled while the pictures were taken. Maybe it was just trying to stay upright, but it really looked like it was having a good time posing with Madeline.
I couldn’t believe that wasn’t the end, but we went back to the other back pool, and the participants spent a little more time in the pool with some other dolphins. This time, they got to give hand commands and reward the dolphins when they did the right thing. Madeline said later that she accidentally did something wrong, and the dolphin did a flip instead of waving, but I’m guessing that’s not the first time that’s happened. That pool was the end of the experience, and the participants went to change while the observers waited in the main audience area again.
This time, one of the dolphins was playing with a big ball. I think it wanted attention, because it knocked the ball up against the glass nearest to us, which made everyone look at it. We got to talking, and eventually the dolphin threw the ball OUT OF the pool into one of the splash zones. I was closest to the ball and thought I’d throw it back but looked to the guide to make sure it was ok. She said we weren’t allowed to give the ball back, because the dolphins know they’re not supposed to throw toys out of the pool when there are people around. Their toys are heavy, and someone could get hurt. If they don’t follow that rule, losing the ball is a natural consequence. So I left the ball where it was, and that darn dolphin stayed right there and stared at me, trying to convince me to give it back. I just told it I wasn’t allowed, and eventually it gave up and went away.
We had to leave the zoo right after the dolphin adventure, because the girls had to get to a dance rehearsal. I went home and napped. It was really a fun day with my girl!