Zoo Day No 2

Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine at the zoo, including the sun bears. I've never seen them out before - they're always snoozing in their den. Sunbears have huge long tongues - 25cm. They seem to have too much skin, like these dogs. I read that this enables them to twist and turn if bitten by a tiger or some large predator. This one twisted, turned and stretched and kindly showed me his claws... He looked quite cuddly up till then...

Our talk today was about the Giant Armadillo Project in the Pantanal. To my shame, I'd never heard of the Pantanal... but I have heard of giant armadillos, who are very very rare. Arnaud Desbiez is funded by RZSS to study them in their natural environment, as not much is known about these fascinating dinosaur-like kcreatures.

He has discovered that they dig deep burrows, and when they leave them and move on, many other animals use them because the temperature inside is a constant 24 degrees, and the outside temperature might be 45 degrees or at night, 14 degrees. So he calls them 'ecosystem engineers'. They found all this out by setting up cameras.

Arnaud was a completely engaging speaker, so enthusiastic about his work. He was beardedly easy on the eye, too. Here are some of his video diaries.

I went in search of the elusive meerkats, who have been evicted from their posh new home at the entrance, due to vandalism (by the meerkats!) and have been shoved away up at the top of the hill, with a few lookouts left in their old home beside the otters. But they weren't even there, as a workman was fiddling about in the pen. And he wasn't cute enough to photograph.

Archie and I wandered down to the Meadows this afternoon. It was so warm. People were sunbathing! We met Toya, a black lab puppy, but the owners were't keen to let her off the lead to play, so they (the dogs) just tangled themselves up round our feet.

We also met George, a 16 year old (80 in human years) Jack Russel. He was, amazingly enough, very gentle with the exuberant Archie leaping around him. And he loves toddlers. Are you listening, Archie? No he's snoring.