Bloggers at the Zoo!

The North Carolina scienceblogging contingent celebrated the millionth comment at the NC Zoo in Asheboro yesterday.

We met at 1pm and were first greeted by the Executive Director of the NC Zoological Society, Russ Williams, who also runs a delightful blog Russlings.

Then, we were taken on a delightful tour of the zoo by Jayne Owen Parker, Ph.D., the Director of Conservation Education of the Society. Dr. Parker's personal interest is in animal behavior, especially social behavior. As much as this is my own area of expertise, I have to admit that I learned a lot of stuff I did not know before. Perhaps we can use some of those pieces of information for future blog posts - how giraffes take care of their young, how different species of zebras have different social organizations, what the lions' manes are for, why are Patas monkeys matriarchal, etc.

So, who else was there?

We were joined by Heather Soja, the AHS Zoo School Lead Teacher and Biology Teacher and her two beautiful children. Old friends, Anne and Christian Casper came on the tour with us. As did Kim Gainer and her daughter Patti. Greg (the founder of the Giant's Shoulders carnival) came with his fiance - it was so nice to finally match the name and face! Of the SciBlings, former, old and new, there were Kevin Zelnio with his wife and kids, James with his wonderful wife and son, Sciencewoman with husband and super-charming Minnow, Dave and Greta Munger, SciCurious (the most recent addition to The Borg, previously at Neurotic Physiology) with boyfriend, and Sheril with her boyfriend David.

We talked a lot about - Shakespeare! You never know with science bloggers what will happen!

After the 4-hour tour, we got hungry, so we went to the local Chili's for dinner and had a lot of fun together. Videos and pictures - tomorrow.

Update:

Here are the pictures:

Pictures from the Zoo, part I
Pictures from the Zoo, part II
Pictures from the Zoo, part III
Pictures from the Zoo, part IV

And movies:

Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #1
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #2
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #3
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #4
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #5
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #6
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #7
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #8
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #9
Bloggers at the Zoo - movies #10

And others also report:

Russ
Sheril
Sciencewoman
Greg
Linda Zelnio
Kevin Zelnio
Dave and Greta
Scicurious

And if you live elsewhere, perhaps you can still join a party closer to you.