Living Desert Zoo & Gardens | Palm Springs

Thursday | 5 January 2006 | Palm Springs, California: We headed out to spend the afternoon at the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. (I must add here that we used the air conditioning in the Honda on the drive over - just to really make you mad.) The Living Desert has two main areas to explore - Desert wildlife and African wildlife - and fabulous botanical gardens between every exhibit.

Just after entering the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens there is an interesting exhibit featuring the plants used by the local Cahuilla Indians and a Cahuilla "kish" (dwelling) and garden.

Cahuilla kish (photo by DT)

At the Tennity Wildlife Hospital and Conservation Center we met Renee and her friend, Millennium - an African Lanner falcon. The Lanner falcon is closely related to the Peregrine falcon, and the two birds are similar in look and size. And, like the Peregrine, the Lanner falcon preys on other birds, which they kill by actually punching them in the sky and then carrying-away and suffocating the stunned birds. Did you know that birds do not have bladders? The white stuff they drop is concentrated urine and the brown stuff they drop is... well, the other stuff. Now you know!

Renee with Millennium, a Lanner falcon


Millennium

The Eagle Canyon exhibit concentrates on Southwest desert wildlife, and though the exhibits are basic, the Zoo has an impressive array of critters to view. The Coati is a relative of the raccoon and native to Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and south all the way to Panama. They live in organized groups of 4-25 females and their young. Coati hunt, nap, groom and play together and the adult males only come around during mating season (typical). The female leaves the group when giving birth and does not return until the pups are about five weeks old.

Coati

The local area is home to about 200 Bighorn Sheep (and there are a few at the Zoo too). This species (ovis canadensis cremnobates) have a range from the local Santa Rosa Mountains, south throughout the Baja Peninsula. They are rare and endangered. In the Eagle Canyon exhibit area you will also find mountain lion, bobcat, fox, javelina, Mexican wolves, golden eagles, and coyotes.

Big horn sheep


Big Horn Sheep (photo by DT)


Golden Eagle (photo by DT)

The African area has equally exciting animals. The Living Desert Zoo participates in several captive breeding programs for highly endangered animals, including the Cuvier's Gazelle. This beautiful animal once roamed throughout Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, but now less than 1,000 survive world-wide. Also in residence are several of the less-than-200 Mhorr Gazelle's (Morocco & Senegal) thought to be in existence - they are probably extinct in the wild. Other extremely rare animals in breeding programs at the zoo are Slender-Horned gazelles and African dogs.  Walking through the African exhibit area you will also see hornbills, Arabian Oryx, Cheetahs, Bat-Eared Fox, Grevy's Zebra (the largest of all zebra's), addax, camels, tortoise, leopards, warthogs, giraffes, ostrich, camels and the very-strange Aardwolf - a wolf that only eats termites! I know, I know - though Aardwolves are closely related to the hyena, the poor nocturnal creatures have really small teeth which are not capable of bone-crushing and flesh-tearing. Aardwolves ("earth wolf" in Afrikaans) do not live in packs, have a long, sticky tongue and can slurp up 40,000 termites in 3 hours. Yummy!

Warthogs


Arabian Oryx (photo by DT)

The Zoo has plenty of RV parking, food services, toilet and handicapped facilities.