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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

The happy orca

Yesterday the kids, some friends, and I had the pleasure of visiting Marineland Ontario in temperate weather with no crowds at all. Talk about nice.

Nowhere else in the world can you get so up close and personal with killer whales, beluga whales, seals, and land creatures such as black bear and red deer. Not to mention some other type of deer (never found out what) that crowded us in droves, chewed up my map of Marineland and made our $2.00 cupfuls of deer food vanish in less than 10 seconds. But you can watch the whales from only a few feet away as they are fed by trainers and coaxed into displays of leaping, wave-making, "singing," and other antics.

Also impressive is the dolphin/sea lion/walrus show. Its use of booming techno-disco (or whatever it was) music is unfortunate, but the feats that these animals perform are pretty entertaining.

From the underwater observation area, the whales can be seen gracefully arching, twisting, cavorting, and even hot-dogging. Some appeared to come up and pose for pictures! Unfortunately I wasn't in the front of the group that got to take those pictures. But when I had the chance, I grabbed a few shots of my own.

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Free Image Hosting at allyoucanupload.com

1 Comments:

  • I like this line from Marineland's website, "Despite their ferocious name, killer whales are actually friendly and affectionate animals."
    ...unless you happen to be a seal! ;^)

    At the San Diego Wild Animal Park, they alert you to not carry paper products (or even your straw hats) into the petting zoo.

    Nice shots.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:27 PM  

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