(Addition from Thursday, 26.04.2012)
Today I had an interesting discussion: Am I feeling lonely when spending so much time at the Eurasian Griffon Vultures enclosure of the Zoo of Duisburg? Especially when I am waiting half an hour or even longer without anything happens!? Good question! But missunderstanding!!! First of all vulture are my favorite hobby and I can spend many hours watching vultures without getting bored. If I had a vultures enclosure next to my window I would never need tv again. I guess most people cannot understand that... but there are other hobbies, similar time-consuming, nothing happens until this special moment that's worth the waiting: Fishing or paragliding. When fishing you just sit there, not moving at all, just waiting and waiting and when you catch a fish most of the time you will release it again. But you had a wonderful, relaxing time. The same when paraglider are staying on top of a hill with their glider prepared for take-off... and then the themals change and they have to wait for better weather conditions. I had such an experience in South Africa when doing my first tandem flight. One hour we were just waiting, watching the windbag, not being able to move cause my pilot and me were already clamped together... but for the great experience of paragliding I would spend an hour waiting for better thermals again and again. Furthermore waiting for a great experience can be very exciting and fascinating, like when waiting at the vultures enclosure for the vulture chick creeping out from under it's parents plumage ;-)
When spending my time in the zoo I also like meeting friedly people like the eye specialist with his sweet, little son. I was late afternoon, the doors of the zoo already closed and there were just few people left in the zoo. When he saw me standing next to the enclosure with my camera at the ready he got curious and asked me if there's a vulture chick inside the nest. Unfortunately the chick was hiding and he just saw his back... but because half an hour ago I had the chance to watch the chick I was able to show him some pictures. We were talking about vultures and he asked a lot of questions. And you all know, I love talking about vultures and sharing my fascination ;-) 20 minutes later the vulture community welcomed a new member I proudly guess... or at least someone how will see vultures with different eyes now and respecting them.
My conclusion is that a zoo isn't a lonely place but joins! And I learned something new today: There is a Turkish fairytale exciting where vultures are shown in a POSITIVE way!!! I really have to look for this fairytale and a translation...
After such a nice talk I cannot wait to go to the zoo again. Maybe some more nice meetings are waiting for me!?
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