Another Safari.. The Water Kind

After the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we ventured onto another Safari.. the boat kind. Owned by Captain Yohn Gideon, the Elkhorn Slough Safari in Moss Landing provides a great view of wildlife of sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions and hundreds of birds. We boarded a pontoon boat for this 2 hour tour.

We meet the Captain at their van in the harbor parking lot.

We all put on life jackets (even though the ride was very smooth and not very fast.. just my style!)

The younger kids got to look for specific animals and the older kids played Safari Bingo. Hannah was in charge of looking for sea otters. Which we saw almost 100!

As we were leaving the harbor we spotted many pelicans. They are aggressive and very sharp birds. They dive quite quickly for fish in the water and more than once we saw something wiggling in their pouched mouths. They definitely remind me of 'Nigel' from Nemo.

These are brown pelicans who catch their prey while diving into the water and scooping the fish up into it's beak.

These are American white pelicans, who unlike the brown pelicans, catches it's prey while swimming.

This is a 'raft' or group of male or 'bull' sea lions. (the term 'raft' sure makes sense here). The sexes usually are segregated by choice. The females are with their 'pups' at another location. We saw over 300 sea lions during this tour.

This is a blue heron. I was in charge of counting them during the tour. I saw only 5.

This is a snowy egret. We saw over 20 of those up close....

...and there were probably hundreds more up in the eucalyptus trees.

These harbor seals were so cute! We saw almost 100 of them. A group of seals is called a 'harem'.

The shore was so shallow that these seals were just lying on the muddy floor.

Now you may ask.. what is the difference between sea lions, seals and otters? I didn't know until I saw a lot of them and then I noticed very distinct differences. Sea lions have big front flippers, a longer neck area and are extremely vocal with their dog-like barks, are brown and much larger than seals. Seals, on the other hand, have smaller and shorter flippers, are gray or tan and spotted and are very quiet making minimal, if any, sounds.

The otters looked just like the pictures on postcards I see in the aquarium. Many of them were on their back with their feet and paws up out of the water. They do this to keep their extremities warm because the water makes it very cold. Their fur is much 'furrier' than the seals and sea lions and they have long slim bodies with short limbs and webbed paws. Their two-layered fur is very soft (under layer) which is protected by an outer layer of long guard hair.  This traps a layer of air and keeps them dry and warm under water. Many of these otters were eating up a storm! They used a rock or small hard object to crack their food open.

When you look closely at each of these sea animals faces, you can definitely tell that they were very different. Sea lions, seals and otters faces do not look the same.

We saw over 60 otters!

This one loves his clam!

We also saw about a dozen huge jellyfish. This is the sea nettle.. I never saw one in the wild. So it was amazing to see it right off the boat's edge. The captain said that this was one of the first days this year that there were so many jellyfish at one sighting.

This is the egg yolk jellyfish.. it was really huge! I was so glad I was NOT in the water because both of these can sting pretty badly!

After the older kids got black out on their Bingo at the end of the tour, they each got a Junior Ranger Naturalist Certificate and a special treat.. but only if they became 'bird-like'. Here's Shawna doing her best bird imitation!

A Safari We Will Go...

No, none of us went to Africa. (Can you see me in Africa?!?! Please!) But there is a hidden gem in the Wine Country where you can take an authentic safari without flying thousands of miles to another continent. This safari is literally right in our backyard.

It's called Safari West home for over 400 mammals and birds on 400 acres in Santa Rosa. It's a wildlife preserve that is dedicated to raising awareness of exotic animals and promoting understanding through in-person contact in their natural habitat. They are a non-profit organization funded by the Safari West Wildlife Foundation. They even have luxury tents that you can stay in overnight to truly experience being in the savannah. (They were fully booked the weekend we went so instead we stayed at a local hotel.)

Most of the animals are originally from Africa and they live on this land as if it was Africa.  They are only given food at various locations and health care if they get sick or injured. Other than that, they are completely untrained and free to roam amongst many other animals. Just like the savannah in Africa.

We rode on a traditional safari jeep and drove on the rugged and very bumpy dirt roads searching for animals to see. Now you may wonder.. how close will we actually get to these 'wild' animals? Both my brother-in-laws were doubtful that we will see any close enough with the naked eye. It'll be like the zoo they thought. Maybe with binoculars, we can get a good view.

Well... the first animals we saw were the reticulated giraffes and one came so close to us that he bent down his very long neck and stuck his face into the jeep right in between my brother-in-laws' heads. Well.. he sure proved them wrong!! He also proceeded to grab some of Hannah's hair and I had to pull it out carefully. She wasn't scared.. just kind of disgusted that her hair was sticky with giraffe saliva. Overall, they are beautiful and gentle creatures.

The 2-hour tour was filled with many amazing animals that were pretty close for us to view... you don't want to be too close since they are still wild. We saw incredible zebras, huge rhinos, elegant antelope, beautifully-horned gemsbok, ferocious cape buffalo, blue wildebeests, oryx, lazy warthogs, and the elegant elands. For another hour, we walked around and saw the caged animals: cheetahs, monkeys, beautiful cranes, flamingos and other exotic birds in their huge aviary.

Our tour guide, Claudia, was extremely informative stopping many times throughout the tour so we can take pictures while she told us the background of each animal that we saw. She also allowed us to take turns sitting up on top of the jeep to experience the incredible view you have of the land.

We also ate at the Safari.. a delicious BBQ buffet lunch so if you can include lunch or dinner I highly recommend it! Bathrooms are beautiful and clean! You can tell if I place is nicely run by the way they upkeep their bathrooms! (Note: No bathroom breaks on the safari tour.. no bathrooms in the savannah.)

Reservations are REQUIRED for the tours and meals so plan ahead. Don't drop by. It's not a zoo. (As I was checking my family in, there was another family trying to also 'check-in' but they did not have a reservation. They drove 4 hrs to get there and thought it was a 'zoo'. Sorry...)

The Safari was an incredible experience for us. Extremely educational and well worth the time and money.

http://www.safariwest.com/

If you go, here are a few tips:
- Take allergy meds; the dust and all made our eyes feel really itchy riding around in the 'savannah'
- Wear sunglasses to protect the dust from your eyes as much as possible
- Take dramamine if you have a sensitive stomach for the jeep ride (it goes up and down bumpy roads and mini hills)
- Ride on the top if you can at least for a part of the trip (we were allowed to take turns); the view is incredible
- Remember to tip your guide
- Take lots of video and pictures
- Bring a jacket and/or blanket if it's windy and cold. 
- Ask many questions.. you'll learn a lot more
-Eat lunch or dinner there: the fire roasted chicken and pulled pork was delicious along with the tapioca pudding! Make sure you make reservations for the meal; they don't take drop ins.
- If you have sensitive children who may cry during the bumpy, windy ride, don't have them go. Loud noises such as crying will disturb the animals.. in a not very good way!
- If you can, ask why they don't have lions, tigers or elephants.. I forgot to ask and we were all curious.

These are some of the cabins you could stay at;
they were right on the animal tour route so you can see many animals from the cabin.
And No.. the animals don't roam around the cabins. There are fences separating them from the animals.

The traditional jeep.. we booked a private tour so we had the jeep all to ourselves!

This was the hungry one that slurped up Hannah's hair.

"People are so funny looking .."

Baby Giraffe - 10 days old.. stands at 6 ft tall when first born; and she gives birth standing!

Baby zebra.. also 10 days old

The Greater Kudo found in east, central and south Africa. Males have horns and females do not. They have an acute sense of hearing due to their large ears.

The gembok's horns were so sharp that native Africans used them  as tips for their spears. If their horns were cut they would die by bleeding to death. Horns have blood running through them; unlike antlers that can be cut and regrown again. Horns can not.

The Eland can leap as high as 10 feet but can run no faster than 25 mph. It is the largest yet slowest of the antelopes

The fierce cape buffalo, 2nd animal that is most dangerous to humans (the 1st are hippos); the guide had to 'shush' me because I was talking too loud.  I obeyed immediately. Those animals were very tough looking! Didn't want them to charge at us!

The beautiful Sarus crane which are often depicted in paintings as a symbol of marital fidelity in Asian cultures

The blue wildebeest, the most populated mammal and most popular prey for other animals due to their quantity: our guide says "when God made all the animals he used the parts leftover to make the wildebeest: body of a hyena, mane & tail of a horse, head of a goat and a brain of an ostrich."