You won’t find Carrie Bradshaw hanging out at Sex and the City Zoo, but maybe she should give it a whirl, and learn about the mating habits of species besides her own.
At Sex and the City Zoo, a charming and informative Valentine’s Weekend event at the Los Angeles Zoo, GLAZA once again shows an enormous capacity for the expansion of its educational offerings, served up with a heaping dose of fun.
The event began with a dessert buffet and wine served in the museum’s courtyard. There were also adorable stuffed animal zoo gift baskets available to purchase to support zoo conservation efforts.
While guests mixed and mingled, zoo staff circulated bearing a touchable Angolan Python, an ‘ooh and ahh’ worthy cute sugar glider, and a Hawaiian owl named Paula who came to Los Angeles as a stowaway on a naval ship.
Once visiting and noshing ended, guests moved into the zoo’s comfortable auditorium for a lively talk by chief curator Beth Schaefer. Here the audience laughed, learned, and groaned over animal mating rituals.
The male octopus disguises itself as a female in order to go undetected and avoid being devoured; bees sometimes have sex mid-air, bower birds woo their mates by building elaborate bowers that include found objects from car keys to soda straws. Male ostriches are supremely helpful with incubating eggs and watching over babies, and also engage in elaborate mating dances. And, well may they dance: most male birds do not have penises – the theory being such an appendage would adversely affect flight dynamics. But ostriches do, and also ducks. Ah, but ducks – well. Apparently most duck sexual behavior is not consensual, and male ducks lose their genitalia after they mate – growing a new one prior to each mating period. Um. Yes. That will teach them.
From learning about the great apes interest in oral copulation to the zoo’s success story for reproduction in endangered species like prong horn antelope and condors, this was a highly entertaining and memorable evening. Attendees could also opt to extend it with an elegant dinner set up on zoo grounds following the talk.
We say: stay alert to other special occasion zoo events: from the holiday festival of Zoo Lights to new children’s programs that allow kids to pet a hippo, and fascinating presentations like these – there’s plenty that’s new and fun to do at the zoo. Yes, the rhymes are intentional.
So…how about those ducks?
- Genie Davis; All Photos by Jack Burke