Sunday, October 28th: SeaWorld, continued
Our guide for the tour arrived just steps ahead of us. There was a mom and her two daughters already waiting at the meeting point, so the SeaWorld Animal Education Ambassador set to work at checking our tickets and ensuring everyone was accounted for. We would have a very small group for this activity, which was awesome!
We had heard great feedback from
@Joanna71985 on this tour, so we weren't put off by the low numbers.....this was a fairly new endeavor for SeaWorld (I believe it was only introduced in late summer) so we assumed the lack of participants was just a reflection of its new-ness.
Our guide began by taking us beyond the fence to a back-stage area which is off-limits to regular park guests.
The tour would feature an assortment of Animal Ambassadors who call Seaworld home: our guide explained that the animal ambassadors change from tour to tour, and there would be no guarantee on exactly who we might meet. That said, during the 45 minutes that the tour encompassed, we would have the chance to get up close with five different animals.....and there would be no delay before we got introduced to our very first new friend.
Meet Henry. He's a most adorable little Screech Owl.
For each Animal Ambassador who was part of the tour, the animal care staff provided a wonderful summary of their background and how they came to call SeaWorld their home. They also talked a lot about the animals themselves: their behaviors, their diets, and the things that made them unique.
And while there was no Photokey photographer present for the tour, our guide was wonderful about making sure we all had a chance to get our photos taken with each animal. For safety reasons (both the animals' and ours) we couldn't actually hold any of the ambassadors with our hands....but we got super close to each of them without crossing any boundaries which may make them feel threatened. Such fun!
Henry was so interested in looking at US, he wouldn't turn his head around for the camera
.
After we bid adieu to little Henry, the next animal to make an appearance was the regal (and much larger!) Alfred the Great Horned Owl.
Alfred was living in someone's backyard, when the homeowner contacted SeaWorld: they feared he had become so used to people that his long-term survival was in jeopardy. Despite everyone's best efforts to coax Alfred into living a "wild" life, he just wasn't interested.....and so he was re-homed at SeaWorld where his tolerance for humans made him a perfect Animal Ambassador.
He was a handsome fellow, and he knew it
. We were all swooning over the charming Alfred....even his handler
.
Alfred was one of the animals we couldn't hold, so photos were a little more of a challenge. But we were able to get pretty close nonetheless!
Next up was Ricky: a three-legged opossum.
Ricky had been found on the road: his momma had been hit by a car and died of her injuries. He was discovered inside her pouch, severely injured but still alive.
His injuries were grave enough that one of his front legs needed to be removed, so he was named after Ricky Allen, the drummer from Def Leppard who also had an arm amputated.
We all got a chance to pet Ricky and feel the texture of his fur. While we have possums in Michigan (in our back yard, no less!), we certainly don't get the chance to be this "friendly" with one.....so it was cool to get a good look at this unique creature up close .
The adorable Mila the Sloth was the next beauty to come out and say hello!
We have seen Mila at Discovery Cove on past visits, and she's always a fan favorite. She's a gorgeous girl in every way.
We all had the opportunity to pet her and get right close, and she was very relaxed despite all the attention. For those that have never pet a sloth before, let me assure you that they have quite a strange texture of fur!
Mila's got quite a comfy habitat at SeaWorld, and it was obvious how loved she was by her animal caregiver. She was easily my favorite of all the animals we met on the tour.......and I think the mom and her two daughters felt the same!! None of us wanted to say goodbye!
Our final Ambassador of the tour was a massive Bell Python.....though his/her name escapes me (sorry!). Let's just say my skin was crawling a bit when we learned that we'd be rubbing shoulders with such a large snake!
We all got a chance to touch this slithery beast, and while she was much drier to the touch than you might expect, one short pet and that was enough for me. I'm not a reptile lover......and those piercing eyes were unbelievably unnerving.
I was quite relieved when they didn't shove her into our hands for a photo
. This was as close as I felt comfortable.
At the conclusion of the tour, the animal care staff brought us each out a set of five trading cards, one for each of the day's ambassadors, that featured all the information they shared about each animal that we had a chance to meet. I thought that was a great little souvenir! (and they will be a nice little addition to the inside cover of my photobook from the trip
).
At the time, the Animal Ambassador Up Close Tour was $15 per person, with 10% off for pass members (so we paid a net cost of $13.50 each). I believe it's gone up to $20 now, but even at $20 its a very fair price for the chance to meet 5 different animals in a small group setting. We were encouraged to do the tour again on future visits, as SeaWorld has upwards to 25 different Ambassadors so every tour has the potential to be different. Mila is apparently a regular on the tour (due to her popularity) but the other 4 animals change on a frequent basis.
Those Animal Ambassadors would not be our only new friends of the day: we had a Dismeet on deck, and were super excited to finally get to say hello to
@verleniahall and her husband Sam in person
. We also had a second tour scheduled for later that afternoon, where we'd shake fins with one of the stars of Sea Lion High. So stay tuned....there's much more SeaWorld coming up!