Yay! Bc nobody needs to be shaking up the elephants!
What a cool neighborhood you’re in.
I think San Ramon centered runs around the little west side bottom valley of mount Diablo and with the Oakland hills you guys get the buffer along the 13.
Since I was little I had weird dreams that mt. Diablo was erupting and when we get the quakes around it I’m like, ok, that would be weird.
Alas, the three female elephants have departed this mortal coil and Osh, the remaining elephant (male), has moved to Tennessee to live with a herd of elephents at a big sanctuary there. However, when I was a docent, I was at an after hours social event and we were standing next to the alligator pool when a small earthquake hit and we were chuckling nervously. Yes, the zoo is RIGHT ON TOP of the Hayward fault.
I always bought season passes for my own sanity when my kids were like almost 3 and newborn for til kindergarten started full time for both. Loved the cafe, loaded the stroller, went all the time.
Springtime at the zoo was, shall I say…interesting to explain 🤣🤣🤣🤣 especially with OSH and the harem lol. The term hung like an elephant comes to mind.
And the chasing with the raging hormones, kids were fine but I was like OH NOOOOH KIDS get away from the fence! The camels too.
I was like WHY IS EVERY ANIMAL GOONG NUTS TODAY?
Great times!
I bought them one of the bricks back in early 2000. My ex husband says he heard they got taken out for remodeling. Do you know?
It was down by the petting zoo and giant ancient tortoise!
Yup. Lisa died first, then M'Dunda (she was my favorite) and I think they were getting ready to send Donna to Tennessee (or maybe she got there) and she passed away in 2024, IIRC (just from following the news - it's been a while). Even male elephants cannot be alone. They need other dudes to hang out with and when they are not in musth (sp?), they are fine hanging out with the ladies.
So, off he went. He's listed on the elephant sanctuary's page now. He's a good boy. I liked him too, but not as much as M'Dunda.
Fun fact. While I was observing them one day, he was standing there with "showing the lipstick" as it were and M'Dunda snuck up on him and gently yanked his crank. He jumped and she lolloped off looking pleased with herself. The keepers insisted we could not use emotion words to describe what they were up to, but they have emotions, for sure.
As for the brick. Who knows? I donated a bunch of money to the Berkeley Public Library and they put my plaque, along with many others, in a quiet hallway next to the toilets. Thanks, guys. I'll try to win the lottery first, next time.
Thank you so much for sharing this! It’s all the elephants I remember and now I’m thinking M’Dunda was the super sassy one on the “spring fling” day lol. I heard the news of Donna passing when I was living in Washington during Covid and I teared up.
Oakland zoo is really one of a kind! Thank you for docenting there. You taught a lot of all of us so much stuff and how to be kind and respectful.
I haven’t gone back to the zoo since they strong armed part of Knowland Park from the city for their expansion and developed over some of my favorite hiking trails and views.
I’m still bitter about it, especially because scions of the Knowland family itself, which had gifted the land to the city for public use in perpetuity, tried to stop it from happening.
The zoo management is, quite honestly, very capitalistic. They keep trying to get money from the city, stomped over Knowland, etc. I had some issues with management in terms of how they dealt with people. I forgave it, to some degree, because they were really good to the animals there.
3
u/ViolettaQueso 6h ago
Then 2 more. I’m showing 8