Bamboo and the Zoo

This past Saturday, Kristen had arranged for us to go and do some volunteer work to help out a bio grad student she knew, friend of a friend sorta thing. We were supposed to leave Starkville at 6, arrive in Memphis at 9:00am, cut bamboo for 3 hours, get to the Memphis zoo at 12:00, spend 3 hours at the zoo, then be home again by 6:00pm. This grad student is studying the eating habits of Pandas (they have 2 at the memphis zoo), e.g. what spiecies of bamboo do they prefer, what part of the plant do they prefer during which season etc... So Kristen, myself, another bio grad student, and two other bio undergrads were recruited to help out.
It was chilly and windy yesterday, but once we got into the bamboo stands it was a rather pleasant temperature. We had to cut a specified number of stalks from a specified stand. Then we had to chop them into ~5' lengths and bundle them into manageable sizes. Well, it took a lot longer than she expected. Partly because we were short-handed (which she knew, but aparently didn't realize that fewer people = longer time to work), and partly because the other two students worked at a very leisurely pace. Anyway, Kristen and I were rather upset with the other people, including the grad student whose project it was. Not only that, but they didn't even provide lunch for us! What sort of cheap-skates are they? We give them a full day of work and we don't even get food provided? Geez...

Anyway, finally got done around 2:00, at the zoo by 3:00. Got to spend 2 hours there. Some neat stuff to see, but as usual, zoos are kind of depressing since the animals have so little space, especially the ones that are used to African Savannah. I think the coolest thing I saw was a hug alligator snapping turtle. I guess the pandas were supposed to be the main attraction, but I couldn't help thinking they were ungrateful bastards as they snobbily ate the bamboo we had just cut for their finicky-eating pleasure. Kristen (who is usually terrified of spiders) even came into the Spider house with me, and did great. She wasn't scared at all. Go her.

On the way back home, we drove the wrong way for an hour (I kept hinting to the driver that we probably shouldn't be driving northwest... I didn't want to hurt his feelings). Eventually got home about 9:00, exhausted. Here's a few pictures.

Bamboo choppin'

Chop, chop, chop...

Kristen amongst the bamboo.

Tree-frog I nearly chopped in half...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Willapa.

Truckload of Panda food.

Ungrateful bastard. LeLe or YaYa or whatever, the Panda.

Orangutan eating carrots.

This was on a display of some sort of monkey. Smart monkies.

Neat picture Kristen took of a spiderweb on the handlebar of my road bike.