Mbongo & Tankins

We went to the San Diego Zoo today! The weather was gorgeous and we hadn't been to the zoo since July 4th!

Mbongo says HI
The sculpture was donated to the San Diego Zoo by Rachel Wegeforth. Mbongo was one of two male mountain gorillas captured in the Belgian Congo in 1930 by Osa and Martin Johnson. He and fellow gorilla, Ngagi, were donated to the San Diego Zoo in 1931 by Ellen and Robert Scripps(yes that's the same Scripps. She apparently donated EVERYTHING to Southern California. Seriously. You see/hear her name everywhere). Mbongo grew to be 618 pounds. The bust of Mbongo was modeled from life shortly before he died in March of 1942. The statue is right near the front of the gate; however, it only gives the sculpture details, nothing about the gorilla himself- it's ashamed it doesn't give more info, I had to look online to find out any details about him.

After visiting Mbongo and Ngagi, we took the Skyfari to the back of the park.
In the lower left of the picture you can see the seats of the Wegeforth Bowl, the amphitheater where they hold the sea lion show. The tall tower(200-foot California Tower) and shorter dome are both the top of the Museum of Man, "the city’s only museum devoted to anthropology. With its Spanish colonial and mission style architecture, the landmark building was originally constructed for the 1915–16 Panama-California Exposition. Today, a key focus of the museum is to create and display dynamic and educational anthropological exhibits about people and places throughout the Americas and around the world." Sounds like something you'd enjoy!

When you get off of Skyfari in the back of the park there's an exhibit of Tankins!
You can see him ontop of the rocks - king of the mountain! I love them!!