Baby on Safari

One evil I’ve always struggled against is the natural human tendency toward the cliché. This is likely one of the key reasons that I continue to be so popular with the literary masses. But I also know that if you want to make it in the Baby Adventure business, you have to give the people what they want. And when you go to Africa, people want safaris. So I’m afraid those of you who think there is no angle from which a giraffe can be shot that you have not seen before will have to be at least placated, if not somewhat delighted, by the fact that the following beasts are more special than your garden variety giraffe because they have been seen by me, Omi, Baby Adventure Traveler.

Adventure travel is about a search for knowledge, not just about the world, but about ourselves. I wonder, for example, as I look over these pictures, why the large African mammals are so well represented in our zoos and museums when other animals, such as the weevil and the pigeon are scorned by intellectuals and naturists alike? Is it because oftentimes these great beasts possess a photographic oddity such as a neck like a fireman’s ladder or a superfluous phallus on the proboscis? Why is it we don’t soliloquize or even slow to honor a flattened, mangled pile of roadkill we may pass on our way to the zoo? Why have some species been invited into our homes while we support industries designed to exterminate others with brutal efficiency?

I don’t pretend to have answers to these questions, but I suggest that the distinction we make between winner and loser animals is not something we are born with but rather is acquired at some point after the age of eight months. I know this must be true because I spent much of my morning following the amazing movements of an ant on the living room floor. Drool trickled down my chin as I sat in wonder of his tiny, determined movements. I’d like to say I will never lose my innocent sense of wonder, but life with my assistants and others of their generation has showed me that it is inevitable. Maybe the fact that I still have it is what makes me so special at this age, like a graceful, rare Nubian giraffe.

Look closely, there's a giraffe hiding in this picture

Peace to all,
Omi, Baby Adventure Traveler