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Idaho's exotics

Tom Hasslinger | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 13 years, 2 months AGO
by Tom Hasslinger
| August 26, 2011 9:00 PM

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<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Lola, a miniature zebu cow, inspects a visitor at the Cute As A Bug petting zoo.</p>

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<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Clara Tenbrink, 6, peers over the top of the riding harness during a ride of a dromedary camel at the fair on Thursday.</p>

COEUR d'ALENE - It has nothing to do with Idaho life, except that it's here.

Surprisingly, camels adapt well, so northern winters don't bother them, even if they're originally from the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia or Australia.

And that little calf looking thing, that's a miniature zebu, named Lola, whose family comes from Asia, but now makes her home in Athol when she's not at the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo.

"Usually they're awestruck," said Jeannene Christ, the former Phoenix zoo worker and camel trainer on the reaction her animals draw from everyone who's used to seeing pigs and cows. "So there's not much. It takes them awhile. You'll be talking to them and they don't say anything."

And right on cue, as the fair doors opened Thursday morning just after 10 a.m., people wandered by the north side of the grounds and spotted the animals that belong, but not really.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," said Noelle Branen, stopping by with her kids, who snapped pictures with their cell phones.

At their Coeur d'Alene home, the Branens have four bunnies, a dog, a goat, a cat and a rat. Would they trade them in for something a little more, say, rare?

Tough call.

"She's just really, really cute," said Cassie Branen, 9, snapping pic after pic of Lola, the first time seeing a baby zebu. "And she looks so nice."

Meanwhile her stepbrother, Jack Brown, wanted to get the alpaca in the corner to spit at him or at least at something.

"They'd probably get mad at me," he said, meaning management and thinking it over.

It's the second year Christ brought the animals to the fair. She started her own exotic animal petting zoo, Cute As a Bug, after working for years at the Phoenix Zoo, then deciding to flee the 120 degree heat for northern pine trees.

Once in Athol she learned that there really aren't any rules against owning camels, which she always loved anyway.

"I thought, 'really?'" she said. That helped her come to the decision that if she was going to own animals, "horses are out and camels are in."

And like horses, you can ride them. And like horses, they have personalities, and let you know how they feel. When Christ cleaned the baby Hammie's eyes, it bellied and groaned. When a reporter rode Sarah despite pushing the 200 pound weight limit, it really bellied and groaned.

But the kids, they love them, and from atop the single-backed dromedary camel you see quite a view.

Awesome, is how Jacob Heidt, 9, of Kellogg, veteran of six camel rides described it.

"It's bumpy," he said, preferring that to the smooth ride of a horse. "I like that."

While the animals originate from so far away, importing them has actually stopped, and local, i.e. North American, breeders have taken over here.

So Z, the baby Zebra, who roots in Africa, was actually born in Spokane.

Still, nothing against goats, chickens and the rest, but have you ever seen a baby zebu run between the legs of a camel?

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