We started our day when the zoo opened at 9. We headed toward the pandas, stopping to see Jake and Nick, a couple of Tasmanian devils, roaming around as well as looking at a few bears on the way. We enjoyed seeing the red panda climbing a tree and a viper, which Sarah decided was her favorite animal (she was really into snakes and other reptiles). When we got to the pandas, we saw them eating bamboo. Of course. Since that's what they spend most of their waking time doing. Since we were there early, we were able to spend as much time as we wanted with them, which was nice.
Red panda climbing around a tree.
Sarah loved this viper!
Matthew and Sarah with the younger panda.
U with the mama panda in the background.
Doing what pandas do best--eating bamboo! This is the younger panda.
This is the mama panda.
Megan loved seeing the flamingos as well as other shore birds that were at an exhibit just outside the pandas.We then headed up to see the polar bears. That was really cool!
This polar bear was really moving around a lot!
It was eating carrot and pumpkin. Who knew polar bears ate their veggies?
Family shot with polar bear in background.
Polar bear obliged us by moving closer so we could get a nice family shot with him.
The kids enjoyed all the interactive exploration they were able to do in the Arctic.
Here they are heading off on an exploratory mission. I sure hope U is ok in that seat of his :)
We walked through Elephant Odyssey, where we saw lions and camels and African and Asian elephants. We saw one elephant as they were bringing him back to do his daily check and grooming.
Research scientist Sarah with an elephant in the background.
We saw lots of koalas (around 20). They were all sleeping. Koalas do that a lot. However, we know they wake up occasionally as they'd changed positions in the trees when we saw them a second time. Of course, they were still sleeping. One must admit that they are super cute sleepers! (We sent pictures of the koalas to my sister, as they're her favorite animal.)
We did see a couple of koalas awake in this tree.....
We walked up Treetops Way, where we saw orangutans and gorillas, and down Monkey Trail, where we saw monkeys. We stopped in at one of the aviaries where we saw birds. We then walked down Tiger Trail. One exhibit had turtles and gharials, a fish-eating crocodile. The gharials kept looking like they were going to eat Sarah. Thankfully they didn't. :)
Sarah loving her snakes.
We saw a tiger which the menfolk liked a lot. (Tiger is in background of the first photo.)
And we saw some hippos and played on the hippo statue.
Sarah and Matthew loved the vibrating foot massage.
How Megan spent a good part of the afternoon.
We watched an otter playing in the water--it's so fun to watch them scurry around. We stopped by the pandas again before seeing some cats on Big Cat Trail. Matthew liked looking at all the big cats.
The kids enjoyed playing a bit in the Discovery Zone and petting the goats. We even saw a fight amongst some of the goats.
We looked at insects in the Insect House and watched Black-capped Peruvian Squirrel Monkeys as they leapt around their enclosure. Megan in particular enjoyed watching the monkeys and persuaded us to stay to watch them a little longer. We then saw a bunch of reptiles, including lots and lots of snakes.
Favorite Animals of the Day (Heavily influenced by the last animals seen)
Matthew: Snakes (but not the big ones), elephants, red panda, all of the animals
Megan: Snakes, elephants, giraffes, flamingos
Sarah: Green Tree Python
Me: panda, polar bears and all the koalas!
U: red panda and polar bears and otters
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