Tuesday, December 9, 2008

We're all going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

...San Diego Zoo is big. Huge in fact.

Our bus driver, RD, was a highlight - very amusing commentary on the trip from Anaheim to San Diego. He pointed out points of interest such as the nuclear power plant which looked like boobs, Richard Nixon's birthplace, year round strawberry fields (the strawberries of which lack any taste), a Mission as well as military installations and finally the fences to stop people skipping over the Mexico to US border.

I know I have said it before, but this time I am just going to post photos.

Some people are in two minds about zoos, but it appears that San Diego has a very strong conservationist approach - I guess most modern zoos have to be to survive in this day and age.

Some of the animals did seem to have very small habitat areas, but the zoo was working on increasing these; for example, next year the elephants are getting a huge new area for them to roam. I felt most sorry for the big cats as they like space and this wasn't really forthcoming.

Another thing our driver mentioned was that there is a San Diego Wildlife Park which has the animals free to wander about and the people are in the cages travelling through the park. Maybe that would be a more real experience and more fair on the animals?

Before we even get to the zoo


Mr. Tiger


Cute little pigs


Bears looking tired


Oddly enough, his name is Blackie


Alice the camel has...two humps!


Brown bear having a rest


Two huggy rhinos


Long necks


If I ate that much shrimp, I'd be pink too


Ancient beasts


Snakey


Neither crocodile nor alligator but a Gharial


They can live to be 200! Move slow though.

Surprise!


Hungry hippo


What is that?


Moosey


Polar bear...once again, another sleeping bear


Playful panda


Another cutey


A fun ride across the park


Yummy cafe down below - they sell BIG cups of beer


A wild squirrel giving me the stink eye


Elefunks


Huh, what are they?


And that is that - a rather relaxing day although I think we needed a bit more time to explore (the tour bus only arrived at the zoo at 11am).

Coming next - Vegas, Baby!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to be in the win for this competition/test: The first "unknown" animal is a so called Okapi. The second (last picture) is a tapir.

Love your blog. Please keep up the good work.

Cheers,
C&G

Foo said...

Thanks for that! We were told about the okapi but I couldn't remember the name. The second is of course a tapir, I should have known this one!