So, yes, on Friday we went to Toronto Zoo. Paid the admission fee. And what did we see?
Raccoons! Sleeping Raccoons! We have raccoons in our own back yard...thieving tomato thieves that they are!
Actually, we thoroughly enjoyed our day at the zoo, despite the ever-growing-soreness of our feet. Or at least, my feet. Here's the photostory of our day, unfortunately I don't remember the names of all the animals...nor is this a picture of every animal we saw!
The first 'big cat' we saw...I always want to take one of these creatures home with me!
An orangatan
I think this was the Gibbson Monkey...they can go up to 15km/hr (or was it 30km/hr) swinging arm over arm from tree to tree!
A Samutran tiger, there were 4 of these out for the day, in 2 separate cages. One of the cats was jumping and snarling at one of the tiger-keepers (through the fence); apparently his mate had been taken away from him a few days ago for surgery, and he had been pretty grumpy ever since. I decided I didn't need to take one of these 'big cats' home! :)
An African elephant. I always find it ironic that there are Asian elephants at the African Lion Safari, and now to learn that there are African elephants at the Toronto Zoo!
This is all we saw of the hippo...he was just keeping himself under water, sticking his nose out every so often just to breathe.
The cheetah
This baboon was having a drink of the water.
A lynx - not much bigger than a large pussy cat :)
Grizzly bears...there were two of them, both sleeping in the sun, but this one awoke enough to scratch himself. I said 'hi' to the bear, he gave me a bored stare, and went back to sleep. Clearly people are not that interesting! He looked rather cute and cuddly...but the windows and walls around him told a different story!
Moose.
A bald eagle...a magnificent creature. There were two, and they had been brought to the zoo injured, and never recovered well enough to be returned to the wild. I think they have had young which were released to the wild though. I think it is so neat how they have feathers on their legs...makes them look like they are wearing pants! This one was walking all over the ground of his cage.
Bison.
Cougars aka Mountain Lions aka Panthers
Just like the cows in the country side: the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
These peacocks were walking around the food plazas like seagulls or chickens, looking for what they could find.
Arctic Wolves.
Otters...we saw these guys get their lunch, but we had to wait quite awhile before the Otter-keeper came with their food, so we watched them swim and swim and swim....very active little creatures!
The Cheetah on our second view, hoping for a bone from the zoo keeper.
A lionness, an old girl, she was 14 years old, lions typically live to about 16. She is a rare white lion.
And a very old lion, he is 16 years old. He was pretty slow to get up, even when there was food. Then after his snack, he went around behind the rock again, and roared a few times...helps him digest his food maybe?
The beaver. From an inside view of his house. You can't quite see his mate beside him.
A spotted jaguar
A black jaguar...this is the cat I really want to take home...because, although this picture doesn't show it, they still have the spots, even though they are black. It is so cool! This is Karen's favourite!
Polar bears...these are very neat creatures too!
But I was getting a little worried about this bear...he kept going up to a man-door, then coming out of the corner, then back into the corner. It reminded me of Gus, the neurotic polar bear!
This is a barbury ape, and he was sitting all by himself in the bottom of a concrete moat...he looked so lonely! There were other apes in the area with him though.
Some special fox, not the red fox we may spot in the country side.
One-humped camels.
Two-humped camels, and they were eating too. Just like the one-humped camels, all of them lined up at the feeding trough! They were harder to find - their pen was behind closed buildings.
This was called a red panda, I think... much much smaller than the more commonly known black and white panda, but you can see the similarities. Pretty cute little guy, actually, maybe I should ask Rob for one of these too! :)
A Siberian tiger.
And a couple marsupials.
It was a great day at the zoo, and so neat to be able to see all these marvelous creatures in God's creation!
3 comments:
haha, i totally remember that last time we were at the zoo as a family (no idea when that would have been - like 15 years ago?!) the jaguar was the one you wanted to take home then, too!
These are some awesome pictures, Karen!! I'm glad the animals were so active while you were there!
And from the look of it, you and Rob braved the Hill of Pain to get down to the Cdn exhibit?
Thanks Thelma! It was a fun day, and yes, we braved the 'Hill of Pain'. We did that before lunch though, so we weren't too sore & tired yet then. :) It was the Australian loop that we rather "raced" through...although I'm not sure our speed at that point in the day would qualify as "racing" :)
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