Wednesday, November 9, 2011

London Zoo

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love zoos almost as much as I love chocolate, or ice cream, or breathing.  This afternoon was supposed to be a sunny one, so a few friends and I thought we should take a trip to the London Zoo.  Located in Regent's Park, the London Zoo isn't far at all from school.  It's not very big, but I was pleased with the wide variety of things they had at the zoo.  I was also really impressed with how close you could get to the animals.

Welcome!


We started the morning with a visit to the giraffes, my favourite.  What a good way to start the day.  The giraffes were out and walking around, eating, and socialising with their neighbours, the zebras.  Had it been later in the day, we would have been able to feed the giraffes.  Still, it was nice because there weren't a lot of people around.  In fact, the whole zoo was quite empty.  I guess that's the benefit to going on a Wednesday afternoon.

Coming to the stump for a good neck scratch.

Such a pretty girl!

Socialising with the zebras.

Adorable! I maybe be a bit obsessed.


The next major stop was "Penguin Beach".  The London Zoo has 3 different types of penguins, that make up a colony of about 69 penguins total.  They were swimming, jumping, and sunbathing -- you know, penguiny things.  Later we came back to Penguin Beach to view the afternoon feeding.  I snapped a lot of pictures and even took a video.  The quality isn't the greatest, but it's a good way to get the feel of the place.  Check it out!


The troop swimming in anticipation of the feeding.

Penguin keepers feeding hungry penguins lots of fish.

Penguins through the underwater viewing hole.

Penguins through the underwater viewing hole, again!

Getting fed, through the viewing hole.



After the exciting penguins, we went on to the butterfly encounter.  Inside of a really hot, really humid, strange looking, bug-shaped bubble were hundreds of butterflies flying all around.  Though we weren't allowed to touch the butterflies, we were very close to lots of different species of butterflies.  This was the closest I've ever been to butterflies like this, other than the monarch butterflies that we "grew" in grade school.  I took some pictures and videos, but unfortunately because it was so humid, the lense started to fog.  Here are a few of the best pictures that I took, and a video.

The butterfly encounter - big inflatable bug tent!






After a lunch break, we headed to the "Big Cats".  This is usually my favourite part (except for the giraffes, of course) and this time we got to see some tigers up close and personal!  I've never been so close to a tiger before so I never realised how huge they are.  They're truly, quite massive cats.  We stood in front of their enclosure for over 5 minutes, just soaking it up.  I took another video here.  The video images aren't the most exciting, but my favourite part is the adorable background conversation between a little boy and his mum, who were standing next to me, right up front.  Hilarious and heart-warming!

Up close and personal.

Such a pretty boy.

Tiger kisses



We continued wandering through the zoo, being sure to sample all that it had to offer.  We saw wallabies, gorillas, monkeys, reptiles, sea creatures, and farm animals.  The gorilla enclosure was really neat, and offered the troop of six gorillas a lot of space to play and socialise.  Today we only saw 3 of the 6, but it seemed as though they were relatively happy in their London home.  Here are some miscellaneous pictures from the rest of the day.

This guy is ready for Movember!

An otter-pile is so much better than a dog-pile.

He was a friendly fellow.

Polka-dot pig makes me think of Momma.

This was by the llama enclosure.

One of the female gorillas.

Sneaky, hiding chameleon.  Upside down, dangling from the top of his cage.

There are such amazing patterns in nature, these turtles are living proof.

Sea horses :)


Four hours later, we were walking out of the London zoo feeling exhausted but quite satisfied.  The student price was £17, which was high, but also included a donation to help the zoo's conservation efforts around the globe.  Even though the zoo is quite "small" (especially when compared to zoos that I'm used to in the US) it was well laid out, and had a wide variety of animals.  I think it was £17 and four hours well spent.  As usual, cheek the Facebook for more pictures/videos.