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Published: July 11th 2010
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Well, today we took a gamble by going to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. Michelle N had recommended for us to go to the San Diego Zoo, as she said it was one of the best zoos she has ever been to - that's saying something coming from Michelle. The Wild Animal Park did not disappoint one little bit. It was a 1 1/2 hour drive from where we are staying in Anaheim. From the moment we walked in you could tell it had a fantastic set-up. As we entered we walked through a netted bird aviary, where there were a few different species of birds. Then we went through and saw the flamingos on the way to seeing the elephants. After having a quick look at the elephants we went back to the Nairobi Village to see the meerkats being fed. They are so cute and a lot smaller than I thought they were. From there we went on and had a bite to eat. Our next mission was to go and see the Cheetahs being fed, which was a very long walk that took us on a Journey Into Africa that included seeing beautiful gardens (with a
lot of Aussie natives I might add), we got to see some animals we had never heard of before like Okapi, Giant Eland, Bontebok, Duiker and a Southern Gerenuk and then we arrived in the Heart of Africa where a big highlight for the day was seeing the Cheetahs being fed. They are just stunning animals. Whilst in the Heart of Africa they brought out giant hoola hoops, skipping ropes, beading and clay sculpting for the children to participate in. The girls loved having a go at the giant hoola hoops. Was lots of fun.
After a little break there we headed off for our Kiliminjaro Walk which took us past giraffes, rhinos, the lions, (who were too busy sleeping to take any notice of us) the Roar & Snore camp and Sumatran Tiger enclosure, (unfortunately we didn't get to seeany tigers as they were off hiding somewhere 😞 )
Next it was onto to the far top of the Park to see the Condors which where very impressive. On the way to seeing the Condors we saw a Roadrunner, Bald Eagle, Praire Dog, North American Porcupine, and a Desert Bighorn Sheep - interesting creatures and this morning a baby
was born.
Our next trip was to see the Bonsai Pavillion which was really impressive. They even had a grape plant bonsai that had bunches of grapes on it. After there we went and saw the elephants again at a different viewing area. They were just amazing and there were 2 babies that were born this year. The mothers' were very protective of their young not going far from them at all.
Our last leg of the day was to go and see the Gorillas, they were interesting and there was one particular gorilla that kept stirring up the other ones. Very cheeky. We saw Red-Cheeked Gibbons as well as a few other birds on our way out.
A few things that I want to add about this day and the park are:
The Wild Animal Park was very impressive and a credit to the staff as every exhibit and area of the park was spotless and spacious for the animals.
The Wild Animal Park is over 1800 acres in size and has the largest vet hospital in the world. It houses over 3000 animals with over 400 different species.
Part of the African Summer Festival which is running for
all the of Summer is a little passbook that the kids get to carry around and get stamped when they get to certain areas of the park. We would have walked for at least 5/6 k's during the day (and it wasn't all flat - I can tell you that much) so it was a real incentive for them to keep going even though they were getting tired as they filled their passbooks with the stamps.
We managed to get around the whole park and saw all the animals (except the tigers), but I haven't listed them all.
A great day, and tiring but so worth it.
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Andrea
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What an awesome zoo!!