Day 19 - San Diego Zoo

19th August 2016

Warning:  today's blog contains lots of images of animals that I took at the zoo. You should be grateful it's not all 250 of them!

We were up bright and early, and waiting at the zoo gates 15 minutes before it opened at 9am.

I had read that the animals are more active in the morning, and they were. The very first animals we saw were flamingos. I LOVE flamingos. They are so beautiful. These ones were so pink. Really pink. And very elegant. 

First stop was the Orangutang. They were hilarious. A great big ugly daddy one, then a mummy one, some younger ones, and then Oliver spotted the cutest little baby one, hiding under a sack on a hammock. They were hilarious. The daddy just wandered around eating, the mum was swinging about getting food, and the baby was trying to hide under the sack (bit like our house really). The good thing about being there early was that we were really the only ones there. We could have watched for hours.

We walked past lots of other types of cute monkeys, all swinging about playing. They had huge enclosures, and lots to do, and seemed very happy with the environment. 

You either agree with zoos or you don't. I am quite torn. I love animals, more than people actually. I am all for having them left alone in the wild. The trouble is that they don't get left alone, they get hunted by humans or their habitat destroyed by humans. This means that zoos do play a very important part in the preservation of endangered species and in saving animals that are threatened. A good example being three grizzly bears. They were rescued from Yellowstone Park, as their mum (one of the three) had taught her two cubs to hunt from the tents of campers. This meant that all three bears would have been shot in order to keep humans safe. Rather than be shot, they were offered to the zoo, and now get fed safely, and the campers at Yellowstone are safe. Win, win.

Certain animals didn't seem so happy, such as the Polar Bears (although they generally have a sad look anyway) and the elephants. The elephant area was huge - about half the size of a football pitch, with lots of different terrain, but they just looked a bit fed up. That's when I don't like zoos.

The tigers were next. So much like our cats, Binky and Pru. They are just much larger versions, with MUCH larger teeth. Two were cuddled up together sleeping, and one was on his own in another enclosure. He was washing his face, and he looked so much like a domestic cat. Tigers are apparently solitary animals in the wild, so the ones cuddling up would be separated once they start to demonstrate aggressive behaviour.

We saw lots of turtles, which look so graceful in their tank, swimming along. The larger ones hardly move (that's old age I guess) and look like something from a book of dinosaurs. The meerkats are always good fun to watch. With their little lookouts keeping watch whilst the others play, wash or look for food.

We walked into the most amazingly large aviary which was home to so many birds. The dense, rain-forest type foliage made it difficult to pick them out, but some of them were brave enough to be walking around on the paths. I was lucky enough to spot a tiny hummingbird on the fence.

Leaving the birds in peace, we saw so many other animals, hippos, various zebra, and other horse/deer like creatures that live in deserts (sorry, should have paid more attention to those signs). We eventually walked to the furthest part of the zoo, and boarded the Skyfari Aerial Tram. This is a kind of open cable car, that crosses over the top of the park, and you get the most amazing views of the whole zoo. It has the added bonus of taking you back to the main zoo entrance, so that you can start another trail. The zoo is colossal. This particular part alone had taken us three hours to cover. There is so much to see.

Next strop the giraffes. They are almost my favourite animal (whilst there are bunnies in the world, there will always be stiff competition for this). They were stunning. And you get so close to them. I think that as we can see them in our local zoo, we didn't feel so wooed by them, which is terrible, because they are so graceful and fascinating to watch.

They were very close to a cute little bunch of Koala bears, who were fast asleep in their trees.

 We also saw a little set of Bryan family turtles having a rest on a rock and getting some sun to their shells.

By this time it was almost 3pm, and were getting pretty weary. So we thought we would make the Pandas our last look of the day.

San Diego has done so much to help boost the panda population in captivity. Pandas only ovulate for three days out of 365 days a year, and it's really difficult to know when that is going to happen. China had loaned San Diego Zoo one of their female and male pandas in 1996 in the hope that they could get them to mate. San Diego have been so successful in monitoring the female ovulation cycle that she has had six separate babies in the 20 years she has been there. China take back the babies, and are learning their own ways to try to boost the numbers of Giant Pandas.

We had totally underestimated the number of people wanting to see the pandas, which are housed behind a bamboo screen, and the queue was really long. We ummed and aahed - should we just go? We decided to stay, and 40 minutes later we were rewarded with our first sight of a Giant Panda. One of the sons. Oh boy was he beautiful. Worth every minute we had waited in line. He looked so soft, I just wanted to hug him.

His mum was in the next enclosure and she was much bigger than I expected. So beautiful.

With that, we left the zoo.

On the way back we popped in to the last burger place we wanted to sample. Jack In The Box. The burgers were ok. Bit greasy for me, but it's the last one on the list. Tune in to a later blog for the final verdict of the best burger challenge.

We got back to the hotel and played around in the pool until 7pm, then a quick shower and off for dinner.

It's our last full day tomorrow, and there's a sense of panic that we only have one day left to explore San Diego. A good night's sleep is beckoning, and we will see what adventures we can have tomorrow.

I'll leave you with my shot of the day x