What we learned at the zoo....

We headed over to two different types of zoos while we were in AZ. The Phoenix Zoo and the Wildlife World Zoo were both pretty interesting. The Phoenix Zoo is much more of a natural habitat zoo where the animals are pretty far away and you stroll through a large area. They had a great carousel with all sorts of cool animals and a big pond that people scooted around in paddle boats. Gwennie really got a kick out of the baboons and also seemed to enjoy checking out the the animals on the carousel more than anything else.

Then the next day we went to the Wildlife World Zoo near my parents house which was much more of a close encounter experience. As you can see from the pictures, some of the areas had birds right in frontof you and they weren't scared of anything! This pictures was taken in one of the bird exhibits and after this bird almost landed on the stroller, we decided we were all set with wildlife! My dad and I strolled over to the lion thinking they would be a few yards away....more like a few feet! The animals areas are RIGHT next to people and most of them like to hang out right in front of everyone. A lioness literally was giving us the stare down checking out Gwennie (probably for lunch!). Gwennie really enjoyed this zoo more because the animals were so close and she could almost reach out and touch them. We figure since we got there right when it opened and they were feeding the animals, they were more interested in people. She also loved the small mammals area where all the little monkeys were hanging out. I tried to take a few pictures but the reflection with the flash didn't really work out too well. One of our favorites was the Giraffe feeding area. I have a video of my dad and Gwennie feeding them but as you will see, my dad wasn't too keen on a large blue tongue darting out at him! Gwennie on the other hand thought it was hilarious!

Gwennie also liked the children's petting area...which was basically a bunch of goats, lamas, deer, chickens and turkeys (the turkeys were in a cage...they liked to bite!!!). The goats were like garbage disposals...they tried to eat everything which included cameras, my shorts, Gwennie's fingers, shoes, socks and whatever else they could find. They had some coin operated feeding stations but you couldn't actually get any of the food out because the goats would rush over and stick their heads right in before you could actually get any of the food into your hands (smart animals).

My dad and I thought the best part of the zoo was when a girl decided she wanted to get a close up of a monkey with her cell phone and guess what happened???? The monkey turned the tables on her and grabbed the cell phone right out of her hands! So then she starts to scream at the monkey telling it to give her back her phone (at this point my dad and I can barely stand up we are laughing so hard at her). Finally someone from the zoo came down and basically told her that by the time they get the cell phone from the monkey it will probably be in two pieces but she could wait around and they would get to it sooner or later. Here's a video of the monkey beating the cell phone against a tree branch.

So.....what did we learn at the zoo? The goats and giraffes are very well fed, don't upset the monkeys and watch out for the birds!

Click here for pictures