Tuesday, January 29, 2013

At the zoo

Yesterday we went to Melbourne Zoo to visit a very special (and very cute) new baby.

Being a public holiday, hundreds of people had the same idea, so there were loooooong queues for what turned out to be a five-minute viewing time of the latest addition to the zoo's growing elephant family.

His mum and big sister Mali, who was born at the zoo in 2010, were so protective it was a little difficult to get a good view of this endearing little chap - so small and so precious. Meanwhile, his dad, who is enormous, wallowed in the pool, away from his family.

Seeing the as-yet-unnamed little elephant was definitely worth the drive and the queues. I loved seeing the giraffes, too - they are so stately and so inquisitive - but wasn't impressed with the dusty enclosure they shared with a couple of zebras. In fact, most of the enclosures seemed to me to be too small for the large, majestic (and snoozy; it was a warm day) animals they housed.

Now I'm interested in visiting the open range zoos at Werribee or Dubbo - much more doable than seeing animals in the wild in Africa, which I imagine would be an incredible experience (or maybe I'll just have to watch more David Attenborough programmes on telly).





3 comments:

Chookyblue...... said...

Western Plains Zoo is great.......let me know when you head this way.......

Liz said...

You should definitely go to the Werribee zoo Jan, we took 4 grandchildren there on new years eve, a much animal friendlier place...hmm, not good grammar but you get the meaning :o)
Lizzie
xxx

Teresa said...

Oh how cute!!! You must go to Western Plains zoo... it is wonderful. I love the giraffes too x