Our Wild Day at the Zoo

fLots of planning goes into an outfit for a day long adventure.  Since she was going to be strapped in the carseat AND the stroller 75% of the time we opted for pants.  I bough this Nicole Miller outfit off Zulily a lifetime ago and thought the zebra print was an obvious choice for a zoo trip.  Knowing how unpredictable Oregon weather can be (and to limit sun exposure) we put a lightweight sweater over it (plus a pop of hot pink with a neon green outfit is always a hit).  The shoes were a big fuss - Now that she's walking she needs to wear shoes when we go out, but I wanted her to be comfortable and many of her Stride Rite shoes are not broken in enough to be comfortable for all day wear.  The clogs were slightly annoying in that they were easy for Hannah to kick off and we had to keep a close eye on them, but they were comfortable, breezy, and easy to knock the sand and dirt out of after she went walking in this grassy area.  Overall, I think she looked adorable.

Since school just let out for the summer, Zoo Camp was going on while we were there.  Everywhere we looked there was a group of 8 -10 kids in matching shirts being scurried along from attraction to attraction by a den mother.  We listened in on a few of the lessons and quickly agreed that as soon as Hannah was old enough, we would enroll her.  How fun would it be to go to summer camp at the zoo?!

Chris manned the Bloggie during our trip, and I took the spectacular pictures you are about to see.  

You're welcome.

The tiger exhibit was pretty neat.  The pair was sleeping in a shaded nook, but just as we were about to leave, one ventured out for a drink.

 Hannah seemed unfazed by the tiger in the background.

 Next we stopped to see the Malayan sun bears.    The sun bear is the smallest bear and is known in its native country as the human bear, the upright bear or the honey bear.  The later name comes from the fact that these bears use their long curved front claws to tear open trees and termite mounds in order to eat the bee and insect larvae.  They also eat small rodents, jungle fowl and fruit.  And giant red kongs as we see int he picture below.

The penguins are always one of my favorites.  Right as we got there the penguins all hopped out of the water and the crowd quickly dispersed.  We took a prime spot in front of the glass and watched as they all jumped back.

 The Oregon Zoo has a new dinosaur exhibit.  We didn't check it out, but we did take advantage of the photo opt in front of it.  Passersby laughed at how casually Hannah held on to a T-Rex tooth.

The Mandrills are always good for a laugh with their rainbow snouts and rumps.  They live in dense rainforests of West Africa, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo.  Hunted for bushmeat trade and losing their forest home to farms, logging and roads, they are endangered.

  Hannah thought the Orangutan was very neat.  She loved watching it swing from post to post.

 We're not sure how much of the day she understood, but we tried to make sure she had a clear eye line to the animal as we talked to her about it.

Of all the animals we saw, I think she liked this fish the most.

My favorite exhibit of the day was the Ocelot.  I wrote a paper on them back in fifth grade and its been one of my favorite animals ever since.  The last time we went to the zoo he was taking a nap, but he was very active during this visit and we watched him run all around his area.

The elephant exhibit always bums me out a little.  Maybe it's the glass AND bars you have to peer through to see them.  Maybe it's my early childhood memories of Dumbo.  ...

The statue of the elephant was MUCH more entertaining.  I still can't believe Chris let go of her....  But the picture IS pretty adorable.

There were other statues scattered around the zoo.  This picture turned out particularly beautiful.

I've been on quite the zebra kick lately (hence the outfit...) and this Damara Zebra really made my day by standing so still and letting me get this great photo.  Native to the savanna grasslands of eastern Africa, the zebra's diet consists mainly of savanna grasses and occasionally some leaves, bark, roots or stems.  At the zoo they also introduce hay to his diet.  The Damara zebra is unique in that it has the black stripe we're used to seeing, but also has a tan 'shadow' stripe in between.  They are very social animals and are usually seen with other animals such as wildebeest, antelope and ostriches.

We had a great day at the zoo.  The weather was beautiful, Hannah was in a pretty good mood and we took lots of wonderful photos.