
Sunday was our first trip to the zoo! Probably the first of many. Indigo's Auntie Tanja met us at the house to join us for her first zoo trip. Auntie Tanja wanted to make sure that Indigo had the appropriate outfit for the zoo and had bought Indigo the most lovely onesie with a photo of one of our zoo cheetahs on it that Tanja had taken.

I was also the recipient of a lovely tote bag with the same cheetah photo on it and Tanja had knitted for Indigo a lovely cardigan hoodie with elephant buttons - so special.

The four of us took off and Indigo fell asleep in the car seat - she was overdue for a nap. I thought that she might stay asleep from the transition from car seat to stroller but everything was much too exciting for that. Of course we first went to check out the cheetahs which meant stopping to chat with the volunteers on the cheetah exhibit. We could only see one cheetah and Indigo was far too enthralled with watching people and children to really notice. We were looking for Kate, one of the keepers, so Tanja and I went into the back area and just happened to see the two new Grevys zebras! They have been in quarantine since arriving and had just come down to the keeping area from the hospital and are adapting and meeting each other before they go out on exhibit. They looked so tiny compared to our huge boy Nathan who has left to join his harem in Florida. The other keeper told us that Kate was with the wallabies so we went over there and saw her through the fence so she came out to meet the newest little future cheetah volunteer/zoo employee.

It was cool because while we were all chatting with Kate, Andrew, another cheetah volunteer, showed up with his new little girl - affectionately called "Ellie" as her mother is an elephant volunteer. So far the first animal to catch Indigo's attention had been one of our scimitar horned oryx because it had come up close enough for her to focus on it.

As we walked through Asia trail she also noticed the big sloth bear who was moving around and came to perch right in front of us on a rock. From the Asia trail we went to lunch at the zoo bar which is where the cheetah volunteers meet for happy hour before our monthly meetings.

Indigo was very good there. Then we went back to the zoo and back down through Asia trail.

This time she saw the asian small clawed otters playing and also locked in on the red pandas. By the time we reached the elephants Indigo had fallen asleep in her stroller which was a good thing because she needed a nap.

She did however miss the hippo keeper doing enrichment with the hippo and having it open its massive mouth! David and Tanja did a tour through small mammal house while I sat out in the shade with sleeping Indigo.
We also saw the whole Golden Lion Tamarin (GLT) family which is are out on free range for the summer.

Guess how many GLTs you are seeing in this photo... it's actually six!

The mother, father, the twins from last year and the new twins just born in May. Then we went down to big cats and saw the three Sumatran tiger cubs born last year and their mother. The cubs are now huge but they were so cute and very playful with two stalking and leaping upon one another. After big cats we headed back up the hill at a rapid pace, passed the cheetahs again and this time saw the three Potter boys out in the yard and headed home. It was a great day.
2 comments:
The two close-up pics of Indigo are amazing. She is so beautiful!
The Tigers were my favorite at the zoo. Sounds like a fun couple of days. Are you ever going to slow down??? Hee Hee Love, Amy
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