Trip to the Zoo!

So before I start, I regret to say that my super secret project is not ready to go live yet. And that makes me so sad that I didn't even spell it in a funny way. But..I'm not giving up! I feel like it's one of those things where it's going to hard for me to get started on it, but then once it gets going it'll be more smooth. So hopefully I'll get to really working on it this weekend. But probably not today though, I'm taking a rest day today. Why am I so tired? Well...

Yesterday I went to the Toronto Zoo! I went with my mom and sister for my sister's birthday. I actually hadn't been there in years, even though it's like a twenty minute drive from my house. I guess it's like that thing where you don't go to the tourist attractions that are in your own city. Like, I've never been to the CN Tower at all! Well, never gone inside anyway. Weird, huh?

Anyway, it was a really fun day. It turned out being sunnier than we expected so I got some sun burns, but that was just a small blemish. We saw a bunch of neat stuff, and this time I actually took quite a few pictures. So for this post, I think it will be mostly just small descriptions attached to the pictures. Less writing than usual, probably, but hey, it's a rest day! So anyway, let's get started.

So the main attraction at the Zoo right now is a pair of giant pandas. They're pretty young right now, but when they get a couple of years older, the Zoo is going to try to mate them. Since they are so endangered, that should be a neat story to follow. The first one we saw was the female, and unfortunately she was hiding a bit.

One thing the pandas really seemed to enjoy doing was just covering themselves in the bamboo they were eating. I'm sure Hedonism Bot would be proud. Here's the male, who was either more outgoing, or more likely, too lazy to hide himself.

So next we went to the Australian area, where we saw some emus and kangaroos. Unfortunately the kangaroos were kind of far away, but at least an emu gave us a good photo op.

May have to click to enlarge to actually see these guys.

Then we saw some wallabys! They were pretty cute.

Then we went inside into the Australian Pavillion. The first thing we saw in there was a tree kangaroo, which seemed to be pretty tired. He just chilled in his little hammock.

There was also a bird just standing on the ground, with no enclosure. He seemed kind of stand-offish, though, so I didn't get too close. It was like, WHATEVER BRO.

Next we've got some reptiles! Check 'em out.

Definitely one of my favourite pictures I took. Charming!

This one didn't turn out as well, but he's like a mini version of the guys above. And the lightning bolt markings are cool.

That head popping out of the ground is a komodo dragon. It was really hot, so he was probably chilling underground for most of the day. Feel kinda lucky we even got to see that much of him!

The last thing from the Australian Pavilion was a tank of jellyfish. Since the camera on my phone sucks, the picture doesn't look as cool as the actual tank did, but gives you an idea.

Then we went back outside and went over to one of the food areas to decide where to go next. There we happened upon a couple of peacocks walking around picking up stuff people dropped. They were quite friendly.

So next we went to the Arctic Tundra area, but since it was so hot out, most of the animals were hiding. But we did manage to see the polar bears and snowy owls, which you can see below. One of the polar bears did several cute poses.

This one is a different bear, incase the change of view confused you.

So next we went into the Americas Pavilion, which had a bunch of really cool stuff. First up was a little room with some birds flying around all free-like.

Okay, so the little guy above, the blue-green one with a long tail. THIS GUY. He's called a blue-crowned motmot. He introduced himself to us by coming out of nowhere and divebombing us as we walked along the path. Then we followed him around, because he looked so neat. Then he divebombed us again, this time coming so close that I felt the wind coming off his wings. But, from the way he was acting, he was obviously just playing around and having fun, not being aggressive.

So when we were leaving the room, the doors have a sign that ask to leave the doors closed, so the birds don't fly through. But you have to open them to get through, right? Well, when I walked through, the cheeky little motmot decided to come with me, actually whacking me on the head with his tail as he went through. We found a zookeeper and told him what happened, and he knew which bird we were talking about before we even mentioned it. Apparently he's a bit of an escape artist. So the keeper went to shoo him back into his room, so it was all good in the end. Anyway, here are a couple more pictures of him, and one more bird from the same room.

This guy is kinda hard to see, but he's right in the middle of the shot. We don't know what he is, couldn't find the sign, but he kind of looks like a mini toucan.

Moving on then, let's check out some of the other things in the Americas Pavilion.

Owl!

Another owl in the same cage, chillin' up against the side.

A rather large boa constrictor. Got almost the whole thing in the shot!

Another one that didn't turn out so great, but it's a smaller boa constrictor.

Kinda hard to see, but the bumpy brown blob to the top right is actually a giant octopus. The coloured blocks at the top are his toys.

This is an eyelash viper. Cool colour, I thought.

A gila monster. He seemed really friendly, when I looked in at him he came right up to the glass.

Oh hello.

Considering how venomous he is, I'm not sure if he likes me or hates me.

And finally a nice whole body shot. And another gila monster in that little wooden nook.

Some giant snails. Like, probably about four inches long. Gah.

Cool lookin' tarantula. With the web everywhere, makes a neat picture I think.

Alligator! Legs in kind of a silly position.

Finally, outside the Pavilion there was an otter tank. He was swimming around playing with stuff in his tank.

Here he's playing with a little white cloth...thing. Not sure if it's actually one of his toys or a piece of garbage :/

Here he's playing with a little piece of bamboo.

Anyway, next we went to what was called the mayan temple ruins. There was a bunch of cool stuff in there:

Here's what appears to be a family of capybaras.

Little guy's pretty cute. Still makes a weird name for a studio, though. Imo.

No animals here, we just walked behind a little waterfall. Looked pretty cool.

Not really easy to see...but you kind kind of see the outline of a sleeping black jaguar's head.

JESUS MONKEY

Terrible reflection off the glass (THANKS, LIGHT), but that there's a jaguar.

A gaggle of flamingos. I do believe that's the technical term.

Some macaws! One of the blue ones could actually say 'hi' and 'bye'.

So next we went to the African area. Get ready for a big old string of pictures here!

Penguins, pelicans, and...ducks? Maybe?

Giraffes! I think they were waiting for their dinner or something.

Some antelopes. Kinda far away, unfortunately.

A white lion! Not sure where the regular lions were though, maybe visiting another Zoo.

Zebras.

Unfortunately you can't see it very well, but that zebra in the centre had a really cool design above its eyes and on its forehead.

A cheetah. It was being really coy and walking up just far enough to not give us a good picture.

"Umad *trollface*"

HIPPO. When we first got there, the hippos were hiding, but started lumbering out while we watched. They were heading for a swim and a snack.

An elephant. Yep.

NIGHT ELF PIG. Kind of hard to see but that white line above its face is a long crest of hair coming off its ear.

Digging around in the dirt, made for a funny sight.

A tiger! He looked really hot D:

Along the way in the Africa area, we saw some llamas (I think...) being walked around by some zookeepers.

His wide stance made him look really gruff and funny to me.

Finally, another peacock, this time a male one. He was really friendly too, let me get up really close.

So that's about it! It was a really fun, if tiring day. We didn't even get to see everything, so hopefully I'll be able to go back again sometime this summer. And this time...I'll wear sunscreen.