Animal tales

Driving down the road today

Driving down the road today

Driving down the road today

We're going to the Zoo

Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep

Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep

Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep

Screech

That's S and A's favourite song from the Musical Bonding class in Bombay. And the Zoo is turning out to be one of their favourite outings here. So far we've already been to the main Zoo (in Dolder) twice and to the KinderZoo in Rapperswil (about 45 mins drive from our place) once.

The main Zoo is pretty close to our place (about 10 mins drive) and we usually for for about 4 hours. After that its gets a bit tiring for the kids. So it took us two sessions to cover the entire Zoo. The first time we saw the big animals like the tiger (A was completely impressed, we could see it from a glass window and it was walking up and down in its habitat, drinking water from the lake etc), the lion (lazy lion was sleeping), elephant (family of elephants inside the enclosure, they were playing in the water), ,rhinos, zebras. We took a break for lunch, where there was a playground to keep S busy while I tried unsuccessfully to give A her cereal (if only she ate ice cream like S!) . After lunch we saw the seals swimming (through a peephole so it feels like they are swimming right next to us), crawling turtles and pink flamingos (S's favourite!).

The second trip to the Zoo we started from the opposite side, starting at the aquarium. It was awesome and the kids loved it. One tank had the Nemo characters, the clownfish, the pufferfish, seahorse etc and S kept looking at it and pointing out all the characters. The penguin enclosure was also nice, the penguins were lying down and lazing in the sun and we kept waiting for them to get into the water. Above the aquarium they had a section with tapirs, owls (there was a funny one which kept standing on one leg, think it was a burrow owl) and a very agressive shoebill bird. The shoebill bird was behind a glass enclosure and a girl tapped on the enclosure and the bird suddenly flew to the front and banged its face hard against the part she was standing. All of us got quite a fright. We then went to the petting zoo section where the hubby took A and S into the goat petting enclosure. A was quite courageous and kept petting the goats, S petted a couple, then got a bit scared as one of them made a charging action and refused to go back into the enclosure. That part had many farm animals like rooster, pigs, horses, donkeys etc and the roosters were left free to roam around the place (I was quite frightened, since I'm very scared of birds). We went back to the lion section and for a change the lions were not sleeping. Next to the lion section, there was a peacock which had spread its fan and was dancing. S was very intrigued and went and touched its feathers. I told her that Lord Krishna has a peacock feather on his head and she remembered it from the Krishna CD she watches (Karadi tales). We then went to the monkeys section. They had many of the varities of monkeys- chimpanzees, gorillas etc and the largest cage had a huge swinging section and we could see the monkeys swinging from one swing to another, climing up the trees, chasing and fighting with each other and A and S were quite taken with the spectacle, as was I. Outside we caught the sea lion show.

The visit to the Kinder Zoo was just last weekend. Its mainly a Zoo for children and about having fun with animals. There are camel rides, pony rides and elephant rides. We saw giraffes and baby giraffes, bisons and rhinos in one enclosure. The next enclosure had two ponies which you could pet. One of them leaned through the gap in the fence and started licking A's leg and she was most upset so we had to leave hurriedly from there. It was elephant bathing time and we saw the keeper scrubbing elephants clean with a broom, the elephants taking a shower under a waterfall before getting into the water and then spraying each other and themeselves with the water. S was taken with the family and kept referring to them as 'Manny, Ellie and Peaches' from Ice Age 3. At one point the elephants started spraying water on the visitors and we decided it was time to move onto the next enclosure. This Zoo also had a goat petting enclosure but both kids were happy to just stand outside and watch other kids pet the goats. The squirrel enclosure was very interesting. There were small swings, rods, branches etc in it and the squirrels kept hopping from one to the other and running upside down on the top of the cage, at top speed. S was disappointed that only grey pigs were in this Zoo and not the pink pigs which are her favourite! We were in time to catch the 2 pm sea lion show which was quite an elaborate one. The show was for half an hour and had kids throwing rings into the water and the sea lions catching it, throwing balls and the sea lions catching it on their nose, sea lions sliding down the water slide, dancing with the trainer etc. That was the highlight of the day for both S and A, and on the way back we bought a plastic seal for S (to match the collection of animals she has) and that now ties with the plastic pig for her favourite toy (which she asks me to carry them in my bag wherever we go). The seal has also turned out to be useful while feeding A also as she remembers seeing the sea lion show when I show her the seal and that gives me the opportunity to get a couple of bites in.

All in all fun times at the Zoo and plenty of animal tales to go around.