It seems that nearly every city I visit, I have an inherent urge to see its zoo. I was particularly impressed with Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and I’ve had the chance to visit the Greater Vancouver Zoo as a “local tourist” as well. There’s just something to be said about being able to see wild and exotic animals that may not otherwise encounter during your daily journeys.
So, as part of my Dot Com Weekend, I ventured out to Valley Zoo in Edmonton. It’s far from being the largest or most modern of zoos — there’s a merry-go-round and paddle boat attraction for some strange reason — but there is certainly enough here to enjoy a couple hours gawking at animals and watching their unique antics.
The prairie dog exhibit, pictured above, was quite fascinating. They littered the grounds with tons of burrows and tunnels. As it turns out, each hole in the ground is either an entrance or an exit, not both. The prairie dogs also have a tendency to wiggle their tails before heading inside.
Just as I did at Calgary Zoo, I brought along my trusty 12x zoom Canon digital camera so that I could get in close without actually getting in close. The arctic fox was simply gorgeous with its all-white coat, but you may notice that it has mis-matching eyes. One is blue and the other is brown. Any animal experts want to chime in as to how that could happen? Cross-breeding?
Since it’s springtime in the city, the zoo was populated with a few new arrivals in the form of baby animals. This really is the best time of the year to visit your local zoo, because the babies are adorable. You’ve seen the cutest baby gorilla and what you see above is one incredibly cute baby bighorn sheep. He was bounding around his habitat with quite the spring in his step.
Wallabies are already pretty cute as is. Baby wallabies, just like baby kangaroos, are even cuter. You can see the joey’s sleepy head poking out of the pouch. Even the glorious San Diego Zoo didn’t have a joey for me to view.
Last but not least are a couple of videos from our trip to the zoo. The first is a small compilation (in HD!) featuring the red panda and the second has monkeys trying to figure out how to open their treat bundles. Be sure to check out more zoo pictures on Flickr too.
The prairie dog looks too much like a groundhog. Would you like a groundhog? There’s one that’s been digging up the yard. You want him? Maybe I can ship him to you. LOL! Or, you can come and pick him up. Groundhog: free to a good home. 😉
Actually I thought it looked like me, but it’s not all that bad…. 😉