It's A Zoo Day!

In the several years that we have purchased a zoo membership to our Cleveland MetroParks Zoo we have never regretted it. It allows us to go as often as we like and we never feel like we have to see everything in one visit. As a matter of fact, sometimes we just go because we want to walk around and get some exercise and, well, of course see what the animals are up to.

That was our goal on our last visit a few days ago. It was a beautiful day. The temperatures were in the 70s and the humidity was low. My kind of an August day. We started out as usual going past the Colombo monkeys and the checking on the rhinoceros and then stopping in to see if there were any animals in the Sarah Allison Steffee medical center that were being looked at, operated on, or getting a check up.

As luck would have it there was a small kangaroo having a routine medical exam. He was obviously sedated although he didn't have his eyes closed. I think they were looking closely at some spots on his skin. One of the best observations we got to make there a few years ago was when one of the monkeys was having a root canal. It's always fascinating.

Our route took us up to the new tiger exhibit that is always a pleasure to see. This day though there was only one tiger and he was sleeping on one of the tiger passages over the top of the walkway. I wondered if he was the new arrival, Hector.

The grizzlys were out enjoying the sunshine and several of the other bears were enjoying some treats including the sloth bear who was working to get a coconut out of a tire where his caretaker had hidden it. They do that to challenge the animals and keep them interested in new things in their environment. She was disappointed that he took the coconut inside his habitat to crack it. We couldn't see it but we could hear it as he worked to get it open.

The giraffes were enjoying all the kids who were feeding them. Our little giraffes are growing.

We passed the outdoor koala and decided to forego the Australia exhibits for the day. Instead we opted to visit my favorite merkats who always entertain us and then sit for a spell and watch the elephants "delicately" pull together mouthfuls of hay and stuff it in their mouths. They each consume between 100-400 pounds of food a day. I can't imagine how they eat all that dry stuff without taking a drink of water now and then.

We had to detour from our usual walking route and for a good reason. There's something new coming! It's just been fenced off and equipment is beginning to be put in place. Just as we enjoyed watching the progress of the tiger exhibit and before that the elephant exhibit we will enjoy checking up on this new one that will be for the leopards and red panda. More reasons to take more zoo days!