Some Christmas decs went up today and it was a more wintry feeling 25 degrees Celsius, brrrrr! England were doing well in the cricket. I came face to face with lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, giraffes…what on earth is going on?!
The cricket I cannot explain but the un-Australian animals are all part of the excellent Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. It’s not the biggest zoo but seems to have a good set up and I think the fact that it isn’t huge keeps it interesting. There were a diverse range of animals including a slightly deranged monkey who was good entertainment value. There were a number of these birds which, despite the colour, are not Australian but from South America.
Reassuringly the zoo had a small sample of good ol’ traditional Aussie fare, with emus wandering aimlessly around and this koala who was typically docile.
There was less of the cuddly stuff on the two hour Zooventure tour, which was a great way to be shown around the zoo, see some areas off limits to the ‘common’ public (!) and come face to face with things that could seriously chew your arm off. First up was a European brown bear, the smallest of the brown bears apparently. Didn’t seem that small when she was stood on hind legs licking some gooey cereal off your hand however.
A tiger was next, though after two or three chicken drumsticks being poked through the cage he seemed to get a little bored of chicken. I guess it’s like getting an eight piece bucket from KFC or something. A couple of cougars / pumas / mountain lions / whatever they are called followed and then it was on to stand at head height with a couple of giraffes. The ranger dude seemed particularly fond of this giraffe, getting a couple of snogs from that big tongue!!
Having handled bits of dodgy raw meat it was nice to hand out bits of carrot to a few of the animals. Here I am with an impala.
To end the tour though of course it was necessary to give a few scares and thrills, so first up we fed the lions…
The cricket I cannot explain but the un-Australian animals are all part of the excellent Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. It’s not the biggest zoo but seems to have a good set up and I think the fact that it isn’t huge keeps it interesting. There were a diverse range of animals including a slightly deranged monkey who was good entertainment value. There were a number of these birds which, despite the colour, are not Australian but from South America.Reassuringly the zoo had a small sample of good ol’ traditional Aussie fare, with emus wandering aimlessly around and this koala who was typically docile.
There was less of the cuddly stuff on the two hour Zooventure tour, which was a great way to be shown around the zoo, see some areas off limits to the ‘common’ public (!) and come face to face with things that could seriously chew your arm off. First up was a European brown bear, the smallest of the brown bears apparently. Didn’t seem that small when she was stood on hind legs licking some gooey cereal off your hand however.
A tiger was next, though after two or three chicken drumsticks being poked through the cage he seemed to get a little bored of chicken. I guess it’s like getting an eight piece bucket from KFC or something. A couple of cougars / pumas / mountain lions / whatever they are called followed and then it was on to stand at head height with a couple of giraffes. The ranger dude seemed particularly fond of this giraffe, getting a couple of snogs from that big tongue!!Having handled bits of dodgy raw meat it was nice to hand out bits of carrot to a few of the animals. Here I am with an impala.
To end the tour though of course it was necessary to give a few scares and thrills, so first up we fed the lions…
…and then lined up in a row we pretended to be trees for a python to wind its way across our shoulders. I felt I made a really good tree, but not as good as the five year old kid, he kept as solid as an Oak.
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