San Diego Zoo

Saturday, March 12, 2016

I decided today was a great day for the zoo.  The weather is supposed to be in the mid to upper 60's F and mostly sunny.  It should be a wonderful day!

Well, on our way to the visitor center to get our tickets, we discovered that not only is it a Saturday but today there was an extremely large rummage sale going on and a St. Patricks Day Celebration.  We had not even started and we had seen hundreds of people already.

I will warn you now there are lots of pictures in this post.  It was a full day! 

The zoo is part of the famous 12,000 acre Balboa Park.  There are also 17+ museums in Balboa Park.  We decided to get a multi-day pass for Balboa Park. It allows you 7 days to go to 17 different museums (one time each) and the zoo for one day. We are going to the zoo today.

This is at the Balboa Park Visitors Center where you buy your tickets. 

 We then had to walk a fair distance to reach the entrance to the zoo.

The pictures above, to the right and below are of some of the interesting architecture we saw long our way to the zoo entrance.

This is the El Cid statue and I believe it is just outside one of the art museums.

This is the Botanical Garden building with a large rectangle pond in front of it.

Finally we are near the zoo entrance. See the bush shaped l like an elephant?
 Those are fake tusks.









We saw lots of interesting trees and flowers as well as the various animals, so you will see flowers and trees also.

 There were lots of Bird of Paradise flowers throughout the zoo.

 These are flowers on the Zulu fig.

There were several garden areas.  This was the first one we walked through.  It is also the prettiest.

   A very pretty little Japanese garden.

I really like the uniqueness of the variety of palm tree.

We saw lots of koala bear, but they were all asleep.

We were told that they wake up to eat. They eat for about 2 hours straight then sleep about 22 hours.  No wonder they were all asleep.

 

 We were also told that the males and females were kept in separate areas.  Apparently the males don't play well together especially during mating times.






  

The smallest giraffe is 2 1/2 months old.  He was born a little smaller.  Most babies weight about 180 lbs and are about 6 ft 1 in tall.  However this little one was only 5 ft 3 in and 117 lbs.  He is doing well and growing fast so they are not concerned.

These Caribbean Flamingos have a lot of personality.

This cheetah seemed content.  It was interesting that they keep a dog with the cheetah.  We were told that helps the cheetah stay calmer because the dog is usually calm.

This baby rhino is only a few months old.  His horn has barely started growing.

This serval was very attentive to what was happening around him.

Meerkats were watching us if they weren't digging tunnels.

We were not able to figure out what kind of trees this was.  The sign at the bottom of the tree gives a persons name.  Most plants and trees were not identified.

We saw lots of this cactus.  It had VERY throny branches with leaves and flowers at the ends.

There were several adult gerenuk in this exhibit.  Then we noticed the baby in the picture below.  The baby was hiding in the grass a ways away from the adults.  The sign said the babies were usually hidden in the grass away from the adults.

This is a maned wolf.  It looks like a fox with long legs.

The King of the Jungle is sleeping like many of the animals today.

These are four of several mother elephants.

This unique bird is a Secretary Bird.

Bontebok

Lesser Kudu

The polar bears were awake and active.  Below is a picture of them swimming.

They are so graceful in the water.

This one was sleeping so soundly it was drooling.

Siberian Reindeer

There was a pond with lots of kinds of ducks on them.  This was had a bright blue bill and was the only active one.  Below is one of the sleeping ducks that was the most different we saw.

We also saw this mommy mallard with her ducklings.  Aren't they cute?

Here's the only Zebra we saw.

I think this is a Jacaranda tree.  It blooms and then the leaves bud out.

This is a Stellar Sea Eagle.  This picture does not show how large it really is.  This is a female that weights nearly 21 lbs with a wingspan of about 7 ft.  Stellar Sea Eagles are the largest of all birds of prey.  The females are larger than the males. 

This is a Hawk Eagle and is about the size of a hawk.  I was surprised it was an eagle.

This is a Harpy Eagle.  It is also very large.  It has talons the size of grizzly bear claws.  They hunt large animals like sloths, monkeys and even domestic sheep.

 

Pretty flowers, but we never figured out what their name is.

These are named Red River Hogs.  Look at the long hair off the ends of their ears.  They are from Africa and are actually good swimmers.  However as will most wild hogs they destroy crops so are not liked.

Let me guess...Hippo!

Beautiful Bengal Tiger.

Lynx

 

This parrot was singing for the crowd.  I could not tell what song though.

The California Condor.  The zoo has a breeding program and has actually increased the numbers of this endangered species by 3 times if I remember correctly.

We rode the sky tram across the zoo.  This was while we were in line to get on.

These two buildings in the foreground are the Museum of Man.  An interesting museum.

Our view from the sky tram.
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This is the Cabrillo Bridge completed in 1915 as seen from the sky tram.

I did not get the names of the lizards and snakes we saw.  The picture above and the 3 pictures below are just a few of the more interesting looking creatures.

The lizards and snakes were the last critters we saw at the zoo.  

Next we decided to go to the Botanical Garden on our way back to the car.

This pretty little flower was on our way to the Botanical Garden.

The display at the Botanical Garden was orchids.  The following 6 pictures are of various colors and types of orchid.

Seeing all these gorgeous flowers was a beautiful way to end the day.  
By the end of the day, my pedometer said I had over 20,000 steps that day.  We were tired.