We recently found out that the Denver Zoo has free days for the public. One of those days was last week. I asked our neighbor who homeschools her 7 year old son if they wanted to go with us. They said yes, so off we went! We packed a lunch, snacks and bottled water for the day. We got to the zoo fairly early and there were already a lot of families who were taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity.
King of the Jungle
As you walk in through the front gate, the first animals that you come to is the African Lions. They were absolutely gorgeous! And huge!
Cape Buffalo
Being a zoo with a lot of animals, the one thing you do notice right off is the smell. I kept giggling at Samuel who kept asking why the animals smelled so badly. He walked around the zoo with his shirt over his nose, most of the day. The smell was really horrible at the Cape Buffalo area.
Dall’s Sheep
I have seen mountain sheep before on Mt.Evans. Was even able to get some really close pictures of them. So I liked watching these that were at the zoo. The one with the horns was the dominating one. He would go up to the younger ones and push them below him. He was definitely playing king of the mountain and succeeded!
Claire with the Capuchin
Claire had told me before we arrived at the zoo that she wanted to see the monkeys. Her Papa calls her, his little monkey and so she wanted to have her picture taken with them, so we could send it to him.
Samuel seeing how tall he is next to am Emperor Penguin
Samuel thought this was pretty cool, being able to compare how tall he is to an Emperor Penguin.
Grizzly Bears
While we have seen black bears in North Carolina, this was our first time seeing grizzly bears. I loved watching the grizzly bears. Tundra (female bear), kept pacing back and forth while watching Tipani (sp?- male bear) eat his bone. Tundra was waiting for him to walk away from his bone so she could take it, even though she had her own!
Kids checking out an Elephant skull
The Denver Zoo has just recently added a new section to the Zoo. It is a much larger Elephant exhibit. From what we were told, they have added several more elephants to the zoo. It is amazing how large and graceful these animals are.
Elephant
Another highlight for the kids were seeing the giraffes. We also got a lesson in giraffe anatomy. When we walked up the largest giraffe was going to the bathroom. They must have a bladder the size of a basketball or larger. The make giraffe stood there urinating for several minutes. Adults and kids all got a giggle out of seeing this!
Giraffe
The last exhibit we went through, was the Tropical Climate building. This building had so many different types of frogs, lizards, fish and snakes in it. It was very humid and damp. This was also a big hit with the kids. It is so amazing to see all the different types of animals that God has created.
Kids looking at a Komodo Dragon
We spent about 3 hours at the zoo that day. I would have stayed longer, but the kids were all tired. So we left after leaving the Tropical building. The zoo was so big that we didn’t even get to see everything. We are excited about going back again on the next free day. This time, dad is going to take off a half a day so he can go with us. The kids can’t wait to show him all the animals we saw. I can’t wait to see the animals that we missed on our first trip. We enjoyed the zoo so much, that we are planning on buying a yearly membership.
Do you have a zoo that is close by? What are your favorite animals?
