To my fellow animal lovers! I bring to you a post from San Diego, CA.

At this zoo, they have over 3,000 animals! We spent ALL day there and still missed some!

Their Koala’s are just too pampered, so happy and fluffy… Turns out koalas are very picky eaters, and will only eat certain types of eucalyptus leaves.

The Meerkats are on the lookout for any predators, this one kept darting it’s head back and forth at every bird and plane! A meerkat family will use about 5 burrows at a time, each being roughly 5 meters long.

The koalas weren’t the only sleepy ones, this lion was so tired that his tongue was sticking out! Reminds me of our cat Sadi…she’s always laying around with her tongue sticking out.

The polar bears were happy and sleepy too, I think we hit them all at siesta time!

All of the enclosures were HUGE and very clean. San Diego knows how to do a zoo.

They’ve got a sun bear… Look at those claws! They need them too, being the smallest bears around.

This little arctic fox has a little limp due to a surgery. And the zoo tells you that! They put a sign up telling why an animal has an injury so you don’t worry.

Animals aren’t the only thing they have, Look at this flower! They’ve got flowers and interesting plants all over the place!

They have Capybara in with the Llamas. Most of the exhibits have a sign showing you how big the animals used to be or how they have evolved. Like the one in the right picture! It’s not the same species but it’s their cousin from North America (which turn out to be extinct), and they were much bigger than they are now.

The tiger was just laying there looking around. I think he was too comfortable to move.  A tiger’s roar can be heard up to three kilometers away!

And then there was the hippo. While we were there we learned that hippos don’t actually swim, but walk. And all this time I thought they swam!

Elephants are super smart. The zookeepers put up contraptions with treats, and it didn’t take long for the elephants to learn how it works! Once one elephant got it, the others watched and found out.

Now the giraffes are something else. Let’s just say after watching them for a little, I will never let one lick my hand…

I think these flowers are called Paradise Birds and they look so neat! Almost like a bird…

They have a neat Skyfari. While you can’t really see any of the animals while you’re on it, it is a really nice view. It runs real smoothly. The San Diego Zoo has actually been open for over 100 years! It opened in 1916!

I have never been to  a zoo that has a Serval in it. At first I thought it was an ocelot but after getting a closer look I realized I was wrong. Servals are very successful hunters, catching fifty percent of their prey. Other big cats only catch about ten percent!

The flamingos were very pretty, and the smell wasn’t as bad as it was at other zoos!

This little magpie is a talkative bird! It would fly around and say hi to us!

This is the Secretary bird, I couldn’t help but think of Fawkes the phoenix on Harry Potter.

They had a peacock roaming around and yelling at people, I am pretty sure this one was trying to fight the tour bus they have. It looked right at the bus and yelled at it.

They raise their cheetahs with some big dogs, I think it’s really nice. The reasoning behind it is pretty interesting. A zoologist found that dogs have a calming effect on cheetahs, and since this cheetah is an ambassador animal (goes to offsite events for demonstrations and what not) then she’ll need all the calmness she can get!

Now before we go any further, I must warn you, you are about to see awesomeness. You have been warned.

It’s time for the best part of the zoo. THE PANDAS!!! They have a nice enclosure for the pandas, but if you want to see them get there early, the line gets pretty long. Make sure you grab a map at the front too, you’re going to need it. While they do have red pandas, we couldn’t find them. They are masters of stealth! I am bummed about not being able to see the red pandas but we saw the giant pandas!!

Well this zoo definitely deserves 5 stars, it’s so clean and big. I didn’t see a single animal that wasn’t happy and healthy! Well done San Diego, you made it to the top 5 zoos on my list.

See y’all at the zoo!!

#worldofzoo

Written by Nicholas