The zoo is pretty good in terms of what the grounds are like. It's quite nice and park-like with a pleasant stream running through it and what seems like large enough enclosures for the inhabitants. But you know, given that it was just after the Big Freeze, there was still a lot of snow around and I was glad I wore my gummistiefel (gumboots).
Some wolves looking right at home in the snow.
Not quite home on the range, but these American Buffalo looked pretty comfy as well.
And then we came across this woman taking her hawk for a walk.
Moving through the zoo, we came across a number of indoor enclosures featuring the more exotic creatures.
Like these pink and red flamingos.
We went to the jungle house that housed a some terrariums and the great apes.
Gnou watches a chimp.
And was soon joined by a little friend.
There was an impressive number of silverback gorillas of various age.
But I noticed that the oldest male had a tendency to stick close to walls and huddle in the corners
The same was of the oldest male orangutan. He actually looked really sad as he stared back at Gnou :(
The younger ones seemed to play happily though.
Unlike the chimps, gorillas and orangutangs, the mandrills were surprisingly in the outside part of their enclosure. The dominant male mandrill had an impressively rainbowed-bum.
We left the great apes feeling somewhat depressed - I'm totally convinced that they're too intelligent to be caged up - but we watched some acrobatics from the gibbons and that cheered us up.
Some giraffes - a mum and two babies!
There was another jungle house with lots of little birds and some ocelots behind glass. It was really humid inside and I was thankful that each enclosure had a defogger for glasses near the doors.
Looking at the map, I saw there was an *Australia* section and feeling a bit homesick, I said we should push on there!
But you know, kangaroos aren't built for the snow and they were all lying inside their (kinda small) enclosed section.
There were two wallabies looking outside - I could totally hear their thoughts *WTF is this white stuff?!*
An emu was also hanging around under the underhang.
Nearby were some seals and other animals more suited to this environment
Like polar bears! This one was trying to get that plastic bin up a slope. He wasn't very good at it.
And some penguins.
But at the same time, it was so cold that these wildboars, are known to live in a snowy forest, were snoozing indoors.
After this, we came to what actually turned out to be my favourite part of the zoo - the kid's section featuring domesticated animals!
This really cute goat was standing right by the fence and let me and Gnou pat his ears and nose. Since he was standing near the feedbox, I decided to buy some pellets to feed him. As soon as those pellets fell into the tray, the little bastard climbed the fence and stuck his head in! Smart guy!
Once the others realised he was eating, they came running and climbed the fence as well! But since his schnoz was stuck in there, there was no food for others.
Well, this lucky guy got food since some other zoo visitor was smart enough to have spare bread on him
Shetland pony!
And a..er... room full of guinea pigs.
At this point, we realised we'd missed a few significant animals. We went to the bear enclosure and stupidly remembered while reading the sign that bears hibernate during the Winter.
But we saw the Siberian Tiger.
And a European lynx.
Fittingly enough, we finished up at the exhibit we came to see - Die Grossvoliere - a giant aviary.
And then we went home to warm up by drinking the hazelnut vodka Gnou had brought me as a present. It tastes like nutella!
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