Hippo Encounter at the Zoo

A hungry hippo.

I spent yesterday at the zoo with my grandkids and other family members. It was a fun family day. My grandkids were full of energy. By the way, where do they get all that energy? Was I that energized way-back-when? Anyway, the highlight of this zoo trip was a hippo encounter where we got to see the two hippos up close and fed them big chunks of carrots. All I can say is "Awesome!"

Gulf Breeze Zoo

Isn't he a handsome boy?

The zoo I'm talking about is the Gulf Breeze Zoo. It's small in comparison to other zoos, but it also provides an intimacy with the animals which isn't always found in big zoos. The animals there are almost like family. In fact, my grandkids often remind of the little monkeys in the zoo and I've told them that more than once.

Cleopatra, the mama-to-be hippo.

There are two hippos at the Gulf Breeze Zoo. Cleopatra is the expectant mama hippo who is due any day. The papa hippo is the handsome guy in the two pics above. I'll definitely go back to the zoo for pics of the new baby hippo.

It was a beautiful day at the zoo with temps in the high-60s. That's one of the things I love about Florida, great temps all year long. Gee, it was hard to believe that winter and Christmas are only days away.





One of the peacocks strutting his stuff.

Even the peacocks seemed to think it was spring rather than almost winter. This gorgeous male peacock was in full display and put on quite a show. If I were a female peacock, well, I would have been impressed.






Rwanda and baby Kigali.

This visit to the zoo I was able to get pics of the mama gorilla, Rwanda, with her baby, Kigali. Last time we were there the baby was sleeping. This time he was showing off, but sticking close to his mama. These two are Western Lowland Gorillas.

Zion the lion cub.

Zion, the four and a half month old lion cub, has been moved to a big outdoor pen next to the pair of Siberian Tigers. Zion seemed to be quite happy and was romping around playing with a big ball. Then he climbed up into his tree for some time to relax out.

As one of my granddaughters pointed out, "Zion needs a friend." I assured her that the zoo is going to get a female lion cub to keep Zion company. And yes, the zoo is currently looking for just the right cub.






The two chimps on Chimp Island

I took quite a number of pics of the two chimps. Some of the pics were taken from the Zoo Train which circles Chimp Island, the hippos and Gorilla Island. The other pics were taken from the long wood walkway that overlooks Chimp Island.

This is the chimp who was blowing kisses.

One  chimp in particular seemed to love the camera and his audience. He blew kisses, played peek-a-boo, smiled, waved and seemed just as happy to see us as we were to see him.

All in all it was a really fun day at the zoo. Four whole hours and I was exhausted. My grandkids, on the other hand, were still energized. Ahhh, to be young.

For those who follow my blog, I usually add a list of books at the end of my posts. However, in this case, I haven't come across any additional zoo related reads. So please check out my previous November post, "Zoo Tails," for some fun/interesting zoo reads and some cool zoo pics.

Thanks again for visiting my blog. I hope you all will stop by from time to time.