When we first pulled into the parking lot of the San Diego Zoo, I could hardly wait to step out of the door of the truck. I have been waiting to come here since before we even left Maine.
After we went in and got our tickets, we headed to the zoo tour bus. We decided to go on the bus first because it covered 75% of the zoo and we would know where everything is. It was a double decker bus and we got to sit on top!
When we got off the bus we made our way over to the “big cats.” On the way there, we passed an exhibit with TONS of monkeys in it. My favorite ones are the Capuchins. They are the cutest monkeys you could ever imagine, and they were definitely the most entertaining! They would pick the bugs out of each others fur and eat it, and the way they eat is so human-like!
I really liked the gorillas too. The troop leader is always a male and called a silverback. The silverback of the troop we saw was sleeping the whole time with his foot pressed against the glass. I felt kind of bad for all of the gorillas, because how would you like it if millions of people came to see you all day, everyday?
My favorite animal there was the cheetah. It would just pace along the fence watching your every move. Did you know that every cheetah at the San Diego Zoo has a dog as a companion? Well, when we were there the cheetah we saw was paired with a husky mix. River explained to me that they do this so the cheetah is more calm around people. Sadly we didn’t see the dog, but the cheetah was absolutely amazing! The tiger was also one of my favorites, but it didn’t do much except sit on top of a rock and look down on everyone. I was half expecting it to lick it’s lips thinking we would all make a great meal, but it didn’t.
There were also two different kinds of leopards, the black leopard and snow leopard. We saw the snow leopard, but not the black one because it was inside it’s little “house” the whole time. The snow leopard was not white it was grey, and had a tail that looked almost as dangerous as the claws. It was really long and very fat at the end.
After a while we finally got to the pandas. There was a mom and a cub. The baby was a lot more active than the mom. He would roll around, climb on stuff, and run around the pen. All the mom did was sit there, eat bamboo and watch her son.
When you think of polar bears do you think of big, white bears? Well that’s basically true except the “big” part. They are not just big, they are HUGE! Did you know that full grown polar bears can get up to 10 feet?! I don’t know how big the one we saw was but it looked pretty close to 10 feet! The way they get their food is very interesting. They’ll wait outside of a seals breathing hole for hours until a seal comes up, then they will grab it. They must be so patient! If I tried to do that I’d be getting up within 5 minutes trying to find food elsewhere.
On the way over to the elephants we passed more monkeys. This time there was an otter in the same exhibit as the monkeys. It was funny to see an otter and a monkey living together. Just like the Capuchins he was very entertaining, and happened to be my Dad’s favorite animal there. He was super cute especially when he would float on his back down the river, and catch the food the monkeys threw him.
Then we got to the elephants. There were about 3 of them and we were watching one of them eat hay. It’s really interesting how they use their trunks to take the food then put it in their mouth. The San Diego Zoo has 2 different types of elephants, the African and Asian. Two ways to tell them apart are the shape of their ears and their tusks. African elephants have bigger ears that are the shape of the continent of Africa and both males and females have tusks. Whereas Asian elephants have much smaller ears and only the males have tusks.
After, we went over to the giraffes. There were a few adults and a few babies. They were all so cute and a lot bigger than I thought they would be. A giraffes neck can be 6 feet long and weigh 600 pounds! Imagine having a neck that tall weighing that much!
I thought the oddest looking animal there were the rhinoceroses. They have a protective layer of skin on the outside which looked like a huge layer of fat, it was very weird. Well I can’t say the rhino is the oddest looking animal there was, because the camels came pretty close. One of them was very old and had a lopsided hump. Through my research I found out that his hump is like that because he is old and his activity level is low, therefore he uses all his stored energy (which is in his hump) causing it to droop. He also had spit coming out of his mouth. I mean literally hanging out of his mouth, it looked like toothpaste. YUCK! The reason camels do spit is to surprise, distract, or bother whatever the camel thinks is threatening it.
I had such a good time at the San Diego Zoo and it is definitely on my list of places to come back to.
rain4river 
I can just barely remember the first time I went to the SD Zoo, I was living in Escondido at the time, or was it La Jolla….soooo long ago Mercy! 1989 I think….I wonder if I’d even recognize it now……
Missin&thinkin of you MD! xo
Mercy- Great entry!!!!
So glad you told us all about the Zoo!!! i would have been waiting and waiting to get there too!!! Have fun on the way home, nad we will see you when you are back East!!!
Love, Alice, Nancy, Emily and Lexie
You will not believe how incredibly fun the zoo was!! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone back home! See you at the Magical Moon Foundation!! 😀
From Mercy
I really love reading your blogs,but I can not wait until I can hear about your adventure in person. Miss you Love AD
Thanks Auntie Donna! I can’t wait to tell you about all the adventures we have had!! Miss you too.
Love Mercy
Always love a good zoo! Enjoyed your blog Mercy. Good piece of writing
Thank you Nana, and you are so right! Good zoos are always SO much fun!! I miss you lots!!
Love Mercy
Great article. I learned a lot! Did the Zookeepers ask how your parents got out if their cages? Heehee! JK!
Thanks Caren! I’m glad you learned a lot! Say hi to Norrie for me.
From Mercy
“Lions, tigers and bears….Oh my!” Your description of the animals made me smile. I have always felt sorry for the gorillas at zoos. They seem so human-like. Weird looking camel. Thanks so much for sharing your zoo visit with us. Sounds like a wonderful day.
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it, and the camel was MUCH more weird looking in person!
From Mercy
Hi.This is Norrie. I liked the blog post! Did you see the hippopotamus Otis? I got a stuffed animal of him.Sadie says : A-ruffa wuff woof woof! wich means” Hi ” in doggy language.
Hi Norrie, I’m glad you liked it! We did see a hippopotamus but I don’t know his name.
-Mercy 🙂
Hi Mercy,
I am looking forward to meeting you. I would love to travel across the country in an RV with my family, but I don’t think I could stand sharing a room with my sister! She is a slob. When you get here I would like to show you the gems I mined up in the mountains in North Carolina. Also, I can’t wait for my two Carolina dogs to meet you. They are a brother and sister pair that my family adopted from the SPCA. Its really fun to volunteer there. I’d love to take you if you have time. They usually have bunnies. Not as cool as hidden jack rabbits, but still cute.
You will love my dogs. Bailey is the sister and she loves to cuddle. I’m pretty sure she thinks she is a cat. My mom had a rule about no dogs on the couches, but Bailey finally wore her down. Jack is a dope. He loves to bark at his sister until she plays chase with him. My sister and I went to training classes with them when we first adopted them. We learned cool stuff and had fun.
I am in fourth grade and I play three sports: soccer, volleyball and basketball. I am very interested in animals all over the world, but if I had to choose two animals I could see in person, it would be the Spirit Bear and Polar Bears. Spirits Bears because there are so few left and they look pretty awesome. I would want to visit Antartica to see the Polar Bears before they are gone.
Can’t wait to meet you when you get to Raleigh,
McKenna
Hi McKenna, I’m looking forward to meeting you too. I’d love to see the gems you mined, and I can show you some cool rocks from when we went rock hunting with our friends. It sounds like Daisy would really get along with Bailey and Jack, they can all play together!:) When we get back to Maine I really want to volunteer at the local animal shelter because I love animals so much. So that would be awesome if we could go to the SPCA together. I never really played any sports except for soccer, and softball. (Both only for a little while.) I didn’t like softball but I do want to play volleyball, and maybe soccer again too. My favorite animals I’ve seen are wolves and tigers, but my favorite animals I haven’t seen are…Well actually I’ve seen all my favorite animals. My favorite colors are blue, green, pink and purple. Do you like Taylor Swift? Because last night I saw a Taylor Swift concert! It was so awesome!! I’ll see you in Raleigh soon.
Mercy (: