The Birmingham Zoo

I made a trip out to the Birmingham Zoo last week, and invited Ashley and her two little ones, Summer (2 yrs) and Dylan (7 months). It was only in the mid 20’s that day, but it was sunny (and half-price admission day- what a bargain!) so we all bundled up and headed over there.
Because the majority of the animal enclosures are outdoors and the day was so frigid, I’d say 75% of the outdoor enclosures had no animals in them. Some of the larger animals (lions, tigers, and pigs, oh my! I bet you thought I was going to say bears…) were still out for us to see. Of course the animals with indoor enclosures were there too. Indoor animals included reptiles, small predators, and smaller monkeys. Summer said she wanted to see a tiger the most, so we went to find a tiger and this guy is what we found:

Isn’t he noble?


Majestic?


Beautiful!?!? It had been so long since I had been to a zoo and seen a tiger up close, I had forgotten how large and powerful (and did I mention beautiful?) they are.

And then, in another area of the zoo, we found this guy:


He was just as interesting to watch, and I could have stayed there all day.

We also found some cheeky little zebras that were horsing around (a-hardy-har-har!) and kicking up dust and play-bucking:

We especially enjoyed watching the squirrel monkeys, and I was so mesmerized by them that I forgot to take pictures of them. :-(
Squirrel monkeys are smaller than most monkeys, they are about the size of a small cat I’d say, and are so interesting to watch! They play, jumping on each other, from branch to branch, pulling each other’s tails, digging in the dirt, it was crazy! They were native in Costa Rica when I was there on a family vacation a few years ago, and they were just as silly as I’d remembered.
Then there was this guy, just wandering around the zoo, and I had to wonder, what keeps him from running away???


Anyway, they were also doing a lot of construction so Ashley and I agreed that we will make another trip over there in the spring before schools let out for the summer so it’s not too hot/crowded.