Our Spring Break Zoo Adventure

We accepted the mission of entertaining our 7 year old granddaughter during Spring Break.  At  the very top of her wish list was going to the Houston Zoo.

We started off our Spring Break Zoo Adventure by a quick walk from our house over to hop on the MetroRail train, zipped down the line to the Houston Zoo stop, took a short walk around the sparkling McGovern lake and straight into the zoo entrance with our recently renewed Zoo Membership.  No circling the parking lot waiting for a spot, no waiting in long lines to get it…just enjoying the sunshine and the bright blue skies and looking forward to seeing all our favorite animals.  We were already having a great time together.

One of our first stops was the giraffes. Here you can see they were out enjoying the day by lounging around. So silly to see them all sitting down…

We just love all the new baby animals we get to see at our Zoo.  We’re keeping a close eye on the Zoo’s new Elephant Blog to know when Shanti welcomes her new baby.  Did you realize her baby will weigh close to 300 lbs when it is born?

Our granddaughter observed that it was no wonder Shanit’s sides were bulging!

After wandering though the Primate exhibit, stopping off to see the cheetas, bears and lions, we finally arrived at the Children’s Zoo.  Our granddaughter was a whirlwind of activity trying to take it all in.

Here’s our girl pretending she was a prairie dog  and getting to pop up in their habitat.

This cute prairie dog seemed to be waving hello to her.

Sitting pretty in the Eagle’s Nest…

And watching the magnificent Bald Eagle up close.

There was lots of other fun things we did inbetween!

At the end of our day our granddaughter said the absolute most fun she had ever had was spending time with her grandparents at the best place on Earth….The Houston Zoo!

Written by Debbie O’Neal, Photos by Debbie O’Neal

Can you guess what all these have in common?

They’re all sweet little babies. Soft, furry babies. Tall babies with their mommas. Fat, grey babies that eat a lot of hay. And MY baby, worn out after spending the day at the Houston Zoo.

We had a fantastic day at the Houston Zoo on Monday! Everything started off with buying discounted tickets for the zoo admittance at a nearby Fiesta, which saved us quite a bit of money. The weather was overcast and pretty windy when we headed out but we were optimistic. Until my lovely GPS system got us lost (she had us going away from the zoo instead of toward it). After a quick call to the wonderful man I call hubby, we were back on track and headed towards the zoo.

Zoo parking can be quite a challenge and I think God had mercy on me, helping me find parking fairly close to the entrance. Truly, I’ve never parked that close to the zoo’s entrance! Once through the gates we checked to see if there were any shows taking place and discovered the Natural Encounters was about to start in the Children’s Zoo (a smaller section of the zoo that is mostly a petting-zoo, along with a splash pad and playground). We got up close and personal with a ferret, an adorable bunny, and an amazingly soft chinchilla. The chinchilla was my favorite of the three.

From there, we checked out the primates. They are always interesting to see and watch. I must admit though, being in that section of the zoo really puts me on edge. Here’s why… everything is covered in a natural canopy of trees and other miscellaneous types of plants. Sounds beautiful, right? And, it is beautiful. But here’s the thing, the birds LOVE this area too!!! And wherever there are a lot of birds flying overhead you are bound to encounter bird poop! Ick. Luckily we didn’t get squatchied on but Violet managed to land her hand in a nice little pile of it. Ewww. And so we went on a quest to find a bathroom for her to wash her hands. Normally I have handi-wipes on me but I unfortunately ran out. (Note to self: buy more travel wipes!)

Once we found a restroom, and washed our hands, we were off to explore the rest of the zoo. We quickly found the giraffes (my absolute favorite animal in the whole zoo) and got to watch them for a while. The zoo had not one, but two, baby giraffes born last year! And while the babies have grown quite a bit since their births in March and August, they were still small compared to their adult counterparts. Violet and I got to see an adult giraffe eat from its hay basket in a barn-like building that has a window you can watch from. So, you get a closer view of just how tall the giraffes are and how short you are in comparison. We spent quite a bit of time at the giraffe exhibit.

Violet got to see her beloved elephants as they were being fed. Tucker, a three year old elephant, was certainly a big draw for Violet (and others). There was a media group there doing something, I don’t know what or who for, but I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled. Violet was all over that area and I wouldn’t be surprised if she made it in some shot or something.

We checked out the new cheetah exhibit and got to watch some training exercises while there. We even saw the Anatolian shepherd dogs, the two cheetah’s companions, although they were in their own section while the training took place. The story of how the two dogs and the two cheetahs have become companions is quite the story so you should go check it out.

We had a fantastic day while at the zoo and we can’t wait till our next visit!  It looks like my niece will be spending part of the summer here and she has never been to the zoo.  I can’t think of a better Zoo than Houston’s for her to experience her first zoo visit!

Written by Kimberly Wiltshire, Photos by Kimberly Wiltshire.

Like last week when I got to take KPRC Channel 2′s Traffic Reporter Jennifer Reyna around the Zoo for a day. That’s right – the Jennifer Reyna who gets you to work on time every morning.

Hangin' out with giraffes

I met her in the employee parking lot and golf-carted her over to film a piece on our newly renovated jaguar exhibit. If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s pretty incredible – new mesh for clearer viewing, new waterfall, and new pool. In fact, it looks so different (and much, much better) that you probably won’t even recognize it next time you’re at the Zoo.

You know, I’ve always thought that it’s gotta be tough for a news reporter to focus during a video shoot outside and with people everywhere – but Jennifer made it look easy. Here’s a shot of her filming an interview at jaguars for the news broadcast.

Jennifer Reyna w/ Carnivore Keeper Angie Pyle

After that we headed over to giraffes for some more fun and a behind-the-scenes tour. Feeding giraffes is my favorite thing to do at the Zoo. There’s just nothing else like being face-to-face with a 15+ foot giraffe that takes your breath away.

I think male giraffe Kiva has found himself a new girlfriend...

When you take a behind-the-scenes tours at giraffes, they will walk right up to you and even take food right out of your hands – it’s so cool. After Jennifer interviewed Hoofstock Keeper Kim Siegl (and after the giraffes were nice and fed), we looked at the new weather cam that KPRC will start airing live shots of during their weather portion of news broadcasts. So watch for Frank Billingsley, Khambrel Marshall, and the rest of the KPRC Weather Crew panning to shots of the Zoo’s Masai giraffes soon.

I don’t know what was more fun – feeding our giraffes or hanging out with Houston’s Favorite Traffic Reporter. Tough choice…

Check out Jennifer’s Bumper 2 Bumper blog here for some off-camera looks at how news stories are created and also for some very important traffic updates for the Zoo during Spring Break.

So that’s how the magic is made. Click on the video below to watch the final news segment that aired on the Channel 2 News:

Eight Growing Giraffes

Seven Orangs a’Hangin’

Six Entertaining Elands

Five Elephants Trumpeting

Four Komodos Crawling

Three Leaping Leopards

Two Curious Coatis

And A Toby The Red Panda In A Tree

Stay tuned to our blogs as we count down the 12 Days of Christmas at the Houston Zoo.

There is much more to giraffes than meets the eye.

Giraffes seem so docile and friendly, and well, they really…are, even in the wild. Most animal species’ males attack and gore each other while in competition for a mate; giraffes only slam their huge necks into one another, rarely harming their foe. And how do they end these oh so “terrible” fights? Well, one of them gets so sick of it that…he turns around and walks away.

From birth, baby giraffes need to hit the ground running to survive in the wild, literally. Mom gives birth standing up, baby falls over five feet to the ground, 30 minutes later he or she can stand up, and, finally, a mere ten hours later, the little guy or girl is off and running with Mom. How’s that for no-nonsense parenting?

These animals’ large size, a benefit for many reasons, makes bending down to quench their thirst quite tricky (think about it! that neck!) and leaves them wide open to an attack from behind. But hey, that’s okay, because due to their leafy diet, giraffes only have to get a drink once every few days.

Tallest Mammal in the World

But perhaps the most unique thing about these “camelopards,” as they were once called by Ancient Romans, who believed they were a cross between a camel and a leopard, is that they sleep for just 30 minutes every day! Because in the wild they must be constantly aware of approaching predators, they only take five-minute naps about six times daily. Maybe these guys’ true coolest feature should be that they aren’t constantly cranky!

Writer: Stefanie Hanselka

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