Reid Park Zoo...

Yesterday I went across the street to the park. Within it, there is a zoo. It's strange because, I would never have imagined that animals from all over the world were just a few blocks away while selling beads at the To Bead True Blue show! I was really impressed with the Reid Park Zoo. It's modern, clean, the collection is diverse, and it seems like all the animals are happy and healthy.

I really love the big cats. So, it was nice to see the tiger out and about. The lions must have went in early, because I didn't see them. I might try to go back earlier in the day around feeding time to see them.

One of my favorite exhibits was the OTTERS! They're so cute and super friendly. One of the staff was using a scoop net to fish out fallen leaves and one of the otters was playing tag with her and occasionally using the net as a boogie board. SO CUTE! I could have spent hours looking at them play.

Another thing that I was really impressed with was all the birds. From pink flamingos, to tiny gold finches, to imperial looking bird with brilliant red eyes – the collection had several species from around the world. Some were more common and others were really exotic.

One of the most regal birds though was the snow white peacock. Very lovely. It was a funny bird too. It went into the restaurant like it owned the place and perched on one of the chairs, like it was waiting for a server to come by to take its order!

An example of the more unusual creatures at the zoo was a capybara! It's basically a large guinea pig that spends park of its life in water. It was HUGE! Use the giant log in the background for scale.

I took tons of pictures of the animals. The Reid Park Zoo had quite a few in their collection. I have tried to add more pictures to my Flickr Stream and created a set for my time at the zoo. CLICK HERE to check it out!