Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Monday May 13 (Miami Zoo)

Please excuse the language but I am knackered, lol, all will be explained!!!

Today, it was an early start as we were going to Miami Zoo and I had a great time. The habitats for the animals are nice and large with plenty of shade, places to climb for those who need it and each one is surrounded by a moat. 

There are many animals and the Zoo is divided into areas, Asia, Africa, Amazon and Australia.

There is a monorail that has four stations and the first thing we did was to ride the complete circuit, about half an hour, to get an idea of where things were.

We then walked from the main station to Africa where we were to feed some Giraffe. They are real characters and there were two three-month old babies in the enclosure. It was great to be so close to these amazing creatures.

We saw many different animals but the strangest, and possibly ugliest, was the Chacoan Peccary which was not known as a species until the 1970's. They live in an ever decreasing area in the centre of South America. 

We then went our separate ways as Jackie was using an electric cart and could travel faster also, we wanted to see different areas. 

There were also special cycles that people could hire, four and six person vehicles, lol, I thought they were quite expensive to hire.

I caught the monorail from Amazon back to Asia and then walked all the way back to Amazon to see a presentation about the Harpy Eagle.

It was very disappointing as all the guy did was answer a couple of questions. I did see the male and female but the youngster was hiding! The Eagle is name Harpy after the mytholigical beasts, lol!

I saw Lions, Jaguar, many ruminants, Elephants, a black Rhino, Camels, Monkeys, a Harpy Eagle and Parrots to name but a few. 

We saw Brown elephants which were labelled as African Grey Elephants so I am a wee bit confused, lol! I loved the Okapi with its striped rear, lol, and its closest relative is the Giraffe not the Zebra. 

I also saw an Iguana, this was simply a local inhabitant and not enclosed in any way, and the Siberian Tiger at the very end.

I was almost on the way out when I saw a keeper with a tortoise, it was a beautiful colour. I was told I could stroke it but to be gentle as their spine is connected to their shell and they could feel everything!

There was an African Stork that caught a small fish out of  the stream, so this must be how some of the birds are fed. The photo is not very good, unfortunately.

The female Jaguar was gorgeous, the male is in a separate area and could only be seen through the perspex so not a very good photo!

The highlights apart from the big cats, were the Painted Dogs. These were one of the episodes in David Attenborough's Dynasties series, it is a a must see! 

I developed such an appreciation for these animals and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them in the flesh as well as the pups playing! 

I also enjoyed, going in with the Australian parrots, the Rosella is a particularily beautiful parrot. Of course, feeding the Giraffe was an incredible highlight.

The battery in my camera decided it was empty just as I was ready to take a photo of the tiger, thank goodness for my IPad, lol!

It was interesting to see the young of many animals, it is obviously spring! Many animals were enjoying either shade or bathing in the water in their areas.

It took another two hours for the final walk and to return to the car, lol, this was in 90 + F degree heat. 

I have never perspired so much in all my life and a visit to the restroom was unnecessary, lol! 

I enjoyed the visit, the zoo certainly covers a vast area. The only issue I had was the lack of signage around the zoo. 

You might follow a sign and arrive at a fork in the way, no sign telling you where to go. The map was helpful but not entirely or for everything. 

Even a simple thing at the stations so you knew where the entrance was, there are long ramps to take people to the entry for the monorail and then to exit the monorail. 

We initially went the wrong way at the Main station due to no sign until you were actually at the entrance, not very helpful!


It would also be helpful if the map included an idea of distance between the four stations if a person was using the path.
The weather was kind to us, although a couple of times the cloud banked up. On the way back home we were held up in congested traffice several times 

As we neared Boynton Beach, we noticed some water on the road, it had obviously rained. in Boynton and, from the pools of water around, there must have been a real downpour. In the space of ten minutes the temperature dropped for 91 to 79 and then 77, lol!
















































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