30 Days Wild - Day 17

Today we went on a trip to ZSL Wipsnade Zoo. We had a fantastic day, we saw a lot of different animals. Pickle and Penguin love animals and were fantastic, it was a long day but they really had a wonderful time. I think the favourite was the giraffes, it was certainly one of my favourites.

It was a really hot and sunny day, a lot of the animals look like they were enjoying the sunny weather or sitting in the shade. It was lovely to see the African Hunting dogs, it is a new exhibit and I don't remember ever seeing them before.

The elephants were having a great time throwing dust and mud on themselves to keep themselves cool. This guy looks really happy with the grass he has to munch on. I was amazed by the dexterity of their trunk as this one picked the grass and put it into his mouth before wandering over to the pool, mixing water with the dust and squirting his belly with it.

I always get mixed feelings visiting the zoo. I know that the zoos do a lot of great work, I love the excitement of the children seeing all the different animals and I know that them seeing the animals ignites their interest and enthusiasm for the animals and I hope it will go onto inspire them. I love to watch the animals myself too but I do sometimes struggle with the size of some enclosures. The animals seem so big to fit into such marginal spaces. I think they are doing work on the Sea Lion exhibit at Wipsnade and I look forward to seeing it when completed, it doesn't seem like they have a lot of space. Wipsnade is better than a lot of zoos I have seen for enclosure space, it is a pleasure to visit. I look forward to our next visit!