A night at the zoo

I'm like a big kid when it comes to our local zoo.  I have a membership so that I can go whenever the desire hits although I haven't made it up there nearly often enough.

During the holidays I had suggested going to our zoo lights, but there wasn't any interest.  After all our house guests left I made Irv accompany me on the next to last day it was open.

As a zoo member we can get in an hour earlier than the public which makes it super nice. 

The giraffes at our zoo are amazing.  It's the largest herd in North America.  It's been a tough year for our giraffes starting with little Penny who didn't survive very long and two others that died of old age.

It's always fun to feed them (even if you're not a kid).

The lights at our zoo don't compare to displays at other zoos such as the Phoenix Zoo, but they're still beautiful.

Wonderland!

One thing that sets our zoo apart is that there are still quite a few of the animals on display during zoo lights.  Other zoos put their animals away at night so sometimes you don't see a single animal.

The love of my life!

There are several warming stations throughout the zoo.  I rarely pass one by.

A view eastward from the zoo.  That's our house way, way, way out there on the horizon.

I love the elephant barn which is a fairly new addition to the zoo.  They keep it heated to make sure the elephants are warm.  They have to work quite hard to retrieve their food.  Good enrichment program for the elephants!

I love the Australian Walkabout.  During the day the wallabies are out in the yard and you can walk among them.  I'd really like to bring one of them home some day.

The budgie building is always fun.  They fly right around and you can feed them if you'd like.

We didn't see the alligators--probably too cold for them.

There's the wallabies!  Super cute!

I took a brief stroll through the reptile building...it's always warm in there, but no need to stop and take a look for too long.

The tiger was doing his rounds and I managed to catch a pretty good shot of him.

Oddly enough we couldn't find Tahoma the moose.  He has a nice large enclosure, but we couldn't spot him.  When I used to volunteer at the zoo I got to feed Tahoma.  He's an awesome moose!

Another view of the city.

I'm sure this must be Cam the ram.

We had a great time at the zoo and it wasn't even too cold (for us Coloradans anyway).

Where's your favorite zoo?