We finally revisited the Wild Animal Park - we went last year with my (Mandy) parents. What a great day we had today! We love the zoo, but this is a different level. It is kind of like comparing the MO Botanical Garden and the Shaw Nature Reserve - both are great for different reasons. We got there about 10 and left about 2 - no strollers, lunch and water in the Camelback.
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Some of you know I am a bit of an animal nerd. This developed later in my life - I think having children brought it on. There are so many interesting facts I want to write about these animals. I think I will do an animal fact installment series - whether you all are interested or not. We are doing something fun for preschool with Olivia this year - I will share more about that later, but maybe I will do the animal installments as I report on that.
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Waiting for the Safari Tour train.
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This is the area you ride through on a train and get an up close look at African animals. If you look closely you can see the dust flying in this picture - all the giraffes had just stampeded across the dirt field. Apparently they don't really do that during the day - our train driver was pretty pumped about it. There were 19 of them - one dad, 13 mothers, and 6 babies.
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See the baby nursing?
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Mother and son. Did you know their horns are made of the same stuff as our fingernails - which means it grows all the time. That is why they have all those rocks in the habitat - otherwise they will sharpen them on the trees and kill the trees.
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This was the best part of the day. I left feeling I might have missed my calling - as a cheetah trainer. There are three sisters in this picture and they were all hand raised - which is why the trainer can actually be in the exhibit with them. They were so beautiful.
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Wore him slap out - this is how we carried him out.
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