Thursday, April 24, 2014

April 7, 8 and 9, 2014... Trip to Calgary... Part 1

I've gone to the Calgary zoo 4 or 5 years in a row now, and always alone... this time my friend Carol was able to come. She drove and I did the directions using maps I printed off. At the end we discovered the Maps feature on my phone which guided us to where we needed to be a lot easier. Want to see my previous trips to the zoo, click here.

DAY 1 - CALGARY ZOO

In June of last year, Calgary and many other parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan flooded. Most of the zoo had to evacuate and they lost some animals, some pea cocks and fish and they almost lost the giraffes. The zoo had a lot of damage and is still recovering, they had to close down their South American building and re-home the Giant Anteaters, parrots and a lot of monkeys.

I also took some videos of the penguins, meerkats, giraffes and not sure what else. One day in the future I'll get them all edited and share. I am always taking videos but they take time to edit.

I took a ton of photos, but I had to skim them down a bit... here are the best.

The penguin enclosure here is awesome. They have a massive room inside, with a walkway in the middle and 2 huge pools on both sides, and then a nice big area outdoors too.




This aviary has a lot of owls and at least 1 hawk... most were hiding.








This guy reminds me of a crazy family member! LOL Maybe he's just a bit older than the rest.




I absolutely LOVE giraffes. This is the first time I have seen them where the back is open so they can go outside, what a difference, so much light and much better to see them by.




LOL Sticking their tongues out at me!




I also absolutely LOVE meerkats, if I was to choose a zoo animal to have as a pet, it would be these guys LOL






We found this awesome indoor aviary with tropical birds. I never knew it existed. It had some really unusual birds inside, and holy cow was it hot in there, we were melting.




Butterfly house... a little girl about 4 years old picked 2 butterflies up and held them, she will be a nature lover for sure.








I am so glad we got to the zoo in time, the elephants are leaving. We saw the crates all set up to move them to their new home. The climate in Calgary is too cold and their enclosure was too small. The bull and 3 females had been at the Calgary zoo for 40 years according to this article. 








7 comments:

  1. What fun! So sad that they had a lot of damage, but it looks like they are making a good recovery! Love all the photos!!!

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  2. Oh WOW Pam!! Amazing photos! I am so glad the zoo is doing well after the flood! I said to mom, I want to go to Calgary! I was there a long time ago! Too young to remember! Love the photo of the tongue sticking out of the giraffe! LOL! Hugs ;o)

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  3. awesome pictures...loved looking through all of them.
    I seems like a lovely zoo.

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  4. Thank you everyone!

    Stacy, If you do make it to Calgary let me know when your going, maybe we could go to the zoo together. lol That would be fun to meet! I don't live in Calgary but can get there lol

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  5. Wow Pam, gorgeous pictures. You really have some great shots here for future calendars.

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  6. Beautiful pics, as always. Love the tiger (my favorite wild animal).

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