Toronto Zoo

I visited the Toronto Zoo with a few friends yesterday and it was just as exciting as it was back when I was a kid. The only difference is that there were no teachers or group leaders that had to be followed and I didn't need to bring my own lunch. The general admission ticket was $23 for an adult. It didn't seem like there were many people at the zoo. The only thing we had to line up for was for food.

The zoo didn't seem to change much from what I remember from a decade ago. It's still quite big, you have to walk a lot for the day and most of it is outdoor. It's the only zoo I've ever been to, so I can't compare it to other zoos around the world unless Ocean Park in Hong Kong counts as one. I'm glad the weather was nice and sunny, but being stuck outside walking for hours with little shade is tiring. What I didn't like about my trip to the zoo is that my spring allergies suddenly triggered in the middle of the day. I was fine in the last month, so I didn't bother to carry allergy medicine with me.

My friends and I first checked out the Malayan Woods Pavilion at the zoo in hopes of taking pictures of butterflies. We encountered many birds instead. Maybe it's not time for butterflies yet. Most of the birds looked like colorful pigeons to me, but in different sizes. There was this one big blue bird that reminded me of chickens.

There were a lot of fish under a bridge next to the Americas Wetlands. I didn't recognize their species--I don't recognize that many fish species to begin with. What was creepy about them was that they swam to the surface of the water as soon as we walked up to the side of the bridge... and they follow you if you're visible from their angle. They are either curious fish or used to having people feed them from the bridge often. It's probably the latter. I could imagine they would follow people the same way if they ever become zombie fish in a zombie apocalypse.

What's a Canadian zoo without its polar bears? I think this picture was taken during its feeding time at 12:00 PM. It was staring at the other two bears that I left out of the photo. There were a lot of people watching them being fed, including a class of elementary school kids, a few couples, and a number of mothers with baby carts.


Giraffes! The giraffes were still in their cages (?) instead of their open area. One was eating while the other two were sucking on the gates. I was hoping they would fight with their necks swinging around like from a video I saw on YouTube, but they were busy with their activities. I looked at the ground beyond the cage and saw poo. Giraffe poo look so much smaller than I'd imagine.


_{Ring-tailed Lemurs}

Lemurs! They kept to the farther side of the cage until I opened my umbrella. It was fun to watch them.

There was a turtle displayed near the gorilla section in the African Rainforest Pavilion. It just kept still and looking towards our direction...


<sub>"I'm keeping my eyes on you."


My friends looking at an animal that looks like a deer with powered up antlers and stripes but is not a deer.</sub>

We went to the Australasia Pavilion and there were jellyfish! Moon jellyfish! It was hard to take pictures of them because they kept moving.




_{Moon Jellyfish}

It was easier to capture a video of the jellyfish than taking a photograph. I would have taken more videos and pictures, but my two SD cards ran out of memory space!

I will be posting desktop wallpapers of the polar bear picture and a few jellyfish pictures (maybe even one that hasn't appeared on this post yet).

The zoo was fun to visit, but I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon with my friends. We missed the sea otters, kangaroo walk, and tiger feeding. Hm... Maybe next year? We'll have to reconsider trying to look at all the animals to looking at only the animals we want to see.

Now I will end this post with a peacock in a tree. Bow down to the peacock in the tree!