Crocodiles and turtles and bears, oh my!

Yah! Taipei Zoo day! The kids were all ready to go this afternoon as it was time to visit the animals! The Taipei Zoo is really quite large and serviced by both an in-zoo gondola and shuttle bus. Great aunt Yumei seemed a bit surprised that we had taken many gondolas before - kind of a must when one is skiing - but indeed this was still a rare experience for us of riding a gondola without snow on the ground below.

Even armed with a native Chinese speaker, we shockingly spent most of the visit lost, which ended up being a good thing as it enabled us to “stumble upon” animals instead of just hitting the main attractions. We started off with the birds and monkeys, moving on to the African zone with a lion, many hippos and a couple of huge rhinos, and at Meg’s insistence, stopped by the reptile cave (including turtles, snakes and crocodiles) on the way to the Penguin House.

These last two stops were actually very popular with everyone, especially after the African zone, as the area was air-conditioned and kept much cooler for the comfort of the animals. Great aunt was kind enough to pick up a pair of cute stuffed penguin souvenirs for the kids, then we set off again in search of the koalas and pandas. This was clearly the main event and we were just determined to find them!

We saw the koalas first - who to be honest did not seem that happy or comfortable perched on their trees in a faked up not very Australian environment. However, the signage claimed that koalas are rather solitary creatures and anyhow prefer to be alone on their eucalyptus trees. They come together apparently only for mating - and of course this would be the one sign that Davy actually reads... “Mommy, what does mating mean?!”

Eventually we found the pandas - they were were proudly displayed in their very own building in the special exhibit wing of the zoo. Great aunt somewhat ironically shook her head and asked nobody in particular why there were here 12 scientists and doctors to look after two pandas! They do move fast though and were not in a mood to come close enough to the glass for any decent pictures. Davy decided to snap a shot with the baby Lego panda instead.Read more