Utah Hogle Zoo + Dinosaurs

22 June 2015

Since Lily loves going to the Zoo, we decided that one day we would take her.  With my NC Zoo Pass, I got the four of us into the zoo for $15.

When entering the NC Zoo (Africa side) the first animal you encounter is the giraffes.  Here at Utah's Hogle Zoo - the first animals we saw, were also the giraffes. I think that this was a good omen meaning the day was going to be perfect.

And Lily was so, so happy to see the giraffes.

But not so sure about the lions.

I hate to compare, but the Elephants at Utah's zoo had such a small living area compared to how large of an area they have at North Carolina's zoo.

But one thing that Utah's zoo has, that North Carolina's zoo lacks... is live shows!  We were lucky enough to hit all three (one right after the other).

The first show was the Elephant show.  They did all sorts of tricks, and the narrators explained that the elephant's participation was optional.  If they performed the tricks, they were rewarded with their favorite fruits to eat, if they chose not to participate, they didn't any fruits. We also learned that the trainers are no longer allowed to be in the same enclosure as elephants, per some sort of standard.  So all the tricks that they do there is a restrictive wall which protects the animal trainers.  But these weren't the only fun facts we learned.  We also learned how to distinguish African elephants from Asian elephants, that females dwell among each other and live in groups, how long the gestational period of an elephant is, and (something new for me): that the elephants largest blood vessels are in their ears and this is where they get their blood drawn to make sure that they are healthy elephants. 

The next show was the bird show.  You sit in this inclined arena and birds swoop and fly right over your head.  The whole show lasts about 45 minutes (with a bird flying over your head every 2-3 minutes) and you learn all sorts of interesting facts about birds.  I remember going to this show about 8 years ago with Michal and he was fully freaked out by the birds flying overhead.  But Lily loved it. In fact, her favorite bird was the owl.  Whenever we go to the zoo she tells everyone we went to see giraffes and elephants (in that order), but this time she told people we went to see the "owl - who who".

The last show was all about the seals.  They performed tricks and jumps and got rewarded with fishy treats.  After about 10 minutes Lily was bored and asked to go see the Polar Bear.  I was quite surprised that she wanted to see the Polar Bear because every time we go to the NC Zoo, the Polar Bear is hiding in the shade and is nowhere to be found.  Since everyone was enjoying the second half of the seal show... we got front row tickets to watching the Polar Bear cool himself off and do all sorts of interesting tricks in the water.  He kept on jumping in the water, diving, turning around, getting out of the water, walking into a caged home, walking out, shaking off to dry and then repeating the whole process.  We watched him "perform" this schedule about three times. I was so happy that Lily finally got to see her Polar Bear because she's always talking about it, even though she's never seen one up close and personal.

By the time we saw all the animals in the zoo, Lily was tired and wanted to go home.  She played hard and loved all there was to see.  We were at the zoo for about 3 hours, which is much longer than I normally spend at the zoo. I think that we were able to spend so much time there because the shows provided shade and rest so that we didn't wear ourselves out too fast.

And last, but not least.  When I first told Lily we were going to the zoo, I told her we would get to see Dinosaurs there.  These dinosaurs have motion sensors and when someone approaches or walk by, they robotically move and make sounds.  Lily thought it was cool to approach them until they moved, spit water, or "roared"... and then she was freaked beyond belief.  She didn't want to get anywhere near them.  The only dinosaurs she was willing to approach were some tiny ones about the size of your hand.  

Overall, it was such a fun day at the zoo.  I was so grateful that Grammy was game for coming along, it made it so much easier to have her there so Lily could see all the animals up close!