Adelaide Zoo

We decided to visit the Adelaide Zoo because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Panda Bears! While we there Geoff made friends with a very protective male Baboon. If there hadn't been a perspex screen between them I think it would have taken Geoff's face off! Geoff wanted its attention and he got it. Moral never show your teeth to a Baboon if you value your life!

The Panda's were napping when we visited.  They were in an airconditioned enclosure, behind sheets of tinted glass. It was difficult to get decent photos of them, due to the relfections.

They'd definately made themselves comfortable in their temporary homes.  Every day the zoo closed their area to visitors so the Pandas could relax without the stress of camera flashes and staring eyes.

 Although they looked pretty relaxed to us!

 I finally got to see some giraffes. They are such an ungainly creature, but they are quite beautiful. Of course they had a really high fence and it was difficult to get a good shot of them.

We absolutely love the meercats. This female kept posing for the photos while on lookout duty.

 Geoff kept a running dialogue for everyone "Look at me...Look at me... Is this my best side?....Or is this side better?

The young meercats were busy below digging around the compound looking for mischief to get into.

This male lion was alone in a pen with the females caged next door. The female took great delight in teasing him through the fence, while the male brushed up against the mesh showing off his muscles.

 He was getting quite cranky and would let out a loud roar everynow and again. I think he seriously would have liked to smack all of us watching with one of his huge paws. This is definately the face ofone ticked off male!

You can see one of the female lions at the back over near the male's cage. Meanwhile this girl couldn't have given a hoot at how good looking the male thought he was. She was just sick of the noise so she got up to move away from the courting pair.

 Flamingos. The photo below is of one particularly colourful flamingo, his bright orange plumage quite unusual. I found them a surprisingly attractive bird.

 These were the only penguins I got to see this trip! Much to my disgust. There was supposed to be a colony of blue penguins living on Graphite Island just off Victor Harbour, but we found out when we went there that they had either moved on or died out.

Mmm, not sure about this species....he escaped while we were there and insisted we feed him!  I was certainly tempted to return him, but he seemed a bit neglected so I brought him home.

Not sure if this poort seal was just bored silly or enjoying a swim, but it just went as fast as it could around and around in this small oval shaped pond. It didn't play with the ball, didn't stop but just kept going around. We got dizzy watching it.

This young baboon was cute. His mum dumped him so she could have a drink, but he kept pulling at her so she growled at him and he went off and annoyed one of the other baboons.

This looked interesting to the young one so he stole a bit of the sugar cane  and ran back to mum. Brat!

While I enjoyed the opportunity to see creatures I would never normally got to see, it is still a shame to see them in cages.  Adelaide Zoo is doing a good job to try and make their habitats as real to life as possible.  But that afternoon we went to a private zoo at Cudlee Creek across the road from the caravan park, and even though it was a small zoo, the animal enclosures were the best we've seen at imitating the animals native habitats.