In October, we took a trip to the Austin Zoo. I’m always a bit wary about zoos, as they can be depressing places. This zoo, however, only takes in animals that are discarded from other places — the old, sick, injured, and unwanted. It actually started out as a ranch and rehabilitated farm animals. And so while its animals are a little hodge-podge and many of the big ones are lame or arthritic, I actually liked knowing that these were not restless animals that could be thriving in the wild, but rather retirement animals resting out their final years in relative comfort.
This is not a fancy-dancy zoo with fake boulders and impressing landscaping, but the enclosures seemed adequately sized for the most part, and there was some attempt at public education. I was excited for Sean to see some of the animals he’s been learning about it books. Sean knows the names of many animals. He knows more names of animals than many adults do. He can tell his emus from his kiwis and meerkats from baboons. (Of course, this is all my fault. With the help of DK’s My First Animals.) And while he knows elephants are big, that cheetahs run fast, and that kangaroos jump, he’d never actually *seen* any of these animals. (Elephants don’t actually look that big in books…)
We had a good time going around and looking at the animals. Sean was equally interested in running up and down the steps and walking on rocks as he was looking at the animals, but that’s normal. Ask him now about the zoo and he’ll say “train!” because there was a little ride-on train that we rode there, too. And there was a farm section that had a petting zoo area and lots of opportunity to feed the (already quite well fed) animals. Here Sean convinces some goats to eat from his hand. (Thank goodness for the endless appetite of goats!)
And, um, they had a couple free-roaming peacocks. (Don’t worry, we grabbed him when he actually got close.)
