Day at the Zoo

Last week we went to the zoo. One of the first stops we made was to see the cheetahs. We also noted the new fence they have put up after the cheetahs swam across a small pond (apparently cheetahs don't like water, so it was very unusual for them to actually go swimming) and started wandering around in the public area (don't worry, they were rounded up before before they found someone to eat for dinner). Thankfully we weren't there that day. I do have to say when we were there the cheetahs were eyeing us up - especially Courtney. We were the only ones in that area and the children kindly noted that had one of the cheetahs managed to get out, that even if we'd screamed then there was no-one to hear us ... Courtney offered to do the screaming for a worst case scenario & Josh said maybe if we made ourselves look really big then that would scare them away (he's been reading up on what to do if attacked by a mountain lion - not that we have lions in NZ - apart from the zoo). Thankfully the cheetah didn't get out and we didn't need to resort to either option and we carried on our way around the zoo.

You know those signs they have at zoos with a picture of a hand, with a bandage around the finger... well before the Kea's went to their new enclosure that was the sign they had outside their cage, ie don't put your finger near the beak of a kea! Now in their new enclosure people can actually walk through the enclosure with the keas at close range. Since we were the only ones around (the benefits of being homeschoolers and being able to go to the zoo at off-peak times) the children had a wonderful time in the enclosure spending over an hour with the keas. Courtney raided their food bowl - no, not because she was hungry!! but so she could hand feed them. Josh & Renee were close to follow with that idea. I told them that Kea's had sharp beaks ... but you can see by the photos as to how worried they were by that statement!! Josh did use his sweatshirt for the keas to eat from, so he was using his initiative. Brandi just preferred to watch from a distance.