We're all going to the Zoo tomorrow...
Three days before Mum and Eileen arrived in Canadian-land, Karina came to stay for a few days and we spent a lovely (hot day) at the Toronto Zoo. The Zoo is huge! It has a different area for each continent in the world and each area has a huge outdoor section and a huge series of indoor pavilions so the animals from the hot countries can be all warm and snuggly when the winter comes. As can be expected Karina and I got up to muchos fun...
Our first stop was the Canada section, of course. This, my friends, is a Cougar. Doesn't it look beautiful and cuddly? NO! When living the mountain life the only advice we were given if we met a cougar was to dial 911 immediately as that was your best chance of survival. They stalk you and the first indication you will get if they are around is when they jump in front off you to kill you. Which made it amusing for Karina and I when a mother said to her little girl "Look at the pretty kitty"...
This is a grizzly bear - he was HUGE! So glad I never met one of these on the mountain. Give me a black bear any day.
Karina and I weren't alone on our day out. Ozzie and Moose came along too. Aren't they sweet?
These are bison sleeping in the mid-day heat. I've eaten bison. Fondued it in fact. Very tasty...
Karina at the zoo!! I took this while standing up on a rock - I'm tall but I'm not a giant.
Next stop - the Kid's Zoo! This a singing dog but it was too hot to even whistle a tune so he was very quiet.
Quite possibly the most ugliest bird in the world. I'm sure he has a great personality though...
You could pretend to be some of the animals so of course we had a go. Karina is a prairie dog here...
Karina realises there is a prairie dog beside and in her excitement becomes a human again...
I'm pretty convincing, huh? Katie, prairie dog, prairie dog, Katie...
How much wood would a Woodchuck chuck if a Woodchuck could chuck wood? Apparently zero, nothing, nada. False advertisement, if you ask me.
A giant turtle or Karina? You decide...
Ozzie and Moose wanted to be rabbits. Of course, I couldn't leave them unsupervised...
Africa next. Hippos!
Ozzie and Moose have a hippo ride.
Elephants! Toronto Zoo has enough space to house 5 African elpehants, just to give you an idea of the size of the place.
Then we went to the Indo-Malaya Pavilion where we had a bit of Lion King theme. This guy is Rafiki. Just before I took this photo the little dude hopped of his stump and shifted the woodchips around on the floor in a very careful and contemplative manner then stared at the them for a minute or so before climbing back on his stump to contemplate what he had just seen.
Timon! What a poser!
And those two little grey blobs are two mini-Pumbas. There was actually a full sized Pumba but he was little more camera shy than his friend, Timon.
This was one of the older female gorillas. She was so human it was unbelievable, you could almost imagine striking up a conversation with her. She looked very sad though.
This is the big, male orangutan. Wow, was he ugly! But impressive none the less. There was also a very cute, very small and mischievous baby orangutan who was causing his mummy all kinds of headaches but he was too speedy to photograph.
Karina and I with our new friend.
And a otter pic for Mum. This one was showing off his superior, and speedy, swimming skills.