Giants of the Savanna

I have been wanting to get season passes to the zoo, and we finally did this year since it will help us save money when we visit zoos on our upcoming road trip. Today was our first trip to the zoo using those passes. Our main goals today were to go to the fairly new Giants of the Savanna exhibit and to see the koalas. On the way to Giants of the Savanna, we stopped by the elephant statue, watched the African penguins play, and then posed with some more elephant statues.

Most zoos have Asian elephants, but the Dallas Zoo has African ones. The last time we were at the Dallas Zoo, they only had Jenny in a small enclosure. When they opened the Giants of the Savanna exhibit, they brought in five more females to be with Jenny, becoming the "Golden Girls." Sadly, we never got to see the oldest one, Stumpy, who died on April 13. It was fun to see the elephants give themselves baths.

Jenny

Gypsy

Mama, Kamba, and Congo

One of the highlights of the trip was the giraffe feeding. It was similar to how they feed the dolphins at SeaWorld where you purchase some food (Romaine lettuce in this case), and then go up to the fence and wait for a giraffe to come up to you. Unlike our past experiences, you can even pet the giraffes, which is made even easier because you are eye-level with them. The Dallas Zoo has 13 giraffes, but not all of them want to come up and eat from people. The kids did have fun feeding the baby giraffe, Jamie, who will be one on July 23.

Jamie

A 6-year-old giraffe

The cheetahs were right across from the giraffes.

We almost missed them, but we found the lions inside the restaurant near the elephants. The two males and three females were all napping and swatting at flies, but it gave the kids a great chance to get up close to the big cats.

We ended our trip with going to see the koalas, which is a treat since there are only 10 zoos in the U.S. that have them. The male koalas, Kobi and Teken, are on loan from the San Diego Zoo (home to about 50 koalas, including the 27 or so that they loan out to other zoos). We got there in time to see them being weighed and checked, which allowed us to also see them awake.

Mara wanted to go in to see the lorikeets before we left. We were able to go in without food, but some women were done feeding and gave Mara their container of nectar. Apparently, the birds really liked me because I had one land on my shoulder, followed by one on my head and another on my shoulder. Mara thought it was pretty funny.

This zoo has really come a long way in the last few years, and they've made it a really neat place to visit. We're all looking forward to going back throughout the year.