Giraffes!

A beautiful fall day had us heading to the zoo for our monthly zoo school session. The zoo's new Heart of Africa section was a hot ticket over the summer, so we didn't spend a lot of time there or get the chance to feed the giraffes. Since the exhibit is closing at the start of November for the winter, I decided that we had better take the opportunity to see the animals again and feed the giraffes for the first time. Unfortunately, some of the local school districts had the day off and there were lots of people at the zoo enjoying the nice afternoon. We waited about 30 minutes for our turn to feed the giraffes, which the kids loved. I wish I had gotten a few better pictures, but I was juggling the camera while doling out single pieces of lettuce to the kids to feed the giraffe. These are the best I got. 

Afterward, we wandered through the rest of "Africa," which I think is one of the best animal exhibits I have seen at any zoo because it is basically a huge open space where different animals can roam about. And even though the lions are in a separate "pen" it cleverly looks like they could race across the savanna and nab a zebra if they wanted.

As we made our way towards the zoo school classroom, we stopped to see some animal exhibits. The highlight was definitely the beavers who are tucked back in a corner of the North America section of the zoo. They were a lot of fun to watch as they raced around their pool and dove underwater. They were like chunky otters, and since I saw a "Nature" episode on how important (and under-appreciated) these guys are to the North American eco-system, I have a soft spot in my heart for them for not just protecting wetlands, but actually building wetlands.

I didn't get any pics from zoo school, but the kids learned about fossils. This was Degen's second zoo school class, and he did a great job paying attention and even raising his hand to answer questions. They got to pet a tortoise and make their own 'fossils.'