Since Mel and Les are on maternity leave and I was not working during my final two weeks in Melbourne, we decided to spend a day at the Melbourne Zoo. Not being an overly enthusiastic zoo lover, and having already been to Werribee and Healeville zoos near Melbourne, I was going more for the company and to spend time outside on a beautiful day. I was surprised to be the one most taken with the animals, seeing many animals for the first time, and impressed with the beauty and layout of Melbourne's Zoo.
Here we have the cutest two animals in the zoo, Liam (wearing a giraffe) and Archer!
My first sighting of a red panda.
The pink butts of the baboons were oh so pink.
Another first sighting... of a tree-kangaroo.
Mel and Les insisted I take pics with all the animal statues around the zoo, a tradition I am told.
A giraffe, only slightly bigger than the one Liam was wearing.
Now in America, we call these zebras (pronounced Z-bras). In Australia, it is pronounced zebbras (as in the letter zed).
I just love the name of this animal - a bongo!
Doubled over in laughter... pretty typical for the two of us.
Meerkats
We didn't get to pet these tigers (like in China).
The elephant is peeing... what a lovely picture!
Les, me, and Gorilla Man.
The real deal.
Oh no, the crocodile is eating me. How many pictures do I have like this??? New Orleans swamp tour, Darwin billabong tour, Queenstown ice bar... and another for the collection.
The very colorful mandrills, especially the rear view.
Tree-top apes and monkeys.
A white orangutan.
Eastern black and white colobus monkeys.
Jen, the gorilla.
Les with Liam, me, and Mel with Archer. We stopped at the Lakeside Bistro for lunch.
Les and Liam.
Archer.
Mel and Archer on the elephant.
The elusive platypus that is difficult to capture as it is a nocturnal animal and you can only see it inside of pitch black caves.
There were beautiful flowers around the zoo grounds.
The lions, hear them roar!! They actually did get going while we were there, which was a sight.
Here are the roarers that started it.
A maned wolf.
The giant tortoise really was GIANT. I've never seen such a huge turtoise.
We went back to Mel's house for the evening, my last sleepover at the Yates household for a while.
