Whipsnade Zoo

The kids have had Whipsnade Zoo on their list since we moved here, and we finally got there today. Whipsnade is a branch of the London Zoo and is where the larger animals are kept as well as those that require more space. This zoo is about an hour north of us and 30 minutes or so north of London. The zoo is huge and it took us about 4 hours to see almost all of it.

We had no rain today, but it rained yesterday. It was cold and this part of England seems to always be windy. Most of the paths here are dirt, so we all have muddy shoes and pants.

We started off by seeing the California Sea Lion show. It’s funny to come all the way over here to see sea lions when they are fairly common around Seattle. The sea lions at home don’t do tricks, though.

All three jumping for the balls.

I am still amused to see signs on many buildings telling us about which member of the Royal family opened which building. One of my favorites is the orthodontist office we visited in our small town that had a sign on it that it was opened by the Princess Royal. Fancy. The tiger exhibit at this zoo was opened by Prince Edward.

The zoo has 10 Asian elephants. They were all in a smallish enclosure while we saw them, but it looked like they had access to a huge field. It’s not the 50 miles or so elephants need, but it looked to be a lot better than many zoos. There were also two baby elephants here.

These funny little animals had free range all over the zoo. We finally found a sign to tell us what they were – Pantagonian Mara. They are closely related to guinea pigs.

One horned rhino nibbling on a branch. They have long flexible lips.

The rhinos also had this lovely muddy area to hang out in.

Flamingos. They make lots of noise, sort of birdy chatter.

A funny looking pig called a red river hog. They have funny pointy ears that look like elf ears. They are vigorous rooters and their pen looks has giant pits all over.

Lions. We have never been this close to them before. They had just eaten and their leftovers were being picked over by birds.

The zoo was in a hilly area and offered some nice countryside views.

A mom and baby hippo.

The cheetahs did not come out in the sun to be photographed.

We could get really close to giraffes, too.

ZSL makes some good signs.

European Lynx.

Chimpanzee. We learned later from a sign that this is Elvis. The sign told us that Elvis regularly stole food from the other chimps, and he had just stolen most of these branches from another chimp as we watched. He needs better manners.

Ring tailed lemur. Very jumpy critters.

Red panda. They spend most of their time up in trees.

River otters. These are very cute animals. They are chirpy like kittens and look directly at people. The on the right is named Flash and he carries a little pebble around wherever he goes. The zoo put up a sign to tell people because he walks funny while carrying the pebble. The sign told us that he is not hurt, he is just walking using three limbs since the fourth is holding the pebble.