We decided to go to the zoo this weekend for a lot of reasons. I likes zoos, we hadn't been to a zoo in a while, the zoo here has a snow leopard exhibit, and we wanted to go to the zoo before tourist season when we figured it would be crowded. We could've driven to the zoo, probably, but we moved here so that we wouldn't have to drive everywhere. It was a nice day but we got to the zoo with only a couple hours left before closing. We walked around and saw the various animals that included a bald eagle, rare birds and insects, elephants, zebras, kangaroos, lions, otters, and a snow leopard.

I really wanted to see the snow leopard, but both times we went to see him, he was hiding in the back behind a hill and some bushes, so we couldn't see him hardly at all. I've started becoming more interested in the conservation of endangered species ever since watching the tv series Planet Earth. Troy even contributed to the Snow Leopard Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving snow leopards, as a Christmas present for me. Click here to go to their website if you're interested in learning more about them. I just think it's a terrible shame that so many species are critically endangered. One type of leopard, the Amur Leopard, is so endangered that it is close to extinction. Only about 30 exist in the wild. Zoos can only do so much when it comes to breeding and re-introducing animals into the wild.

At one point in the tropical rainforest exhibit, we were in this big caged area that had several different kinds of birds in it and we got to see some of the trainers feeding them. They had these boxes with bugs in them and would take one out and the birds would come and eat them right out of your hand. It was pretty cool.

I was a little disappointed with how rushed we were, but I figure we'll go back again sometime since it's not that expensive at all. As we were leaving we saw a beautiful peacock roaming around the front area of the zoo. Everyone else seemed oblivious to it, but we got several pictures of it and it was one of the highlights of our visit.