Lions and Tigers and Sloth Bears!

The other day someone Brad works with told him that there was a fun new exhibit of Sloth Bears at the zoo in Idaho Falls. So since we had the day off together we decided it would be fun to go check it out. It's just a small local zoo and it was only $5 to get in! Who can pass that up? Not us! This is me in front of the flamingos. There was one in there that was gray instead of pink and the other pink flamingos were not too happy he was in there with them. It looked a little discriminatory. Who knew the story of the ugly duckling would come to pass in the flamingo pen.

This is one of the two very entertaining sloth bears. When we got to the zoo they said it would be closed, and we were bummed we probably wouldn't be able to see them since that was the reason we went. But low and behold, they were back in their pen when we got there! They were a lot of fun to watch because they played in the water, climbed on their tree, and just ran around being active. They look kind of funny too because they have really long, skinny arms and legs compared to normal bears and also have wild hair around their faces.

It was exciting for us to see the lion because we both haven't seen one since we were little since the Portland Zoo doesn't have lions and I haven't been to the zoo since the San Diego Zoo years ago.

This is a kucaburra. They are from Australia and Brad was very excited to see one for some reason. I think because he has never seen one before. But hey, it looks cool! When Brad went to take a picture of it, it struck this pose from it's normal sitting position. It's almost as if he knew....

Here's the peacock. I was really excited to see this because I had never seen one with it's feathers up in real life. It was fun watching it turn around in circles every once in awhile and strut around. Brad had seen this before because he got too close to one on a zoo field trip in high school, haha!

This baby camel is only 6 weeks old. They were training it walk around with its leash so we got to watch it stumble around. It was the cutest thing!

This one is a red panda. It's not nearly as big as the panda you would normally think of. We loved this close up picture because you can see its cute face. Further away you can tell it's in the panda family by its body shape.

The penguins were one of the first exhibits we saw. It was a lot of fun because they just keep them outside next to their pool and they can come right up next to the fence. Brad got a picture of one that was pretty close to us, but the bushes covered most of its body. We stood around and watched for awhile because we thought this one would jump into the water any moment, but alas, it did not.

This was one of Brad's favorite spots. He loved seeing the pelicans and all the different diving ducks.

We did get to see the monkeys and they were a lot of fun and very interactive, but our camera was dead by the time we got to them. It was fun seeing their human-like mannerisms like relaxing on the grass, window gazing, and nervous nail-biting.

All in all it was a really fun time at the zoo. We can't wait to go back again.....

Maybe with Shannon and the boys.... Hmmmm???