A Trip to the Zoo

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Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY! Well actually the bears were hiding but we did see lions and tigers!  Six eager science students and I recently visited the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary.  While we were warned that this Zoo may not be as big as others we were excited to support the animal sanctuary program at the Austin Zoo.  We arrived just in time for feeding time.  Seeing most of the big cats, including African Lions, Bengal Tigers, Cougars and Jaguars enjoy a morning meal before nap time.  We hung out for a while in the primate section amazed at how many similarities we noticed between them and ourselves.  We got to talk to some of the zoo keepers that were taking care of the Timberwolves.  We learned that they had painted a paste on their ears and nose to help keep the flies away.  We were entertained by all the ungulates in the petting corral.  A goat even sneezed right on one of us! At each viewing area we were able to read the story of how that particular animal got to the Austin Zoo.  Although many of the stories were sad it was nice to see the animals in a better situation.  The signs also informed us of the native habitat of the animals along with other information such as their eating and mating habits.  We even had discussions as to how the animals’ features helped them survive in their environment.  Form follows function!  All in all we had a fun filled and informative trip to the Austin Zoo.   I even hers a couple students talking about how cool it would be to have a job as a zoo keeper!