Zoo Heidelberg

Saturday we made it a "kinder friendly" ausflug to the zoo in Heidelberg! 

Even before we entered the zoo we were able to see some white bears (they were advertised as polar bears on the website, I think, but they didn't look like it so much) and an awesome bird's nest atop the entrance! 








Like many zoos, they have feeding times open to the public, we were able to catch the feeding of the sea lions!  Man, this brought back such desires to change my career!  I truly enjoyed this WAY more than the kids - they enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but this was something I could have watched ALL DAY!  Sick, I know!

They had several sea lions - but they had a HUGE bull!  Sarah kept thinking that when they "called" for food that they were burping! :) 

They were very animated and entertaining!  

We were able to veiw beautiful healthy tortoises - these guys had shells that are the biggest I think I have seen - definitely for the kids! 

They had a large variety of 2 hump camel, which the kids loved! 

Kangaroos - they were quite lazy!  But neat to see.

When we walked into the large monkey house we were bombarded with humidity and stench!  But - the kids sucked it up!  I was impressed!  There were several different types of monkeys...the Orangatang, the chimpanzee, the gorilla- and some little moneky that I have not clue about, but the baby was quite cute!  The gorillas were very busy "cleaning" themselves - amazing how they have no discretion!  Thankfully, the kids were pretty clueless and we had very little explaining to do!




  We then went into some exotic bird cage that had some very vibrant birds in them a Scarlet Ibis (pictured here), Glossy Ibis, A White Spoonbill (that was actually pink), Chiloe Wigeon and a Rotschulterente (no translation on this one).    All but the Glossy Ibis were from South America, the Glossy Ibis has several locations around the world that it comes from. 



                                      As usual the lions and tiger were not very active, but the kids did get to see them. 

They had a cemented paw print and the kids loved to see how their hands compared!  Evan was pleased to know that his hand was "bigger"... 

Evan had been hoping since we mentioned the zoo that he would get to see some flamingos... funny thing, once he saw them - he was not as excited!  Though it seemed to a let down to Evan, I will say, they were probably the most vibrant in color I have ever seen zoo flamingos.  There was a couple that had several "words" to say to each other.  The argument went on for a good while! 

This zoo was well equiped w/ little play areas for the kids - goodness knows they have plenty of energy!  Some days I wish I could bottle it up and sell it!   

The kids were excited to be able to feed the ducks!  For 50 euro cents we were able to get a handful of food to split amongst the children.  They all had a good time w/ that!   

There was a "savannah" tha had some good looking elephants, zebras and some other horned creatures...  The kids enjoyed watching the elephants play in the water!  When we walked up the hill a bit to see their other play area Emma was amazed that the elephants did not step in the "mess" they made!  Inside the Elephant house they had a display of 3 "heart models", a mouse, an elephant and a human.  The average beats per minute of each, respectively are 600 bpm, 25bpm and 70bpm.  The hearts vibrated w/ each heartbeat and lit up w/ each beat!  We got to put our own fingers in a "reader" that displayed our own heart beats!  It was very facinating!

The last "exhibit" we went too was the play ground!  It was a really nice one!  I didn't get to walk down to the larger kid one - but Evan said you really had to "act like a monkey on that play ground".  When I asked him if he acted like a monkey, he just grinned and shook his head yes! :)  That's my boy! 


Overall, I was very pleased to see the conditions of the cages for these animals.  They were very well cleaned and kept.  Some places I have been I cannot say the same - but you can tell that Zoo Heidelberg truly takes care of their animals.

Well... as the day wound down I counted how many times the kids requested to use the water closet/toilet - :)  too many to count, but not as bad as I had figured!  The good news- they were frei (free) here!

It was a good day!  Kids were well worn!  Sarah and Gracie could not make it home before they fell alseep!  They took almost a 3 hour nap once we got home!  Even Don could not hold out once we got home!  It was quite cute!  And it turned out to be "ein guter tag"! (a good day)

For more pix check out the Zoo Page