The Wild Animal Park is located in Escondido, about 30 miles north of San Diego Zoo.
They have a really cute carousel. 
And a water-play area that was a very welcome sight – it was warm today (okay, about 82 degrees so not as hot as home, but we were walking a lot in the sun…)! 
This lovely lady was lying right next to the viewing window… so beautiful!! 
There were some African acrobats there from Tanzania…. About an hour before their show, they came to a picnic area and played jump-rope with us. 
Here are some shots of the acrobats’ performance. They were fun to watch. 
It’s a beautiful place… giraffes and antelope and rhinos and zebras and tigers and lions, in large habitats that are as close to natural as they can get in captivity. 
There are also a few aviaries with beautiful birds flying around -- Madison and Logan got to feed some lorikeets. 
| I’m soooo tired… that is one BIG zoo. Here are some photos… |
Lions! 
Koalas!! 
A really cool owl! 
Pandas! 
The critter in the middle is fake. 
These aren’t real either (the gorillas I mean)… 
HOWEVER… Madi was charged by a REAL gorilla… a scary big alpha-male silverback…. 
This guy was standing about 20 yards away, just looking at us… Madison was standing on the viewing platform with her hands on the glass, staring back at him. Suddenly he started running toward us, and I teasingly said “ooh Madi, he’s charging at you… here he comes… oh he’s not stopping…” and he didn’t. Madison jumped down off the window just before the gorilla ran into it, right where she’d been standing! Thank heaven for 3-inch plexiglass… he banged it with all his weight and punched with both fists, then gave it a good kick before walking off. Scared us to death… but HOW COOL!!! Not many people can (or would want to) say that they’ve been charged by a gorilla…. We learned the next day that staring at gorillas is “impolite” and they feel they are being threatened… so maybe that was what caused his little outburst.
I also have to share a little video… Quito, the singing parrot, had us all laughing. (She’s actually pretty famous… she was on the Ellen show a few years back!!) Enjoy.
