A Rainy Visit To Africa Alive

This zoo trip was another flying visit, me and Michael had headed over there and we had a wander around. The weather was was a bit rubbish, it was drizzly and would stop, then start again and it was just annoying.

Overall I really enjoyed Africa alive, I did not take very many pictures at all, only some of the lions, one of the rhino and a few on my phone of the bat eared foxes (they were awesome!)

We wandered around the zoo and I must say I was very impressed with the enclosures, they were on the small size compared to some zoos, but were still within the requirements for the species but they were fully furnished and you can tell that the keepers here are very passionate about enrichment!

We saw lots of different species, the foxes, meerkats, lemurs, drills, two different species of porcupine, some vultures and owls and of course the lions and the rhinos.

Even though it was a bit wet we still had a nice walk around the zoo and I do hope we get to pay the zoo a proper visit in the future and as they are sister zoos with Banham we are hoping to do an overnight stay where on one day we visit Africa alive and the next day we visit Banham, I think that would be an awesome trip!

Thanks for reading!

Megan xoxo

Chester Zoo Again!

I made a terrible mistake visiting Chester zoo on this particular day as it was half term over there and the zoo was absolutely manic!

It was just a flying visit, I didn’t stay for long as I was travelling back down south but I stopped off to see all my favourites and managed to get a few good pictures as well.

As soon as I got to the zoo I made my way over to the islands section and made my way to the tree kangaroo, as expected there was a queue waiting to see the new baby and I hung around for a bit once I had made my way to the front but it was too busy and she was sleeping so I decided to move on.

From there I went around to the tapir and the tigers, I saw the tiger cubs on the screen that is filmed live from the den and was lucky enough to have a show from Dash as he wandered around the enclosure climbing over the furnishings.

I followed the path down to the sun bears and managed to see one out before heading out, I bypassed the building which houses the orangutans and then I left the islands section.

I headed towards the Andean bears and luckily they were outside and they were being fed!

From here it was over to the fossa’s and a quick check of the sifakas and then it was time to head back down south!

I absolutely love going to the zoo and being able to take pictures of all the animals, I got some lovely pictures even though I was only here for a few hours and considering how busy it was, hopefully next time it wont be a school holiday and I will be able to have some more time with the animals.

Thanks for reading!

Megan xoxo

Seeing All The Babies at Chester Zoo

On a recent trip to Chester Zoo we saw all the different babies, the babies were the reason we went over there specifically for the baby rhino, baby tree kangaroo, baby tapir and baby sifaka. There was also a baby dusky pademelon and we wanted to see the male tiger as we have not yet seen him on one of our visits.

We got very lucky on this particular visit. We started with the islands where we saw the baby tree kangaroo, dusky pademelon and dash the tiger, we also saw the baby tapir before heading back over to see the baby tree kangaroo. We went back to the tigers and the tapirs before heading to see the orangutans and gorillas.

We ended up spending nearly half of our day over on the islands section but we still managed to see a lot of other species, we saw the painted dogs, the cheetahs, the baby fossa’s and sifakas. I particularly enjoyed seeing the penguins and the baby rhino was just so cute! He is pretty big now but he is still smaller than the adult.

We saw the sloths climbing about in their enclosure and Napo the jaguar chilling on his heated rock and by then it was time to start heading back. We wanted to head back to the islands to see the babies again and the baby tapir was up and about with mum which was super cute! by the time we finished at the islands we headed back to the giftshop and then it was time to leave!

We had an amazing day overall and took some amazing pictures and I cannot wait to go back in the near future as (at the time of writing this) they have recently announced tiger cubs!

Thanks for reading,

Megan xoxo

Meeting The Tigers At Colchester Zoo

On the 30th January we took a trip to Colchester Zoo and aside from seeing all of our favourite animals we got to meet the tigers. This was an experience I had purchased as a gift for Michael for Christmas and he absolutely loved it!

We started by checking in at the experiences office and we needed to meet the keeper at 11:30am so we just stayed at the top part of the zoo, we saw the monkeys, tamanduas, sealions, orangutans, tried to see the sun bears and saw the leopards. We tried to communicate with my parents as to where we should meet them but the signal is so spotty and they headed straight down to the tigers, We still had a little while before meeting the keeper so we headed back to the leopards for a while.

Finally it was time to meet the tigers, it was amazing, we got to feed them and we had a talk about them. We fed Tatana and then Taiga joined her once she had finished feeding. For the last part of the experience the keeper sprayed some perfume and the tigers turned into big kittens rolling around on the floor and purring. It was amazing to see! We took so many pictures and asked so many questions it was the most awesome experience.

After the experience we met up with my parents and we went to the giraffe house to try to see the baby rhino, we got there just in time as their were murmurs that the baby would be let out soon. She was only being let out for 15 minutes at a time with mum and we managed to see her running around on the hard sand. She was so cute, it was like she had zoomies constantly running around and playing.

From there we went to get some lunch and then we headed to the otters, farmyard and Africa sections before heading back to the tigers to get some pictures of them in their enclosures and we headed towards the wolves and onto the red pandas. We ended our trip back at the leopards and for the first time in ages we had spent the entire day at the zoo, arriving at 10am and leaving just before 4pm.

What an incredible day!

Thanks for reading,

Megan xoxo

Fossil Hunting At Walton-On-The-Naze

We finally got a chance to go fossil hunting again and I think we did particularly well with our little haul. We had checked the tide times before setting off, which I always advise doing as I have been caught out a few times myself, and saw that it was a great time to go fossil hunting so we headed off over to the beach.

Its a fair drive from where we live so we put some music on and enjoy suburban become rural and eventually we were driving along the coastal road up to the naze.

Once we had arrive we changed into our boots, put on our warm layers and used the facilities before heading down the cliff and onto the beach. The beach is accessible by a very steep set of steps running down the cliff and I believe there is another set further along, but we never get that far to know.

It was a very busy day, although it was cold it was sunny and clear which made fossil hunting on the beach a very popular activity.

We passed many families looking in the shingle trying to find a tooth for themselves, a few were successful, some gave up and continued their walk along the beach.

Together me and Michael managed to find 21 Sharks teeth one of which he gave to a little girl who was particularly upset that her dad and brother had found a tooth but she hadn’t). I also managed to find 2 intact vertebrae and a piece of a vertebrae, so overall it was an afternoon well spent!

We had only paid for 3 hours in the car park so we took our leave and headed up leaving some time to grab a cup of tea and an ice cream before changing our muddy boots and heading back home.

A lovely day spent in nature, we watched lots of ruddy turnstones, cormorants and geese on the foreshore, its just a shame we didn’t bring our cameras!

Thanks for reading,

Megan xoxo

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A Trip to Drusilla’s Park

At the beginning of January I travelled over to Drusillas park to interview for a zoo keeper position. It was a very wet and miserable day but luckily Michael, my dad and my sister had come over with me to keep me company. Drusilla’s is about 2hr drive from where I live so I was grateful for the company.

Even though I didn’t get the job I still had an amazing time seeing all the incredible mammal species they have there.

We started walking around the zoo and following the “zoo route” as they also have some rides and games there. The first animals you come to are the monkeys, then following it around we saw the macaques, colobus monkeys, servals and meerkats.

They have a small farm section with some goats and sheep and that lead round to some more small tamarin species.

I really enjoyed seeing the coatis and the anteaters as well as watching the sloths climbing around in their enclosure with the bats.

From penguins and flamingos to love birds and lorikeets they had a few bird species which were very nice to see, the little love birds really caught my eye they were so funny to watch.

Our favourite species of the day by far was seeing the American beavers. There were three individuals altogether and they shared their enclosure with three capybaras. there was a nice pool for both species to enjoy and the beavers were just incredible to watch. We watched as they chewed on the fence to get to the trees and we continued to watch as one decided to venture into the water. They really are an amazing species!!

We hope to visit lots more zoos in 2023 so stay tuned for lots of adventures!!

Megan xoxo