Overnight at the Phoenix Zoo

When the girls were little, I took them to the Phoenix Zoo quite often. Well, more than three or four times. They got to go there on field trips in kindergarten and maybe 1st grade too, maybe and then we discovered - or finally got to - the Wildlife World Zoo and realized we like that one better. Most people, when comparing the two zoos, will say "you can get to much closer to the animals at the WWZ." or "you can actually see the animals at the WWZ."  These statements are true, for the most part.

 

Last year Elyse was to go to the WWZ and I was to go with her, but I got sick and, sadly, did not get to go on the zoo with a bajillion 3rd graders.  This year, Elyse got to go  to the Phoenix Zoo -- and stay overnight.  Her teacher approached me first about going along and I said, "Absolutely!"  I really did owe Elyse one.

Arriving at the zoo...about 6:15 p.m.
No bell hops at this place!

So away we went.  We met at 5:30 and departed for the zoo.  Upon arrival the zoo staff took over and kept us running like clockwork:  something to do all the time and never a moment wasted. It was very well done.  We were focussing on nocturnal animals, so we got to go out at night and see some animals...well, duh: it's dark at night so how much will we see?!  On our first one hour hike, we heard a great horned owl (and learned that it is the only owl that makes the classic "hoo hoo" sound), learned about the Mexican gray wolf and the pronghorn....saw some javalinas (learned that they are not pigs - but are members of the hippopotamus family), then came back to the center and saw more animals up close before our next one hour hike! On the second hike we got to see the new baby zebra (just named Bakari that day)...and more animals that I can not remember any more.  We got to see more animals up close and finally at 10:30 they let us go to sleep. On a concrete floor.  With 20 third graders and 10 chaperones. It was a lot of fun - and minimal snoring was heard.
 

Elyse enjoyed touching the snake.
It was some kind of boa constrictor.
Notice the guy with the hand sanitizer:  he followed the girl with the snake
and made sure the kids were sanitized after touching it.

African hedgehog
Due to its prickly back, we weren't allowed to touch.

We were up at 6:30 a.m., had breakfast and were off for our final hike.  A lot of the areas were being cleaned when we got up and going, but we got to see the elephant up close as her pen was being cleaned (that's a lot of elephant poo to scoop up).

This elephant was born in 1970 just like me.

After seeing the elephant, most of us were more interested
in the workers in enclosure.  They were scooping poop, filling hay,
and re-filling/cleaning the water hole.

After the elephant, we were on to the leopard.  She was kind of shy at first, but then came out, acknowledged us and went back to resting. 

 

Desert Tortoise 

Bald eagles.
I learned that all bald eagles in any zoo are property of the US Government.
These were injured, rescued birds living it out at the zoo.

Closing up the adventure...and beginning our own.
We got about two hours to explore the zoo on our own after our morning hike.
The zoo opened at 9:00 - as we set out on our own - so it was not crowded at all.