A morning at the Oakland Zoo

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I haven't visited a zoo in a long time. My last visit to a zoo was in 2019 when I went to Singapore's Night Safari with Val. For this trip to the zoo, I was with the whole family, including Val and the wee one. It's pretty exciting for me because it's our son's first time to see the animals that he's only seen photos or videos of. I really appreciate that Biboy and Barbara invited us to join them because it's such a fun trip.



I didn't expect that we'd meet the resident lesser flamingoes just beyond the zoo's gates. These pink birds are known to thrive in salt marshes in Africa (including Benin) and India. They are omnivorous, but they eat Spirulina, a type of algae that thrives in alkaline water. This alga has pigments that make the flamingoes turn pink. 



After we've passed the flamingoes, we encountered a few reticulated giraffes. These are mostly found in the wild in the Horn of Africa, preferably living in savannahs, woodlands, or floodplains. Apparently, the spot patterns on these giraffes are as unique as human fingerprints!



We had a quick glimpse of a jaguar having a siesta. The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas, with spots similar to African leopards but with behaviours and stealth similar to those of a tiger. I am still confused between the jaguar and the cheetah, but I suppose that jaguars are stockier than the fastest cats on the planet.



And then there's the tiger. It's so majestic! Everyone watching from the tiger perch got excited seeing it. Our son was excited to see it and kept calling out to it, "Kitty!" Of course, he hasn't realised that tigers aren't "kitties" and are as ferocious as any of the big felines out there. 



As we left the zoo, we decided to take a train ride around it and see some of the areas we'd missed. It turned out that the train ride was worth it because we could visit the wallabies and emus in the Australian outback enclosure. The emus were standing under the shade and were easily spotted; however, the wallabies' brown coat blended so well with the dry leaves that it was quite difficult to spot them. (Also, the wallabies were napping on the ground at the time our train passed by). I was amazed that these animals didn't approach the open-windowed train cars. Emus are notoriously vicious in the wild, yet the ones we saw didn't seem interested in the passing train... or maybe, they were so used to seeing trains go by that we were no longer novelty items to them.



I'd have to say that it was an enjoyable trip to the zoo. We were able to see many animals, albeit at a slow pace, because we have two toddlers with us. I just wish we had more time to roam around and visit the petting zoo. That would have given the two boys a more memorable experience.

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