**WARNING - PICTURE HEAVY THREAD**
I took a few days off of work to regain some sanity and today's outing was to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium. If you don't mind the weather and the fighter jets flying by all day, it's really a great place to get close to some animals that are very well cared for. This is by far my favorite zoo. I think it's better than San Diego in a lot of ways, mainly because they have a lot of turtle and tortoises stuff.
The highlight of this trip - one of the employees was in a tortoise enclosure, so of course I started to talk with them. I was very impressed with their knowledge, and we even knew some of the same people. Eventually she offered my family a back stage tour to see their Indian Star tortoises that were off exhibit. I was told no pictures . But it was pretty cool. They had a good group of Indian Stars, and I got to see how prolific their sulcatas are at the zoo. It's amazing how different their backstage pens are compared to their display exhibits. I was pleased.
Overall, even though some of the enclosures were typical zoo quality, the tortoises appeared extremely healthy. I observed just about all of them eating, and the pancake's they had were even mating.
Anywho, here are the turtle and tortoise pictures I was able to take. Please excuse the quality...it is very difficult and distracting with two small children and fighting the crowds (which really weren't that bad). I'll have another thread eventually with the other types of animals.
Radiateds chowin' down
Not much room for activities in there.
Mating Pancakes
Spotted turtle, right?
Russian pair
Great looking Indian Star, apparently this one was produced by the adults I saw off exhibit. They're doing a very good job raising him.
Gallops
Aldabras
Their sulcata exhibit was really great! They had some beefy specimens there too.
Big bruiser
This one was the biggest I saw. I would estimate he is around 150 lbs.
3-toed boxie.
Mammoth alligator snapper
Tried to get me in the pic for some scale, but this guy was easily 4 feet long.
Mata Mata
I think this is an albino sea turtle.
These guys were in the gift shop. Not sure what the one on the right was, but he was very pretty.
They had a few other specimens, but those were the most impressive.
Enjoy! Check out the thread with the other animals. It should be up this evening.
I took a few days off of work to regain some sanity and today's outing was to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium. If you don't mind the weather and the fighter jets flying by all day, it's really a great place to get close to some animals that are very well cared for. This is by far my favorite zoo. I think it's better than San Diego in a lot of ways, mainly because they have a lot of turtle and tortoises stuff.
The highlight of this trip - one of the employees was in a tortoise enclosure, so of course I started to talk with them. I was very impressed with their knowledge, and we even knew some of the same people. Eventually she offered my family a back stage tour to see their Indian Star tortoises that were off exhibit. I was told no pictures . But it was pretty cool. They had a good group of Indian Stars, and I got to see how prolific their sulcatas are at the zoo. It's amazing how different their backstage pens are compared to their display exhibits. I was pleased.
Overall, even though some of the enclosures were typical zoo quality, the tortoises appeared extremely healthy. I observed just about all of them eating, and the pancake's they had were even mating.
Anywho, here are the turtle and tortoise pictures I was able to take. Please excuse the quality...it is very difficult and distracting with two small children and fighting the crowds (which really weren't that bad). I'll have another thread eventually with the other types of animals.
Radiateds chowin' down
Not much room for activities in there.
Mating Pancakes
Spotted turtle, right?
Russian pair
Great looking Indian Star, apparently this one was produced by the adults I saw off exhibit. They're doing a very good job raising him.
Gallops
Aldabras
Their sulcata exhibit was really great! They had some beefy specimens there too.
Big bruiser
This one was the biggest I saw. I would estimate he is around 150 lbs.
3-toed boxie.
Mammoth alligator snapper
Tried to get me in the pic for some scale, but this guy was easily 4 feet long.
Mata Mata
I think this is an albino sea turtle.
These guys were in the gift shop. Not sure what the one on the right was, but he was very pretty.
They had a few other specimens, but those were the most impressive.
Enjoy! Check out the thread with the other animals. It should be up this evening.