Chester Zoo

On Saturday Vicky, Connor, Rachel, Chris, Laura, Deanna and I we went to visit Chester Zoo. If you have never been there before then you really should go - if you have been before then you should probably go again... so much will have changed.

Zoos have had lots of negative press over the years but things aren't always what you might think. Zoos, and especially Chester Zoo, play a vital part in animal care and conservation. It's always a little disturbing to find that the animal you are looking at is one of a small number left alive in the world - and awful when you read that there are non left in the wild at all. For us this certainly brings home the importance of zoos as they are able to look after and help conserve the wildlife of the world as well as playing a vital role in reintroducing the animals back into the wild... Click HERE to visit the Chester Zoo website to find out more about their conservation work... 

The weather forecast for Saturday wasn't great so we packed our waterproof coats. Fortunately I never had to put mine on as the only rain we got was a brief drizzle.

Chester Zoo has changed a great deal since we visited last year. You can now stop by to visit the gift shop and see the elephants before even entering the zoo properly. The Elephants have quite a large area to wander round in and it was wonderful to see the baby elephants with their mothers. The baby elephants were very popular with the other visitors - and why not - they are very cute... I couldn't help thinking that this little guy was laughing his socks off at something...

 

As well as Lions, Tigers, Penguins and Zebras that you might expect to find in a zoo, Chester has lots of other interesting animals to see and they are working hard to put these animals in locations that match their natural habitats - like these African Painted Dogs.

 

And to prove it once and for all - Giles Andrea was right - Giraffe's really can't dance ...

 

 

We love the space that the creatures have at Chester Zoo and we love the way they are continually developing the zoo to make it more animal friendly and more varied and interesting for the visitor...

 



Of all the creatures there though - our favourites are the Red Pandas... often sound asleep and hard to see but on Saturday they were roaming around the trees, wandering through the grass and playing in the waterfalls... A cross between a cat and a fox and something else the Red Pandas are definitely the cutest creatures ever. Just look at that tail...