Paridizia

On Sunday May 24th, we went to one of the most AWESOME zoos ever!!!!  It was only about ten minutes from our friend's house so it was perfect!!!  Pairi Daiza is ancient Persian for 'enclosed garden.'   It was built on the grounds of a Cistercian monastery, Cambron Abbey.  It was 135 acre garden protected from the outside world by a high surround wall three kilometers long.  There are over 5,000 animals that live here.

This is the entrance into the zoo.

They put this structure to good use, in the bottom is the bat caves, where they are not behind glass, or bars, they can fly right around your head.  That is awesome!!!

They had fun sculptures and art work like these all over the park.

This little girl was chasing the peacock, not going to end well.

Michael the monkey - he went straight for the playground!

These guys were just walking around where we were - though when a couple of kids were getting too close they did make it known to stay back.

The boys waiting for everybody, so what do they do, climb.  Love my boys!!!

If you look closely you can see the boys behind the waterfall.  AJ is in the yellow shirt and Michael the blue

They had different parts of the world all in this zoo - I liked this statue!!

The boys were having a great time ringing the big bell!!!

These birds have nests all over the park - they look so peaceful up there.

This is one of the biggest quartz and of course the boys are climbing on it!! :-)

There is so much to see and we only had one day so we didn't see everything, but I love the architecture in this photo!

This is a Goldin Takin which is a ruminant of the subfamily of caprins (goats) and lives in the high mountains.  Because they live in the cold, its fur can be 25 centimeters thick on its throat and neck.

Michael, AJ and Joey chillin' on the panda rock.

This is Hao Hao and he was funny.  He is munching on bamboo just chilling.  They almost exclusively eat bamboo but their digestive tract is not really adapted to plants.  They manage to extract only 20 to 30% of their nutritive elements where as the deer, for example, absorbs about 80% of them.  So they eat almost all day long, and they cannot accumulate enough reserves of fat during the summer, they do not hibernate.

He decided he needed a little privacy.  Another interesting facts about giant pandas is they they are the only bear to have a kind of thumb, a sixth finger close to their wrist so that they can better hold the bamboo while eating!

These two are deep in conversation, must be about their lunch.  ;-)

Can the boys walk on the path, nope they need to climb and walk on the log!!!

I love the giraffes!  It looks like to be the mom and maybe two younger ones.  Not completely sure, but the two smaller ones stopped before they came over here to make sure the mom said it was OK.  It was pretty funny!!!

Michael enjoying the view!!

You can actually feed the giraffes here, just take some leaves off the trees and they come over.  Unfortunately we were a little far back, but still cool to watch.

I have never seen one of these before.  It is called a Shoebill Stork.  It is actually related to herons and pelicans than storks.  Its beak in the shape of a 25cm long and 10cm wide shoe, hence the name.  It wasn't discovered until 1850 and Pairi Daiza is the first park in the world to have succeeded to hatch two chicks.

The next place we went into was the amphibian and reptile part of the zoo.  It was built in an old ship.  You can see it in the back right of this picture.  How cool is that?!?

They had parts of the ship set up like it would have been.  This looked like a storage room.

I love how they have all of the old furniture throughout the ship!!!

This was the captain's bunk.

If you look closely next to the gauge you can see the snake.  They just used the ship as part of the habitat!

These snakes were under the table in the map and chart room.  There was glass on top though.

They had a lot of animals that were together - this guy was trying to get into the sun lamp for the warmth.  He just decided to crawl on top of the turtles.

Michael had a great time watching the crocodile.  He waved to him and just watched him for the longest time!!

The crocodile was looking back at him the whole time!!!

AJ pointing out the crocodile.

The boys wanted me to put a snake picture up for Grandpa!!!

Michael and this turtle was also having a wonderful conversation!!!

I had never seen a frog like this before.  It is called the African Clawed Frog.  Because of it's short generation time and desirable genetic simplicity it is often used in genetic experiments - it was the first vertebrate to be cloned.  These frogs also went into space in 1992 on the space shuttle Endeavour. 

At first look I thought it was funny that the turtle was sticking his bottom out, then when I looked further, there is also a snake in that log with the turtle.

The boys - Jack, AJ, Joey, Nate and Michael

Such a beautiful looking animal!!!

Can you guess what animals live here?!?

Straight ahead is where they give the elephants baths.  I guess it is fun to watch, but gets really crowded really fast, so we decided to pass on it.

It was really weird, all of a sudden a dust storm blew in and we watched it travel a pretty good distance.

These guys were all over the zoo and yes speak no evil and see no evil was also there!!

The hyena under the airplane wing actually moved when the other one came over.  He wasn't going to fight for his spot!

You can see zebras in the background, but the beauty they have in this park is amazing!

The elephant enjoying a little snack.

I am not sure what the hyena was diving for.  ;-)

The lions thought it was hot as well, they were being pretty lazy.

Swans are so beautiful and graceful looking!!

Look under the leaves on the left, you see a lemur there.  There are no fences, glass or anything keeping AJ from touching the lemur, just the smarts that it might bite.  But they are free to roam right with us and on us if they so desire.

He was telling me to leave him alone, he was trying to sleep.   This is a Black and White Ruffed Lemur.

The boys decided they wanted to try and be lemurs, I think they look more like monkeys!!!

Michael just relaxing!!

Sign posts for all over the world.

This little guy was so cute!!!

After that we were all hungry, while the rest of the crew waited in line the boys headed off to do the bridge that goes across most of the park.

The crew on the suspension bridge!!!

I don't know if I have ever seen the flamingos with their feathers ruffled like this.  I love the way it looks!!!

This guy was getting a little upset or was trying to impress the ladies, I am not sure which.

Checking out the view from above!

The boys stopped the line for a minute so they could race across this part of the bridge.

It was pretty packed and the going was slow, so the boys decided to try and slide down part of the bridge.

The playground there was HUGE!!!  I think my boys would be happy playing here the whole day.  This isn't even all of it, there is more in the back.

Michael at the top - on the left is the close up and  on the right you can see how high it was.

AJ just chilling on one of the seats.

AJ now at the top!

This is the largest opal in the world - weighing in at 518 lbs!

These are the red kangaroos, which are the largest of all kangaroos.  Again, these had no fences or anything between us and them and they were about 8 feet from us.

AJ petting the cockatoo.  He was trying to be gentle because he was afraid of getting bit and he did.

Michael's turn to pet it, he was a lot more hesitant than AJ was.  This bird can drink rain while in flight.

These are the Common Squirrel Monkey.  Sometimes these guys actually come and sit on your shoulders.  This time they didn't come close enough.  They are the most talkative monkeys of America with almost 30 different calls being identified.

You can see how close they were to the boys here.

This one had some mad hops!!!  Did you know that of all the primates, the little Common Squirrel Monkey has the largest brain compared to the weight of its body.

The boys getting more energy out!!!

The boys saw water and that was the end of it!!!

I am glad that it was a warm day and just helped cool them down!!

The three amigas!!!!

Michael thought this statue was crazy!!!

Of course, what do we need on our trip?!?!  Yes you are right, ice cream!!!!

But for the boys - a local beer only brewed and sold in this zoo.

David soaring with the eagles!!!

I saw this vulture and he is really just laying on the grass.  He didn't move the whole time I watched him.  I found it very interesting!!!

AJ showing us the beautiful garden behind him with his beautiful smile!!!!

Michael showing us the other end and how pretty the arbor is!!!

David with his newly purchased local beer, Cambron beer.  The Cambron beer is brewed from teh water of the famous St Bernard spring, formally famous for its healing virtues, which still today gushes out from a thousand-year-old stone tower.  So funny story, the monks drank from a crystal goblet supported by a foot carved in the form of an angel.  One day, Abbot intimated an order to them to drink with more moderation.  The monks retorted that the angel that could be seen at the bottom of the glass was so beautiful that they were to drink to the very last drop so that they could make out his features.  The abbot, craftily, then decided to replace the glass by another, the foot of which represented the devil.  

We had a wonderful time and LOVED every minute of it.  We didn't have time to see it all, but it was so worth the visit!!!  After that we headed back to Germany for another adventure that starts tomorrow.