The Zoo

Today was a LONG day... went to the zoo, a Chinese Garden of Friendship and a ghost tour! As such, I'm pretty tired so I'll just write about the zoo for right now and save the rest of it for tomorrow. I also ate kangaroo today. It tasted and looked like steak, so maybe someone did one over on me...

The zoo I'm referring to is the ever famous Taronga Zoo. I was able to snag the student discounted price, thankfully, because it's expensive! Well, it might not be for zoo prices but I haven't been to a zoo in so long I'm not sure what their going rate is. Either way, I was sadly disappointed to find out that I CANNOT HOLD A KOALA BEAR! Apparently it is illegal to do so in New South Wales or outside of a zoo in other parts of Australia. Laaame. I was allowed to take a picture near a koala, but I had to pay $20 for that and I was not about to do so. What's the difference when I can just as easily stand close to one in the actual koala  bear exhibit? Also, I wasn't really allowed to go near kangaroos, so no funny pictures of me almost getting punched/kicked by one. :( Really, that was the main reason I went to the zoo in the first place -- should have done my research!

At any rate, I did get some good pictures of some native Australian species...

...the ever present Australian school child! These particular species were pretending that the seal was their girlfriend, or so I gathered by one of them yelling, "This is my girlfriend!"

Enough jokes, friends, on to the pictures! I took a bunch at the zoo but I'll create a photo album for you to look at later because my internet is slow and it's taking too long.

This little wallaby was sitting in this enclosed pathway... I think I was the first person in there because it quickly ran away. I tried to get a picture with it in the background but it was a failure. :(

A Tazmanian Devil! They are actually a little scary looking. And just when my medical school friends thought they would never use histology in real life, they actually had a slide as pictured --

I guess the common Aussie must be smarter than I think if they would include something like this in a zoo display! It's about this type of cancer that Tazmanian Devils get (Devil Facial Tumor Disease) that they can spread to each other just  by touching! Luckily it doesn't go to humans.

And I inserted this video because it was like Harry Potter with this snake going right for me! 

A later snake was shown with its dinner. So gruesome... I also took a picture of a Komodo Dragon for your visual pleasure:

And last but not least, here is a picture of a Wollemia nobilis, a plant that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. I guess people thought it was extinct until the Australian species was discovered. I included this for my botany-minded friend Alison, haha.

And that's it for post 1 of 2! Tomorrow I'll keep you enthralled with the stories of the rest of my day...