A May Afternoon Adventure at the Zoo

This May, I decided to take advantage of a day trip to visit the zoo in Washington D.C. and the weather was perfect for it! Not too hot and humid and not a chance of rain all day.

I am fortunate to live just an hour and a half from Washington D.C. If you live within that distance and start out early enough, there is plenty of time to do things. The zoo, museums, festivals ...

Going to the zoo requires making it an all day event as there are so many exhibits to see.

I’ve not been to the zoo in ages and was eager to seeing all sorts of exotic animals from various continents.

At first, the zoo started out as a bit of a snooze fest as it seemed every animal we attempted to see could not be found and I assumed was likely napping.

I scanned green foliage after foliage in an attempt to find the animal shown on an exhibit sign - a spotted leopard.

I don't see any leopard? Where are all these animals at?

Of course, I was just getting started not even seeing five exhibits yet so it was probably just me being a little too impatient!

And then I saw it as my eyes scanned one of the higher branches and my face lit up in awe.

A leopard doing what cats do. Stretched out basking in the sun. It’s amazing and even humorous how such an exotic creature can act not too different than your typical house cat.

After spending some time just admiring the leopard, I saw what is easily one of the most popular Washington DC exhibits — the pandas!

As expected, there was a decent cluster of people including a large school group gathered around the fencing, each one trying to get a good look at the panda.

There’s just something therapeutic about watching pandas as they roll and play and chew on bamboo without seemingly a care in the world.

The next exhibit I saw was the Asian elephants. For those that don’t know, the difference between Asian elephants and African elephants is that African elephants are larger including the ears and both males and females have tusks.

With Asian elephants, only the males have tusks (although some females have tushes which are smaller tusk-like teeth).

Unfortunately I didn’t see any African elephants so I could compare the two for myself as the African exhibit was under construction and closed to the public. The good news was that there were still a few African animals to be seen!

I was not expecting to see any lions after discovering that the African exhibit was closed so imagine my surprise when I turned the corner to see the next exhibit and saw two lions up on the hill napping in the sun and looking incredibly lazy and quite majestic.

I also saw a few meerkats that seemed to like attention as they weren’t afraid to get close to the window and watch people curiously as they passed by.

I also saw plenty of reptiles. The reptile house was probably one of my favorite exhibits to see. I know quite a few people don’t like snakes at all or any reptile so consider this sufficient warning! 😂

...

...

This green tree python is such a beautiful green with a unique pattern. Even those not too fond of snakes have to admire it from a distance.

I would have taken pictures of the other snakes and even more reptiles but unfortunately by that time my phone battery was critically low! 😂

I was mesmerized just watching how this turtle glided and swam underwater with such ease.

This was a pig nosed turtle. Notice the peculiar shape of its nose.

This was another peculiar turtle — an eastern long neck turtle.

Fascinating!

Both of these turtles were equally fascinating to see but not even close to as fascinating as the giant salamander.

Sure the name says it all but I didn’t even realize they got that big!

It was such a wonderful day to take a trip to the zoo! The weather was perfect, it wasn’t too crowded, and it was a much needed adventure out.