Out of Africa Zoo

While browsing the brochures at KOA Ange came across one for a special Africa themed zoo not too far from us. So on the 30th we headed south on the Interstate system (actually very good here, almost a pleasure to drive) for an hour and a bit and soon arrived at the zoo. Actually ended up at the county court, but soon fixed that. Descended quite a few thousand feet off the Flagstaff plateau and we were quite definitely into desert here.

View from the top of the plateau, looking out over the Coconino National Forest towards southern Arizona.

Interesting zoo. The main attraction for Angela was the Tiger Splash event they run, where the keeps are in with the tigers as they get them to jump into pools and chase after pool toys! Yes the humans were in with the tigers, plural on the tigers too. How much interaction was there?

That much! I gather having your scalp licked by a tiger hurts; if there tongues are anything like a house cat's then yes I can understand!

The show itself was really good; no pictures cos I was videoing it for a certain someone.

After this it was time for the giant snake show, which I was really looking forward to. They pulled two massive snakes out and set them down in an enclosed pen, then talked for a bit. Then they opened the gate and invited us in! Naturally I just had to go have a look, so I poured in with the rest and got to touch a snake. Not just any snake either, but a 12 foot long python! 12 feet!!! Took 4 people to carry it! But their skin is so… soft; I was expecting it to be all hard and scratchy but it is actually very slick and you can really feel all their muscles down their back.

The other snake was just a short 6 foot boa constrictor, so nothing too impressive ;-)

The boa constrictor / The python trying to escape!

Hisssss….

Tongue action / Poor lady taking a photo of her kid with the snake; meanwhile the python had slithered over to her ankles and she got quite a surprise when it slithered around her!

Half the snake. Yup just half of it!

So I had a good gawk and touch but somehow everyone cleared off and it was just me and the two keepers. And since it takes at least 3 people to put the python back in its box, they asked me to assist. So sorry mum, but I've picked up and carried a 12 foot look python! And boy did it wriggle, real escape artist that one. So as we walked back to the truck we had to keep on grabbing the bits of snake that were getting away! Quite an experience!

Walked around some more, saw a white wolf, white tiger, black panther, hyenas, normal tigers, lions, mountain lions, grizzlies, even a jaguar (gorgeous). Oh and some very fat prairie dogs.

Wolf. Only had the one in the enclosure though which doesn't seem right for a pack animal.

White tiger

Hyena / Tiger with turkey dinner

Lion with turkey dinner, parading his "catch" / Hand feeding a grizzly?!

Bear up close

Another tiger / Jaguar

Leopard

 
Panther and cougar / Overfed prairie dog

Interesting zoo. Great collection of animals, but years and years of work still needed. The site is a very faithful reproduction of the Arizona desert, probably because it is the Arizona desert. There were no trees for shelter, no paved walking tracks, no walking tracks at all in fact. No restrooms (that I saw at least), no drinking fountains (and they charge $3 for bottled water), no grassy areas and all the exhibits are fenced in with bog standard security fencing. Hence the mesh in many of the photos. I guess in many ways it's an old fashioned zoo compared to the "new" style zoos like San Fran or Cheyenne Mountain Zoo which are all about removing the cages or rather hiding/disguising them very well. The animals themselves looked healthy and happy, but wandering around it really felt like we were patrolling a prison with all the fences everywhere. Shame. Maybe in 10 or 20 years it'll be a fully fledged zoo, but right now I can only hope our $36 each admission fees are going towards zoo upgrades asap. (Other zoos have been $8 to $20).

The second part of the zoo experience is a Serengeti tour in an old bus with open windows (I loved the "emergency exit" window on a bus with no windows). We drove through various bits of scrub and got to feed giraffe biscuits to the giraffe and a camel.

Giraffe looking for food

 
Ostrich (or emu?) up close / camel looking for food

Then it was back to Flagstaff again. Had pizza for dinner, went down to the station to cool down and watch trains, then back to the tent. Tried to do washing but didn't have any quarters for the machines, so off to sleep instead.