Zoo Day

I've not been to the Zoo for ages, animals in cages are not really my bag, but my youngest really wanted to go and see Elephants and so for a special treat that's what we did. I've rarely seen such excitement, it was palpable. And of course my daughter really enjoyed it too. First stop, naturally, was the elephant enclosure, where four of these incredible animals were standing around eating dry sticks, their warm bodies steaming in the cold air. As we watched, one of them did a poo, which was obviously quite a lot of fun. We progressed round the rest of the site, a slow procession of parents and children, and saw loads of interesting animals. Whilst people may disagree with the philosophy, you can't argue with the educational and stimulation aspects. Question after question, most of which I was quite unable to cohesively answer. A highlight was the Polar bears, seeing their fur expand and ripple as they swam was incredible, and the paw of the male was the size of a child's torso. You can see what seals would only need one swat. But it was the otters we kept coming back to, five incredibly cute squeaky little things that seemingly loved visitors. Or wanted food. Or letting out. They followed each other everywhere, running from one viewing area to another and gazing up at people. Asian small-clawed otters, much more diminutive than our native otter, but just as lovely.

Daniel the pygmy elephant enjoys meeting his larger relatives

"miaow"

 

White with black stripes. Definitely.

I think this was the small one....

 

Want

After the delights of the Zoo a quick trip across town to the Aquarium to soak up another animal kingdom, and as with the land-based attraction, fantastically done. Our favourite bits were the rainforest and the tropical reef, this latter being about thirty or forty feet long in a vast shallow arc. Again more questions, and as the denizens of the oceans are easily factors weirder than mammals and birds, and I stood no chance. The variety of things is amazing, and some of the amazonian fish defied reality - the giant Arapaima were sensational in every way. All in all a different and enjoyable day out.

We didn't see any of the rest of Copenhagen at all ;-)