Monkey business

Hanging around the various breeds of monkey cages proved to be very fun and entertaining for all of us.


We mostly hovered around "Willy and Lilly", Gibbon monkeys who hooted like nothing we've heard before. You know when the noise remains long after the visit because the random thought hit me later in the evening to imitate the hooting when calling the children to their bed times. We laughed, immitated more to see who could "hoot" like the Gibbon the most and even I found it very silly but downright hilarious to do this with them. hee hee

Actually we've now been to our zoo twice, and almost daily the children query whether or not we can carve out a bit of time in our days to visit more often. Do you think it's a hit to have this season's pass? Oh yes!

Hanging around monkeys was very entertaining for everyone

I think for visits in the future, when we do stop for an unscheduled visit on impulse that is, I'll suggest the children choose a specific area to delve deeper by taking more time to observe and attempt to interact in a more concentrated way with their favorites, alternating to new animals over time.

Take for instance these monkeys below, several varieties who always seem to provide loads of interaction with visitors, those monkeys, baboons, and apes who have provided spontaneous giggles from their crazy antics.

Willy and Lilly's cage was a great place to hang out

Upon entering the zoo, there is an area set up at the cashier area where specific foods are offered for sale, those safe foods a visitor could feed to the animals and not disrupt their diets. Obviously there are bunches of bananas and it wasn't uncommon shortly after our entry to find a banana in the hand of a monkey somewhere or a banana peel on the ground where several monkeys were arguing over who would end up with it.

Not having been to a zoo in a while, our youngest daughter was thrilled to see how fast "Willy and Lilly" could swing from the ropes and tree branches in their cage. She thought they were wonderful for observing and took many photos with her own camera for further observation and sketching once home.


If there was one monkey though that attracted everyone's attention the most over two visits, it had to be the six week old baby baboons. One is with his mother and aunt in a cage, the other was failing to thrive and required human intervention from the zoo veteranarians. Each day the latter baby is included in the live animal show, complete with tailored and customized wee preemie diaper on for the keeper's interaction with her. Her name is Zoe and she is but a wee thing, so sweet!

Of curiosity was the ape below otherwise known as a "Mandril", with a rainbow colored face and bottom to match. (grin) He is actually known to be quite vicious and nasty in the animal world, so living behind a cage is a great place for observing this beast. We hope to find out more about him in the future, carefully observe his actions during various parts of the day to see how he behaves.
This ape just doesn't fall into the typical category one thinks of when thinking of monkeys does he?

She seems to have an interest in photography, like me.

What did I tell you, colorful right?