Taipei - Day 5

Ok, well here we are making it up as we go. As I have said too many times, we were going to go the Taiwan Gorge, but due to a typhoon, we have cancelled that trip. So, we went to the zoo instead. Wow! It was pretty cool! I know that zoos can be pretty boring. Take it from us, we have been to zoos in San Fransisco, Sandiego, Dallas, Washington D.C, and others, zoo animals don't tend to move around very much, but the Taiwan zoo was so different. I don't know if zoo's in America give the animals drugs in their food to keep them sleepy, or maybe take away the "pain" of captivity, or something stupid like that, but here in Taiwan they give them some energy blend. Almost every animal, from turtles and lizards, to penguins and zebras, they were all moving around. This was the really the best zoo that I have gone to. There were a few animals that really took the show though, primarily, the zebras and the lions.

There were three zebras in the cage that we looked at (there were multiple cages around the zoo I think). So, there was what looked like a dad, mom, and teen. The teen just ran all around the cage, sometimes getting near a gallop. It was just really fun to watch it jump around. At one point it kinda T'ed into one of the others with its neck over the back of the other zebra, who promptly shook it off and tried to regain composure.

The lions were really fun to watch. There were again three animals in the cage. A dad, mom, and little cub (I don't know how old it was, but probably a few months). At first they didn't reall do anything, the lion was turned away from us (like a zoo animal normally is), you could not see the baby, and the lioness was lying on a rock and log (a good picture actually, which is why we stayed around for a little while. The cub began to do what a baby does though and tease the mother. It chewed on her tail, which gained a quick "attack" and chasing off from the rock. At one point, the cub tried to stalk the mom. There was a tree near where the lioness was lying that the cub was going to jump on, and from there, jump onto the rock. Well, the cub started running at full speed toward the tree, it jumped onto the tree, and promptly fell off onto the ground. It was just halarious to watch! At another point, the cub teased the mom too much and garnered a full out attack. The mom chased the cub around, but then the lion rushed in and chased the lioness away. The cub was saved from its mother, but the lion promptly came and showed the cub who was boss. It basically turned it on its back and pinned it down so it could not move. It really looked like the lion was eating the cub...

Not every cage was that exciting, but every animal was cool to see, and yes, you could actually see every animal in the zoo. Now that I think about it, the animals may have been jumpy and giddy becuase of the typhoon that is heading this way, i don't really know, its just a thought. I guess it makes more sense than the idea that the zoo keepers give them energy boosts...
Here are some of the photos, just to give you a taste for them. If you click on the little blue hyper-link that says "The Zoo!" you can look at some more. I uploaded 40 photos, some of the best. I have over 300 from the zoo, but I didn't really want to upload them all, sorry :)
I'm gonna try and get some videos up as well, they tell a little more than the photos can.
-Aaron

Us at the entrance to the zoo.

From The Zoo!

A butterfly. I think it is one of the best shots I got.

From The Zoo!

The zebra running.

From The Zoo!

A little penguin!

From The Zoo!

A King, or rather, an emperor.

From The Zoo!

A little chastizing

From The Zoo!

The big cheese...

From The Zoo!

Playing on the zebra. Those two zebras were pretty fun actually.

From The Zoo!

For some reason, kids smoking too much seems to be a problem in the zoo...

From The Zoo!

Here is the cub playing with a branch.

Not really exciting, but it is still pretty cute.

Here are the penguins jumping and swimming, but only barely.

Little zebra running around.

Here is the lion cub playing with mom.

The little cub really out did himself...

Baby is not the only one who can get in trouble.