Wordless Wednesday: Smithsonian's National Zoo

Since we moved to Virginia in August, one of the main things I've wanted to do was go to the National Zoo in Washington to see the pandas. I've always loved bears of any type, but what an opportunity to see panda bears! We had a beautiful, sunny weekend, and decided to take advantage of being outside and headed for the zoo. One of the great things about DC is the fact that almost everything is free...except for parking! The zoo has a parking lot, at $16 for 3 hours, or $22 for anything over! We stayed for about 4 1/2 hours and decided it was worth the $22 since we didn't have to pay anything to be there. I've also included some fun facts that we learned at the zoo or from the website. Here's a few pictures from our adventure:

Some of the first animals we saw were zebras...this is Belle's scary face! Zebras live about 20 years and are the largest wild member of the horse family

 

 

This is the sloth bear. It got quite close to Andy! Sloth bears are the only bears to carry young on their backs and they are native to India.

When we first got to the Giant Panda Habitat, the bear was very close, and attempting to get something out of a brown paper bag: his morning snack! It was really interesting to see how the bear knew what was in the bag and what he had to do to get the snack, which we think was a frozen fruit chunk, like a jello mold size.

We were so close to the pandas that we could hear one of them slurping on his treat!! Giant pandas are among the most recognized, but rarest animals in the world, with only about 1,600 living in the wilds of China, and 300 in zoos.

Giant pandas eat 20-40 pounds of bamboo a day, and spend 10-16 hours a day searching for food and eating! I don't think they spend quite that much time foraging at the zoo, though!!

Flamingos! These creatures were beautiful! Such a vibrant salmon color. Flamingos are about 42 - 60 inches tall, weigh 5-6 lbs and have a wing span of 55 inches.

Belle enjoyed sitting on many of the animal statues they have around the park!

We enjoyed watching 1 year old lion cubs playing around! Reminded me of my nephews who like to wrestle around! Lions can grow to 10 feet long, not including their 2-3 feet long tail and a lions roar can be heard up to 5 miles away.

Andy played the drums on a models of paws!

The National Zoo's website is really interesting, and includes web cams of many of the animals and an abundance of facts about them. It can be found at: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/