For some months of the year, the Houston Zoo is free for every first Tuesday of the month. My sister and I went on the first Tuesday of April and enjoyed our day.
The parking was a zoo, pardon the pun. We finally had to park at the Museum of Natural Science and walk 15 minutes over to the zoo because there was never a spot in the zoo parking and there was an endless line of cars patrolling the lot looking for spaces.
We stayed for about an hour or so then the heat got to us and we decided to get some ice cream and water then leave, but we got some good photos while we were there.
The first display we saw was that of the meerkats.
It was feeding time, so we watched as they ate their greens.
Meerkats are a favorite of mine and I’d love to have a couple as pets.
Next, we saw the elephants.
A couple of younger ones were playing with each other.
It’s always more interesting when they are active.
The older one just stared on as they played. You can tell that this was an Asian elephant because of the small ears. African elephants have large ears. Also, this was a female Asian elephant because she had no tusks.
We saw the ostriches next.
I was glad that I brought my zoom lens for these shots.
The cattle we saw next weren’t typical longhorns, but they did have huge horns.
I imagine that these bulls have very strong necks to hold up these heavy horns.
Having my zoom lens was helpful in getting these close up shots.
I enjoy seeing the gorillas.
This one was busy playing with his blanket.
Gorillas are very powerful and dangerous animals.
This one was napping next to the glass and everyone was getting close up photos of its’ face.
These two were grooming each other.
Rhinos are another favorite of mine.
I’d hate to get attacked by a rhino and its’ horn.
The rhino horn is made up of material like our fingernails.
The name rhinoceros means ‘nose horn’ and is often shortened to rhino.
It comes from the Greek words rhino (nose) and ceros (horn).
The last animal we photographed was a group of giraffes.
The giraffe is the tallest mammal in the world, with even new-born babies being taller than most humans.
Baby Giraffes can stand within half an hour and after only 10 hours can actually run alongside their family.
Giraffes spend most of their lives standing up; they even sleep and give birth standing up.
Giraffes only spend between 10 minutes and two hours asleep per day. They have one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal.
Just like snowflakes and human fingerprints, no two giraffes have the same spot pattern.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at the Houston Zoo. I’ll return later this year for more photos of different animals.
Spider Michaels
