Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Woke up to a rather bleak morning on the 22nd, but we had big plans. Jumped in the car and headed off for Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, right on the outskirts of Colorado Springs and slightly up the hill into the base of the Rockies. Got there nice and early and went in. Started off at the giraffe area, got to stroke a giraffe on the nose which was weird because their fur goes the opposite way to say a horse's. If you wanted you could buy some giraffe crackers (presumably not actually made from giraffe?) and feed them. They have massive tongues though so it looked like quite a messy option.

Here's a look at the giraffe pen from further up the hill. That's Colorado Springs stretching on forever in the distance there.

We passed some meercats doing what meercats do best: dig. They had quite a cool wee exhibit with piles of dirt to play in and a heat lamp to huddle under (guess they don't get snow in Africa). As we watched one decided that a new hole needed to be dug so it get stuck right in, flinging piles of dirt everywhere. Was cool watching them beavering away.

Dale busy digging a hole

We climbed up the hill a bit more and saw some bears (not grizzlies though). They had really big ears.

Then we went into the farmyard exhibit so I could see the goats, and true to form as soon as I opened the gate one of them tried to escape, so the keeper in with them reached into her pocket and pulled out some goat treats which brought them straight back. They had a couple of stumps that they stood on and as soon as they saw the treats coming out they straight away jumped up and posed, ready to be fed. Such characters! We had a good chat; apparently they quite like the chicken food which is why they're always trying to escape; that and it's just what goats do. They also quite like trying to eat her book! I told her about Gregory the Goat and she laughed and said that kids kept on telling her about it so she'd had to go out and buy it so she'd know about this Gregory goat. Apparently they're good climbers too; one of their tricks is to walk around the top of their fence!

They had some cool sculptures around the backyard exhibit that really messed with your sense of scale. Look at the chairs below, then look at the chickens pecking around beneath them. Quite clever actually. The zoo had all sorts of little sculptures and statues scattered around; at one point I turned around and almost leapt a foot in the air when I spied a copperhead (very poisonous snake) curled up on a rock mere metres from me; but then I looked closer and it was just a statue!

Then it was off to the tigers; I tried to convince Angela to visit the budgies first but for some reason tigers won. We were really surprised to find two tigers in together, since at every other zoo we're told they're extremely solitary animals, but apparently these two were born about the same time and have always been together so it works just fine. Was pretty cool seeing them both in together; they play around just like kittens would!

Then we went and visited the grizzlies; they're very cute, but absolutely massive; when standing up they dwarf any human.

Then we found their mountain lion exhibit, which is very cool and one of favourites. You walk into a cave and then emerge into a glass topped observation cave  with (at least) four very active mountain lions strolling around above you. They're a curious blend of lion and maybe leopard; colour of a lion, but more of the body of a leopard. Very sleek, massive tails!

Look at that tail!

Then we found a moose; what a dopey creature! I don't know why people get so excited about hunting them; I'm sure if you asked it nicely they'd just walk straight up to you!

Around the corner was the wolf exhibit. We walked into a cave and their was a huge viewing window looking up onto a hillside. At first we couldn't see anything, but soon we saw the three mexican gray wolves in there. They were fascinating to watch. Spent quite a while there. After everyone else left one of the wolves came right up to the window and walked within a metre of me!

 

We went looking for lunch and bumped across a squirrel having a munch up a tree. We're so used to seeing chipmunks now that when we saw the (comparatively) massive squirrel run across we weren't sure what it was!

Had lunch and then explored one of the smaller animal rooms. What an odd mix of critters! There were some lizards, snake or two, a skunk, some turtles and a black footed ferret. The skunk was pretty quite, I wasn't sure what it was cos surely it wouldn't be a skunk in an open cage would it!? Asked a keeper and she enthusiastically explained that it was a de-scented skunk, story goes that a guy was proposing to his girlfriend and said she could either have an engagement ring or a skunk! She took the skunk… not sure how well the relationship went though if that skunk is now at the zoo. But what a funny story! The skunk was curled up fast asleep in a hollowed out log with its pet blanket.

Then she showed us the ferret which obliged us by coming up and saying hello. Quite cute really.

 

They had pony rides, so figured a certain sister of mine would like to see a photo :-) They had very western looking (to me at least) saddles on.

Saw a mountain goat, but they aren't as cute as regular dwarf goats. Also had a quick look through primates exhibit.

 

Then we were walking along the path when I saw a chipmunk; stopped to get a photo, went to focus and he'd run closer towards me! Refocused again and again he dashed closer to me. Then I couldn't find him in the viewfinder and looked down and he was at my feet! I gently reached out a finger and he reached out and grabbed my finger! So cool! Then he'd dash off, nibble on a seed and come running back. So very cute. Some other people came along and found some peanuts and he was eating out of their hands. After they left we found some of their left over peanuts and so got to hand feed a chipmunk :-) They're so cute and gentle when the grab your finger with their little paws.

 

Think about half of all the photos yesterday were of this little chipmunk. Obviously this is a regular trick of his cos he certainly wasn't scared of us humans.

Then almost straight after this we saw yet more wildlife: a deer and two fawns came strolling down the path; they certainly weren't one of the exhibits!

So this made up for not getting a photo of the deer the other day while driving!

We went back and found the Amur Leopard again, he was still hiding up the top of his exhibit bit managed to get some shots.

Saw a coyote next, he was very timid though. They've put a border collie in with him to try and tame him. He was gorgeous though, beautiful gray colouring.

Then we went into the budgie house which is full of about 300 free range budgies flying all around. Bit of a shock! The girl there was very enthusiastic and took us behind the scenes; get to stroke a $600 lizard and see where they breed their meal-lizards! As in one of the other lizards eats smaller lizards, so they breed little ones for it. Orana Park had a very strict no-live-food policy, but here at Cheyenne the grizzlies had their own trout pond, and the lizards get a selection of crickets, meal works and veges to eat. So had a good chat with her, she loved hearing all about our keas and the antics they get up to. Told her all about how they like to eat tents and shoes and such.

Had a final look at the tigers and lions; the male lion was right up against the glass having a good pace, probably waiting for dinner. There were some very muddy paw prints on the inside of the glass, which would've been very scary if you were standing there at the time!

Then it was off to the gift shop; I got a cool deep green t-shirt with a bald eagle design and 'Cheyenne Mountain Zoo' on it; Ange meanwhile took home most of the souvenir shop :-) (I may have convinced her that she needed one of everything…)

So that was Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It's a very cool zoo, in many ways the best we've seen so far. We were quite lucky to go on a quiet cold Tuesday I suspect, because it was so quiet and the keepers were all very happy to chat to us. I think their exhibits are really well done too; very rarely do you see great walls of netting. Where there are walls of netting, they've heavily planted in front of them and covered everything in ivy, which makes the exhibits look far less like cages. They've also used changes in elevation and water to create natural barriers to the animals without having to use fences. The landscaping isn't quite as good as San Fran, but their exhibits are just as good if not better. And nothing looks neglected or forgotten, unlike Hoggle Zoo in SLC. So a very enjoyable day out.

After that we checked back into our motel and went back to the same restaurant for dinner. Then it was washing time as Rancho del Kiwi, so we spent the night washing and wringing clothes and then trying to dry them in front of the heater. Didn't really work and in the morning we had a car load of wet clothes! Mmmm smells good! So that was the 22nd.