I don’t know why I became fixated on visiting the Calgary Zoo, but it ended up being one of my top non-restaurant priorities for our weekend trip. The fact that I had a 50% off admission coupon probably helped matters too, and reduced the $16 gate price to $8 a person (meaning, of course, that we could spend more on food with a little less guilt).
Calgary Zoo
The last time I was at the Zoo was on a high school biology trip, but I don’t remember many details from it, besides taking umpteen photos on the bridge leading to Prehistoric Park. I was looking forward to the touristy aspect of visiting the Zoo, and to see if animals could hold my attention in the same way as when I was younger.
Turned out, not quite, but it was still a nice way to spend three hours. We did a ton of walking (particularly in the Canadian Wilds area), and visiting the Zoo in the winter time meant that crowds were definitely lighter. Of course, some of the exhibits (notably, the lions) were closed for the season, but I was fine with the tradeoff of a less busy beaten path.
Mountain Goat
Mack loved taking pictures of the carnage remaining in some of the cages, while I focused on the happier animals. My favourites were the giraffes, elephants, baby gorilla and cotton-top tamarins. The koalas, the Zoo’s current feature exhibit, was a bit of a disappointment, though we did learn some interesting facts about the marsupials (their pouches are actually upside-down, and babies eat their mother’s poop, called “pap”).
Giraffes
Hungry elephant
Baby gorilla
Cotton-top Tamarin
Not a baby kangaroo, but a kid
As a child, I loved Prehistoric Park. Having been to Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell Museum numerous times in the past, I’m not sure why brightly-colored fake dinosaurs amongst “hoodoos” would have appealed to me at all, but the outdoor aspect is hard to beat.
On the rickety bridge
Mack, of course, had to take a photo with the Edmontonsaurus
We were pretty tired by the time we had made the rounds, and were glad that we would be heading to the hotel next to rest up before our scheduled dinner at Rush. All in all, it was a good afternoon – I’d recommend a stop if you’re looking to revisit your childhood fascination with the animal kingdom.
Mack’s photo set is here.
Only Here for the Food 
I can’t remember the last time I was at the Calgary Zoo either but I am putting it on my to do list the next time I go down.
BTW, the first picture is a mountain goat. Big horn sheep are brown with curly horns.
Second picture, I mean. First animal picture though.
the baby gorilla is sooo cute! you know me, I love primates
Good call, Nanu. I mixed them up at the zoo too, so no surprise I did the same when I blogged about it.
If you like the outdoors, another place that you can visit is the Butterfield Acres Farm (specially at Easter).