Family Outing To Utah’s Hogle Zoo
Mar
16
As most children do Sariah and Rebekah love animals so I have been wanting to take them to the zoo for awhile. Well we did take Sariah to the Boise, Idaho zoo when she was 2 months old but that doesn’t count 
I have been to enough zoos to know that some zoos are really not worth the money and it is sad to see animals that look like they are being fed weightloss pills and live in cages that are too small for them and don’t offer much stimulation. So I decided to research the Hogle Zoo for a bit and I learned that the zoo has enrichment programs for the animals, they care for them well and are involved in programs that help animals worldwide.They are also accredited by the Association Of Zoo’s And Aquariums. One fact that surprised me was that less than 10% of Aquariums And Zoo’s meet AZA’s strict guidelines. Only 5 in Canada meet those guidelines! I wasn’t surprised that the Calgary Zoo and Vancouver Aquarium were accredited as they are the best Zoo and Aquarium I have been to. However Canada has a lot more than 5 zoo’s and aquariums so this is quite sad to learn. I will definitely go to AZA’s website before I visit a zoo or aquarium again and learn if I should be supporting them.
On Saturday we went to the Hogle Zoo as our birthday gift to Sariah. As I got the kids ready for bed on Friday night I showed them pictures of all the animals we would see at the zoo and when we finished with that. Sariah sighed and said “Oh no! I want to go to the zoo now!” it was so cute. She is going to be a funny 3 year old!
The next day when we got to the zoo both Sariah and Rebekah were great and loved looking at all the animals. Each animal we got to Sariah had to look around and see what foods the animals ate. Banana’s and carrots made sense to her but she yelled at the giraffes for eating ‘grass’ (hay). Sariah said that her favourite animals were the Elephants and the Rhinos. Rebekah’s favourite were the monkeys. She even asked for a ‘monkey ride’ (piggy back ride) so I had her get on my back and JJ tied the sling on me. She enjoyed riding around the zoo like that for awhile! However the only exhibit they left crying was the playground.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:44 am
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March 18th, 2009 at 11:13 am
I agree that some zoos are really NOT WORTH the money nor the time!
the reactions from the kids are often more amusing than the animals. *laugh*
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