Vamos al Zoológico!

Today I went on a class trip with the kids from 1st and 2nd grade to the zoo; se llama Bioparc Fuengirola

It was the most awesome zoo I've ever been to!

The habitats that the animals resided in looked like the human equivalant to 5th Avenue Upper East Side penthouse appartments! GINORMOUS - compared to the typically small enclosure you know animals in captivity to live in.

With tons of open space for the animals to roam around, they aren't stuck in small rooms in buildings designated to display the animals from different countries for our pleasure with little to no regard for the animals' well being. Normally you would see animals caged in boxes with one window for viewing, flanked by three walls, but this park aims to cultivate a typical environment the animals would find in their natural habitat, and has created a place where there is respect for nature and animal preservation.

These animals had open spaces, with the sky as their ceiling, with lots of greenery and waterfalls, and ponds with fish in them, rocks for sunbathing, and some of the animals roamed free! It was beautiful

After entering the park Lemurs were roaming free in the trees above us, the grass next to us and on the floor in front of us!

Not in cages, these adorable little jumpers were sunbathing, watching us and enjoying their beautiful green home

This is the stunning (huge) Gorilla habitat; can  you see the Silverback perched on the log near the top right?

Then we walked through a Southeast Asia section with mammals and birds and there were just some bats, chillin, overhead!
AND there was this really bizarre animal I had never even heard of before: ciervo raton (a deer rat!)
I didn´t get such a great picture but here´s one I found on the internet

In case you wanted to read about this little bugger (in Spanish) here´s a little background about the Malaga born Asian animal!

This was the first time I ever saw a male peacock with it's feathers displayed before!

It was also the first time I saw a flamingo; they really are tinted pink!

Then we saw a great 20 minute show with some animals:
These otters were my favorite!

And all types of big birds were whizzing around our heads: this one got so close I thought it was gonna snatch me up and bring me to it's nest!

A great class trip to the Zoo in Fuengirola!

What's your favorite animal at the zoo?