For our family outing last weekend, James and I took our daughter to the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Illinois. The first time that we had taken her to the zoo, Poppy was only about five months old. She absolutely loved the river otter and the meerkats. Now that she is fourteen months old, she is even more interested in the animals. And I must admit that going to the zoo during the winter is even more fun than going during the summer. The animals are much more active in the cold, and there are absolutely no lines!
Our first stop at the zoo was the wallabies. At Miller Park Zoo, the wallaby exhibit consists of an open cage with a walkway through the middle. You basically get to walk into the exhibit. Poppy loved looking at the wallabies. The wallabies also seemed to enjoy looking at her. However, we did have to stop her from trying to climb over the walkway railing. She really wanted to pet one of the wallabies!
Another of my favorite exhibits at Miller Park Zoo is the singing dogs. The singing dogs look a lot like a domesticated dog and even act like dogs running around a dog park. We even got to hear the wild dogs “singing” to each other, which was quite amazing to hear.
Other animals that Poppy liked included the reindeer and the geese. She was less impressed by the goats in the petting zoo. Although she did try to touch one of the goats that had stuck its head through the fence, she got scared when another goat jumped up. The loud sound of hooves on the plastic fence startled her and she started to cry. I quickly moved her away from the goats over to the geese, which she just stared at and stared at.
After the petting zoo, we next checked out the meerkat display. Poppy was less impressed with the meerkats this time, but she did have fun wandering around the Zoo Lab building. After watching the meerkats for a little while, we then headed over to aquatic mammals and the larger animals. Poppy again loved the river otters and especially loved the sea lion. She was also fascinated by the Sumatran tiger, the sun bear, and the snow leopard. She was not at all impressed by any of the primates.
What animals do you like to see at the zoo?
Image Credits
Wallabies © 2013 Heather Johnson
Singing Dog © 2013 Heather Johnson
Goats © 2013 Heather Johnson
Goose © 2013 Heather Johnson
Meerkats © 2013 Heather Johnson
Snow Leopard © 2013 Heather Johnson
