A Half Trip to the Zoo

So, I had no idea what to expect going to the zoo here. But we went with Liv and Dave and our friends, Galina and Vitali. It was fun. We even ate ice-cream (a very Ukrainian/Russian thing to do). But we didn't get to see the typical zoo animals. Apparently we missed the half of the zoo with the elephant, tiger, hippo, aquarium, etc.

But we saw several animals that I don't remember seeing in our zoos. Maybe they are there, we just skip them. But probably they aren't because they are native to the United States. But we saw lots of deer and elk, some raccoons, sheep, goats, ducks, swans, the Ukrainian national bird (a stork), boar, bison, Canadian geese, etc. Seeing Canadian geese was especially funny because they migrate to Lubbock every fall and we see them in the wild! We saw some of the "normal" zoo animals too: camels, various birds, bears, monkeys, and a few more. Canaan really liked the swan and ducks!We took our time walking around. We bought food (carrots and cabbage) to feed the animals. Some of them liked it, some didn't.

A few things that were different. There weren't nice habitats for a lot of the animals. Some had some nice space, but many didn't. Also, people fed the animals, and many were hungry enough to eat the cabbage and carrots we fed them. Some people threw candy in at the monkeys; they knew to unwrap and eat. By the number opaper wrappers on the ground, it looked common. There were also several bananas on the cage bottom too. They had rides in the park and a playground (which Canaan insisted on playing on), as well as a few vendors who set up shop on a bench or two in the park. In addition, construction was going on in the back of the park. There were large concrete slabs laying around, and trenches dug that we had to step over to get to see some of the animals (Canaan thoroughly enjoyed jumping over these holes-see pictures). Lastly, some of the animals looked like they were in sad condition. For example, the humps on one or two of the camels' was sagging. It didn't look normal. We hear that the price of the zoo has sky-rocketed (from the 50 cents it used to be to around $4 now). Maybe they are going to use the money to try to improve some of the living conditions of the animals.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. Canaan enjoyed making a goofy face with the monkey statues, I got a snap-shot of Galina writing down English words (studying while with us!), and some cute ones from Max too. The overgrown, grassy hill is where a raccoon lived. Hope you enjoy. Maybe next time we go to the zoo, we will see the other animals!