Surprising St. Louis Zoo

 Last weekend, we took Brett (cobra), Libby (kitty) and Davis (eagle) to the St. Louis Zoo.  Although I have been going here almost every year for 65 years, I am always impressed and surprised by something.

 I usually buy the kids a toy, but we decided to splurge on face painting this time. I didn't even know they did that! Then, I asked each one what animal they really wanted to see.

Brett really wanted to see the Anacondas, Cobras and Boas. . . but he usually is too afraid to step too far into the "snake house."  But, we got him all the way in and took his picture in front of the sign to prove how brave he was.  That was a wonderful surprise!

 

Libby wanted to see the monkeys, but spent a lot of time on "Poop Patrol" with Davis. :-)  No surprise here, really.

On our way to Davis's animal request, we passed a lion napping in the trees!  I don't think I've ever seen that before.
Davis requested to see the Okapi, one of his Webkins, but it was very shy hanging around the rocks.  An animal interpreter came up and he was surprised that we knew what an Okapi was. He even showed us this Okapi's baby picture! Apparently this animal has a very small fan club.

So he dug out all of his charts and told us the story of how Okapi's were "discovered".  Click here for a very interesting history.

It is actually more closely related to giraffes than to zebras despite the zebra-like stripes.

The St. Louis Zoo is pretty amazing--it is free, it is wonderful, but it is also very beautiful.  There were more flowers blooming than at the Mo. Botanical Garden last week.

It has some pretty amazing art also.  The art above was in the Herpetarium which looks pretty much how it did when I was a child.  John E. Wallace, the architect, hand sculpted many of the architectural details.

The area around the Bird Cage (built for the 1904 World's Fair) has some beautiful stained glass.  The one above had a hole in the middle to frame the swamp currently in the Bird Cage.

But, outside were some other wonderful stained glass pieces and mosaics.

Davis wanted to see the Okapi, Brett the snakes, but Libby wanted to see the monkeys.  Every time I tried to take a photo, this ape turned around.  I was certainly surprised to see how much this looked like scary eyes glowing in the dark on. . . 

The End.