Ben and Juliann: Hogle Zoo

While we were on our trip up to Salt Lake over Halloween we were able to take a trip to Hogle Zoo with my Madre. We were super excited to go and see the new Savannah exhibit.

It is really neat, however, they have not introduced all the animals yet so we only saw a few. It was the first day that the Giraffes had been introduced and they were being skiddish because of the train, and hid in the corner.

We really enjoyed the weather though and seeing the rest of the animals.

Except the River Otters...which by the way we have never seen out. My Mom is pretty convincing and had as all agreeing that there is a conspiracy with the zoo actually not even owning River Otters!

But we do know that Jocelyn is just slightly shorter than a river otter with about the same sized hand. Good to know...Good to know!

Unfortunately the Polar Bear wasn't out to show off for Jocelyn,

but, the Grizzlies were pretty exciting to watch. They were loving this beautiful fall day.

We were able to watch them go for a swim and we even saw one of them stand up.

After the Grizzlies we stopped for a small snack. Jocelyn enjoyed gnawing on a carrot stick with Grandma.

This Zoo trip my top three animals favorite animals were...

#1 The Elephants

Typical Elephant picture...

Baby Elephant crawling on the ground...not so typical.

Not only that but trying to get a back scratch from the Grandparent.

It was perfect for Jocelyn the Elephants were so close and she loved watching them.

When we were getting ready to leave we passed by the Elephant exhibit again and it was dinner time. The Elderly Elephant did not want to come out and was hitting things inside the enclosure with her trunk. So the trainer tricked her by throwing out some fruit. She came out to get it and hurried to go back inside the half way shut door at this point. The trainers had to stop the door and she sat and pounded on it to get back in. Finally she gave up and went to get some food.

#2 The Lions.

There are two male lions together and when we first saw them they were lounging. On our way back out it was feeding time for them as well and they were pacing and waiting not very patiently might I add. They also sat and pounded on the doors. We were slightly disappointed because they took them inside to eat. However, then we thought, nah I think we are alright with that. Probably wouldn't be the prettiest sight watching a lion eat. I definitely don't enjoy watching it in the nature shows and am just fine passing up the opportunity to watch it in person.

#3 The Gorillas.

One of the male Gorillas was pretty upset, a trainer came out and talked with everyone. She let us know that he gets agitated by tall, big, men...especially if they are black (based off that description, we didn't have to worry about my husband bothering him) as well as people wearing costumes. Which on Halloween a costume is not that uncommon.

We heard this loud pounding noise when we first walked into the Primate House but didn't think too much of it. Then we heard the trainer and saw the Gorilla standing up staring at the glass and we realized that indeed this Gorilla had just ran at the glass. Just after she had finished explaining and the male Gorilla had sat down and was starting to cool off a young teenage girl walked in wearing a costume and walked right up to the glass to look at him. Then it started all over again and he ran at her pounding the glass. The girl yelled and giggled loudly and the trainer had to come back over to explain again that he was agitated and needed some space.