The Santa Ana Zoo (the zoo of 50 Monkeys)

My choice of things to do was the Santa Ana Zoo. I love going to new zoos. Going to zoos you know is still fun, but a new zoo...*sigh* a new zoo is awesome. You get to see animals you are not used to seeing and read new facts about them. Each zoo has its own unique flavor depending on where it is located. Some are deserty or foresty, you get the idea. So I was excited to go to this zoo. Also, Josh loves monkeys and this zoo pledged to always have 50 monkeys at the zoo at all times years ago (I think a promise to the guy who began it). The front desk guy at the condo said with mild distain, "Oh, that zoo is a microzoo. It will take 2 hours tops to go through the whole thing." Well sir, I scoff at your pathetic 2 hours. You obviously have never hung out with my extremely distractable slow moving son or me, the info nerd, to a zoo.




This zoo was based on the Neotropics (The biogeographic region of the New World that stretches southward from the Tropic of Cancer and includes southern Mexico, Central and South America, and the West Indies). It was like walking through a small tropical jungle. They had this awesome "explorers corner" with skulls and small animals and explorer gear and facts all over the place. I had fun trying to explain the differences in carnivorous and herbivorous animal skulls to Josh. Honestly I have no idea how much he is picking up but I spent my time in there showing him things and talking non stop. I remember when I was little my mother and brothers and sisters helping me explore and learn about animals (heck, Abby and Richard still give me that experience even though there is an ocean between us!). I was so excited about what was in the explorers corner I didn't take any pictures but these were outside of it:



They had a really amazing aviary where we spent at least half an hour or more searching for the tropical birds and laughing at the adorable turtles.



Now if I was as awesome as Richard and Abby I would remember all of the names of the birds and tell you neat little facts about them. Honestly, birds are pretty but not my favorite so although I read the little signs, I can't remember. The red ones are Scarlet somethings, the pink one is a something Spoonbill, the turtle is a Red Eared Pond Slider (doesn't he look like he is smiling?) and the rest are pretty birds. Whatever. There are four that we recognized immediately, here they are: Donatello, Raphael, Michalangelo, and Leonardo



Then of course we saw the monkeys. They had (I am adding picures of only the most unusual or beautiful ones: Golden Lion Tamarins,

Golden Lion Headed Tamarins, Cottontop Tamarins,
Capuchins, Colobus, Spider monkeys, Philippine Tarsier (thought to be the world's smallest primate is as big as a human thumb when born and only gets to be 6 oz as an adult!), Emperor Tamarins , Howler monkeys....I know I am forgetting a bunch but you get the idea.



So much fun! Tyler said that it looked like I was playing a game called name-that-animal-and-a-random-fact-about-it-before-reading-the-sign. If it was a game, I did pretty awesome. "Oh look! A ________ I believe that is the one that (special thing about it). Let's see. Yeah look! It says it on the sign, I was right." Tyler thinks I watch too much Discovery and Animal Planet. Silly, there is no such thing. I was super excited for two of their animals: The Giant Ant Eater


and a Bintarong (it was sleeping and we could barely see it so the pictures are from the interwebs). Just look at that cute face! I am sad we didn't see her too well. Bintarongs are also called Bear cats because of their resemblance to both creatures and smell like buttered popcorn. No joke, I have always wanted to smell one.



They also many other assorted creatures and a little farm with farm animals. Two hours my butt! We were there at least 4.