St. Louis Zoo - Part 2

St. Louis Zoo - Part 1

After chilling out (literally) in the Penguin Cave, we made our way outside to the Mary Ann Lee Conservation Carousel.  One of the Zoo's newest attractions, the Carousel features 64 colorful hand-carved wooden animals, representing protected and endangered species at the Saint Louis Zoo, including the cheetah, warthog, hippo, polar bear, Grevy's zebra or Humboldt penguin.

I think the zebra is my favorite.

Our next stop is River's Edge, on the West side of the Zoo.  River's Edge is the Saint Louis Zoo's first immersion exhibit -- a lushly planted naturalistic environment showcasing multiple species from around the world.  The 10-acre exhibit puts you right in the animal's habitats.

And speaking of being right in the animal's habitat, this guy was so close to me I thought it might peck my eye out for my Bud Light. 

On our way to River's Edge we passed the Insectarium.

Yep.  INSECTarium.

I did NOT want to go, but Ryan made me.

And I have to admit, it was pretty cool.

The Insectarium is one of a handful of exhibits in North America dedicated solely to bugs. It hosts more than 20 major exhibit areas, with more than 100 species of live insects. These creatures are definitely underrated. You can learn about how hard working they really are -- how they recycle waste, pollinate plants and support the entire cycle of life.  As you enter, circling the entrance are much-bigger-than-life-sized ants.

This is definitely a guy kind of place.

Ryan loved it.

One of the exhibits was called "Not Home Alone."  It is a complete kitchen, front porch and garden. You can lift the lids and open the drawers of various discovery zones and get a new, and surprising, look at your housemates.  Creepy.

I was doing ok until I saw this...

And this didn't help either...

So that was enough.

 

After the Insectarium, outside in River's Edge Africa, we ran into someone that made me very happy...an ANT-eater. 

How ironic.

 

And here is someone that didn't want to be "bugged" - hahahahaha.

Enough?  Ok.

We finally made it to the hippos.

I love used to love hippos.

Remember why?

My husband is so mature.

 

The Anheuser-Busch Hippo Harbor is a great place to spot Nile hippos lounging in the water cooling off. You can also watch the small fish gobbling up the hippo's manure that is spread through the water with its tail - disgusting. 

This is about as close to a hippo as I want to get. 

I'm still terrified and scarred from the hippo show and am now very grateful for plastic barriers.

I really want to think he's cute, but I'm still having nightmares.

River's Edge Asia branches out to a deep channel of the river with waterfalls and thick brush of trees. The magnificent and mighty Asian Elephants live in this spacious natural habitat where they dive and swim in the river, take a dust bath or splash under a waterfall.  The Saint Louis Zoo's only male elephant, Raja, was the first elephant born at the Zoo in 1992 and is now a father to two baby elephants, Maliha and Jade.

We timed it perfectly. There was an elephant trainer walking around the Zoo path next to us and called to the baby elephants and had them do tricks.  This is Maliha trumpeting for us!  It was amazing. 

She looks so happy.

The elephants flapped their ears to keep cool.

And then we got to see baby Jade.

She does tricks too!

Stayed tuned for Part 3...

All Zoo information in this post was found on the St. Louis Zoo website: http://www.stlzoo.org/