Friday, November 16, 2007

The Bangalore Zoo- haven't you always wanted a Monkey?















The day before Dewali was celebrated, 11/8/07, was a vacation day for the kids from school. What better time for an ex-pat outing? The ex-pat pals that the Murphy's hang with in their neighborhood (Whitefield) is a large, kid-rich group. No better place to hang that day than at the zoo!

The zoo was unitque in that there was a section of the zoo that we traveled safari-style in a 'caged' bus and the animals roamed free. In India, they have tigers (photo) galore! We also saw leopards and a lioness hanging about.

The rest of the zoo had beautiful, well kept gardens....and some unique displays. The pheasant display, apparently unique, rang a little weak with the Minnesota crowd. There were many, many snake displays- yuck! I am still filled with curiosity over the need for a pigion display, and wonder if there is any coincidence in the proximity of the pigion display to the snakes?

What was most unique about the zoo were the Macaque monkeys who really live there...they are not in cages. We had an endearing visit from a group of them...one bold monkey decided that the kids apple juice box was exactly what he needed. (photo) No worries, the kids are well trained for this occurrance...drop the box and run, man. The monkey had seen these juice box things before and opened up the straw hole a bit and tipped it back. After the big guy finished his juice, we had this this more tender visit from a Mom and her baby. (photo)

The outing was good fun, and exactly what the Dr. ordered- the kids were tired out!
















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