Thursday, January 10, 2013

A Visit to the Zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the Los Angeles Zoo and saw many animals such as seals, alligators, deer, reptiles, giraffes, gorillas and chimpanzees.We also visited a reptile exhibit. It was recently built, and it was our first time seeing it. The exhibit had all types of reptiles such as poisonous snakes, turtles, and lizards. I took photos of some of my favorite animals.




 The American alligator is found in fresh and slightly salty waters in the Southeastern United States.   They eat almost anything found in the water, such as crabs, fish, frogs, snakes, birds, and small mammals such as raccoons. This alligator's teeth were huge and scary.


The American black bears lives in numerous forests throughout North America and is found in 41 of the 50 United States.They eat grasses, fruits, berries, nuts, insects, human foods, and occasionally small animals. They weigh approximately 150-600 pounds. This bear was just sleeping at the opening of it's cave.



If a Meerkat gets bitten by a scorpion or snake it doesn't get affected. Their burrow can  have multiple levels, which can be as deep as ten feet with up to 90 entrances. These animals were very active and look like people standing on two feet. They were putting a show for the crowd.






Flamingos usually stand on just one leg, even while sleeping, with the other up close to their body. These birds eat small shrimp, worms, insect, and plants. They receive their pink color from the natural things they find in the foods they eat. When we came to the exhibit, it smelled terribly, so we just took the photo and moved on to a different exhibit.


This turtle’s other common name is pig nosed because of its nostrils. I've seen many turtles laying on a rocks on The Big Island in Hawaii. This turtle is a different specie from the ones we saw in Hawaii.


Gorillas are the strongest and largest of the great apes. All gorillas in U.S. zoos are western lowland gorillas. They eat various parts of plants including leaves, bark, vines,stalks, bamboo, and wild celery. They weigh 350 pounds, and have long sharp teeth. This gorilla was laying around his large home.


This is a Grevy Zebra. It's most important adaptation for its survival is its stripes because they confuse predators. The Grevy is the largest of all the zebras. The males are five feet tall and weigh as much as 900 pounds. This zebra was very active throwing dust all over the place!
three Grevy Zebras


Orangutans are the only surviving great apes in Asia.  They act like humans in there behavior. Orangutans spend most of there time looking through trees for fruit. They also eat flowers, young leaves, bark, and eggs. In the Malay language, the word orang means person and utan means forest. This Orangutang was very furry and had two largefront teeth. He was orange/brown and had chubby cheeks.


A tiger’s tracks are called “pug marks.” Tigers get up at dusk,and may travel more than twenty miles to find food. These tigers were only sleeping and were very boring to look at, so we took the photo and moved on to the next animal.




Do you ever visit the zoo?
What is your favorite animal and why?
What interesting facts do you know about your favorite animal?

16 comments:

  1. @ Sarah,

    What a terrific day at the zoo! I love going to the zoo and seeing wild animals up close. Besides the Los Angeles Zoo, I also enjoy the San Diego Zoo. There they have a great exhibit of polar bears! Half of the exhibit is underwater, so you can peer through the glass and see the polar bear swimming! Wow!

    Thank you for sharing the facts that you learned. The zebra fact about how the stripes of the zebras help to confuse a predator is so interesting. I used to think that a zebra was so easy to spot, but I bet in the rush of the chase, it is confusing.

    Was there an animal you were hoping to see but missed?

    Your proud former teacher,
    Mrs. Y♥llis

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

      Thank you so much for spending your time to leave me a lovely comment! I appreciate all the wonderful comments you always leave on my blog!

      There were three animals that I really wanted to see, but didn't. The first animal was an elephant. The elephant was too far in his elephant home to be seen. The zoo built a really large home for the elephants, but now it is hard to find them. The second animal I wanted to see was a hippopotamus. For some reason, his exhibit was empty. The last animal I really wanted to see was a wolf. My mom said that they used to have it when we were little, but they don't have it anymore. When I was little, my mom used to take us to the zoo once a week. We know every animal at the Los Angeles zoo.

      Sincerely,
      Sarah

      Delete
  2. Sarah,
    I really enjoyed reading your post, filled with beautiful photos as well as wonderfully detailed descriptions. I had no idea that meerkats can be bitten by scorpions without any serious consequence. I also did not know that tigers often travel so far for their food.
    Thank you for sharing about your experience. I would love to show my 4th graders your blog if that is okay with you! Your writing will inspire them.
    Beautiful work!
    Mrs. Young ( 4th grade teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mrs. Joan Young,

      Thank you so much for spending the time to leave a such a lovely comment! I'd love for you to show your students my blog. San Francisco is not too far from Los Angeles, but I have never been there. My cousins live in San Francisco but they always come to visit us in Los Angeles.

      Do you have a class blog?

      Sincerely,
      Sarah

      Delete
  3. Hi Sarah!

    Awesome post! I love all your pictures and descriptions of things you saw and did!

    My city has the Henry Doorly Zoo! It is in Omaha, Nebraska. It is known as one of the best zoo's in America! Usually rated # 1 or # 2 with the San Diego Zoo. I have never been to the San Diego Zoo, but I would like to someday.
    My favorite thing at my zoo is the Gorilla Valley I think. You can get up close to some HUGE gorilla's. I also really love our Aquarium. It is loaded with Penguins and sharks swim over your head at one point. It's very cool.

    Have you ever been to Nebraska?

    Mr. Catlett from Omaha, Nebraska

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mr. Catlett,

      Thank you so much for spending your time to visit my blog and leave me such a lovely comment!

      I have never been to Nebraska, but I'd like to someday to see the sharks and the large gorilla. we went to San Diego over winter break, but went to the Safari park instead of the zoo.

      Have you ever been to Los Angeles?

      Sincerely,
      Sarah

      P.S This is my first comment I've ever had from Nebraska. Is it cold in Nebraska?

      Delete
  4. Hi Sarah,

    I am a friend of Mrs. Yollis, and she sent me a link to your blog. I am a 5th Grade English teacher in NYC, but I grew up in Los Angeles and have many fond memories of the L.A. Zoo. Once, on a field trip there with my summer camp, I got a bee sting. I was very upset until my counselors gave me special treats and attention to help me calm down!

    I loved reading your post, especially because of all the factual information you shared. It seems like you did a lot of research and learning, and I'm happy to see you are passing your knowledge on to your blog readers. Great work!
    Ms. Kirsch

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mrs. Kirsch,

    Thank you so much for spending the time to leave me such a lovely comment! I can't believe you got a bee sting. I hate bee stings. They hurt and itch a lot.

    I learned many facts about the animals we saw at the zoo by writing this post. It was very fun researching each animal.

    Sincerely,
    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Sarah

    What a great post about your visit to the zoo. I love taking my girls to different zoos. Over our summer holidays we have just been away to a small place called Nelligen in New South Wales, Australia. Near Nelligen was a place called Mogo and it had a zoo which we visited. The Mogo zoo housed a lot of endangered animals. My favorite animals there were the Red Panda and the White Lion. What is your favorite endangered animal?

    Mrs Hazzledine
    www.feps34.global2.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Sarah,

    Wow what a wonderful post about your special day at the zoo. I truly loved reading this post. Your photos which you took were amazing.

    Your facts about each animal was great and I felt I had learnt something new about each animal so thank you for that Sarah.

    My favourite animal is the elephant. ElephantS are such large animals yet appear rather gentle. I love elephants so much that I do have a small collections of ornaments of elephants.

    Thank you for another wonderful post Sarah. Give your mum a huge hug from me.

    Cheers AA :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear AA,

      Thank you so much for leave me such a lovely comment! I'm glad you liked my photos. Which photo was your favorite?

      It's too bad there was no elephants at the zoo. Maybe next time I visit the zoo, the elephants exhibit will be open.

      Sincerely,
      Sarah

      Delete
  8. Dear Sarah,
    It's fun to read your blog, especially to see your great pictures. I also love to see animals and see how they relate to each other, sometimes it reminds me of similar behavior of people. By now you visited San Diego Safari and can compare the two different parks. What did you like better?
    Love you,
    Grandma Tanya

    ReplyDelete
  9. I like the LA zoo. As soon as I saw the pictures I knew it was the LA zoo. I got to level 5 gymnastics. And I had my first meet of the year. I have the video on my blog.

    Visit it at slaymay.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Jakob,

      Thank you for stopping by to leave me such a lovely comment. I will check out your blog write now and leave you a comment!

      Sincerely,
      Sarah

      Delete
  10. Dear Sarah,
    I think that your trip to the zoo seams fascinating. I hope I get to see more awesome things on your blog.

    Have a nice day, Roxy Online
    http://roxyonline.edublogs.org

    ReplyDelete

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