The zoo is different from others because it started out as a family farm. Jim Andelin grew up around animals and wanted to teach his children about them. He started off with a few strange exotic ducks and deer. Then they got a monkey. Then a kangaroo. When one of Mr. Andelin's sons mentioned his pet monkey to a teacher, the teacher didn't believe him. So he brought the monkey to class after getting approval from school officials. Then his class visited their farm. Soon more schools got wind of the family's exotic collection and went out to visit.
They started doing educational programs for local schools. After about eight years of this, they decided to expand since the demand was so great. They got some insurance, put in some bathrooms, and started charging admission. The family was awarded permanent zoning as a zoo after some zoning battles.
The zoo is home to one of the largest primate collections in North America. They have success breeding primates that other zoos have problems breeding. The reasoning is that this zoo caters to the animals, not the visitors. So, the animals live in conditions like they would in the wild, not in air conditioned areas where the humans would be more comfortable. They have about 600 animals now.
These guys walked away before I could get directly in front of them to take a picture.
The family still runs the zoo, which is paid for with admission prices and sales from their gift shop.
I was very excited about visiting this zoo because there are quite a few animals that visitors can feed. I was looking forward to feeding the giraffes and watching Morgan feed them as well. We were not disappointed!
The first time we went, we arrived as school bus loads of children were leaving the zoo. I imagine that many of them fed the animals while they were there. But, the giraffes were still hungry enough to come up to us to eat from our hands. Morgan didn't want to feed them by hand, so she held out her cup of feed for them. She wasn't afraid to do that. She didn't want to leave the giraffes. While we were looking at other animals, she kept asking to go back to them, so we did.
The second time we went to the zoo, the giraffes were nowhere near the bridge where one can feed them. So, we explored the rest of the zoo and came back later. When we came back, there was quite a crowd there feeding the giraffes. This time, Morgan was feeding them by hand. She had grown braver. Whenever a giraffe turned it's attention to another child, Morgan would say, "Hey! Those are my giraffes! You can't feed them!" I explained to her that everyone there wanted to feed the giraffes and that we all had to take turns. She wasn't too happy about that.
You can see in the picture above, that she also wasn't happy about leaving them! We left the giraffes and took her to where she could feed a young zebra, donkeys, a calf, camels, goats, and sheep. One of the donkeys kept following her along the fence-line wanting her to feed it more.
I loved seeing the tigers and bears up close! I especially loved watching the white tiger. We were just feet away from them with glass walls between us. We got to see a couple of the bears wrestling. They were just playing around. Morgan enjoyed seeing that.
There was a beautiful snow leopard at the zoo, but it was lying down with its back to us, so I couldn't get a good picture of it. We didn't notice it on our first trip to the zoo.
Peacocks and roosters wandered freely around the zoo. We sat down to eat some ice cream and peacocks were walking right past us.
The only animals we couldn't see up close were the lions. They were lying under trees in the distance. The heat index was 110 degrees Fahrenheit the first time we went to the zoo and it was almost 90 degrees the 2nd time. So, the lions and many other animals were just laying around trying to keep from getting too hot.
Of course Morgan just had to ride the kiddie rides. She told me she wanted to ride the zebra on the carousel, luckily it did not have a rider on it, so she got her wish. I wish I had caught her smiling in the picture, she really did have fun on the ride!
Morgan and I rode the sky lift on our 2nd visit to the zoo. It was about a 15 minute ride over the zoo. Morgan and I both loved the ride. We rode right over white rhinoceroses, zebras, monkeys, antelope, and much more.
I am sure there will be many more trips to this zoo in our future. I also want to take her to the D.C. Zoo and the Baltimore Aquarium one day. But, I think the next time we go, we'll make sure it's about 70 degrees, instead of 100!
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