Mathilde's Marvellous Meanderings: A visit to Al Ain Zoo

As many of you know, David is a little fond of visiting zoos. Very fond of visiting zoos. I am too, but sshhh, don't tell David.

It's just possible that David has already blogged about this visit already, but I'm in the zone and thought I would too. I still have very fond memories of our visit at the end of March as I was particularly taken with the relaxed and cheerful staff as well has the very happy animals. So here are some gratuitous animal photos......

Here we are. In Arabic a zoo is called "The Park of the Animals"

We arrived early and decided to spend a small fortune on a guided tour of the zoo. Ever since the Great Kayak Disaster of 2014, my knee has been known to give up and go home without notice, so the fewer actual steps the better. Not only did the tour come with a guide, it also came with transport that could carry twelve. Never mind that there was only two of us. Next time......

Inside the visitor's welcome area

We started with some refreshments (coffee, dates and water) in the welcome area as our lovely guide prepared for us. I have a photograph of her, but I promised I wouldn't post it as her father would not approve at all.

Our first stop was pretty little beasties with horns.

Our second was larger beasties with truly impressive horns

I struggled to photograph him out of the shade,
but frankly I think he looks pretty amazing just the way he is.

It wasn't very hot but, as with most zoos, day time is the lying around not doing very much part of the animal's daily life.

Of course my favourites are the ferocious big cats.

The killers of the savanah

Ready to take down their prey in the blink of an eye

David, however, managed to get some fabulous shots of the white lioness chasing a bird. Mmmmm, domestic cats are not that far removed from their giant cousins after all.

She missed

It's too hot in Al Ain to have elephants at the zoo and I'm not at all sure how the other animals stay cool. Even on a gentle spring day (about 32 degrees) the hippos were up to their eyeballs in their gigantic undercover swimming pool.

I can seeeee you!

In the middle of the reptile house was a little fennic fox. Lord knows what he was doing there, they are desert dwellers and a little bit of heat won't hurt them. They're sooooo cute with their gigantic ears - which are a bit of a disadvantage when inside with continual running, screaming children. However, the real reason he was inside might have been a protective measure. After our visit I was chatting to one of the SQU students about the cuteness of the fennic fox. He agreed wholeheartedly and mentioned they had them in their village. He talked of them with gentle pride before telling me they had killed all their chickens and run of with his favourite peacock. He thought that was a bit rude, but didn't dent his delight in the little critters.