Back To The Zoo

It's been almost three decades since I last set foot into our National Zoo.

There used to be a KFC there. And if you're old enough, you'll remember that KFC jingle, "Let's go to the zoo, there's lots of things to do, and the food is finger licking good.. " OK, enough of that, I'm not gonna promote Colonel Sander's chickens right now.

So anyway, last Saturday, my pal, Duzhai and me took the train down to Sentral to meet TZ for our zoo photography trip. First, we stopped for some dim sum in Jalan Ipoh, courtesy of TZ. He said the dim sum was highly recommended by some Penang fellows.


This was one of the exciting looking dim sum we sampled.

And the verdict: It sucked. Big time.

Moral of story: Even if some fellows from Penang recommend it, doesn't mean that it's good. "Belum cuba, belum tahu" If you haven't tried it, there's no guarantees. Anyway, off we went to the zoo and met up with Julee, another blogger whom we know.


The zoo had a really modern looking entrance. I couldn't pull out any memories of the zoo other than image scraps of certain animal exhibits like the aquarium and some penquins. Anyway, be warned, there's tons of animal photos coming up. I'll spare you the 200+ pictures and just show you the few which I chosen:


The sight of this baby monkey chewing on the plank of wood made me wonder, Do they feed the monkeys enough? Or is it just teething? Hmmm...


This little fellow looks like he wants to go out. Anybody has the keys?


This horse or pony has such affectionate, sad looking eyes. This guy here was probably an ex-race horse or pony ride. Who knows?


Since it was almost 11am, there was an animal show going on. You'll never guess what this cockatoo was doing. That guy was holding up a ten ringgit bill and the cockatoo will fly from the trainer's hand and extract the ten ringgit bill. This is one cool donation trick if there ever was one. I was joking with TZ whether the cockatoo can be diverted by higher currencies like a 50 ringgit bill. The trainers did mention that the cockatoo does not recognize foreign currency, but ten ringgit bills. Looks like it's not that smart, he he.


This sea lion is a master of the basketball and it's really heartwarming to see the way he claps. However, they had to teach him a "Test of Obedience" trick which involves the sea lion holding still and not eating the fish laid out in front of him, until given a command by the owner. I don't like this trick taught to dogs, let alone a sea lion. But I suppose it has its uses.


Hippos sweat some bloodlike liquid. That's what I learnt from the signs. Interesting, huh!


For me, deers are the one of the most beautiful and graceful creatures on earth. This baby fawn reminds me of Bambi, Walt Disney's reknowned deer character. We were give a chance to buy packets of carrot and tapioca pieces(RM3 each) to feed the deer. Deer are very rough when getting food from visitors. The smaller doe and fawn stayed a distance when there were feeding by the visitors. I resisted doing a 'scattershot' with the food.


Of course, there's always flamingos at the zoo. I especially like these bright red-coloured ones.


These large flying creatures are not the ones that gave Batman his namesake but the local fruit eating version, our flying fox. They were locked in a sealed exhibit which had two doors. The inner door was easily jammed and hard to open. One can understand how these creatures can send the average ignorant female (and guy) screaming. Blame Dracula!


The local sun bear was the most active of the bears. They were trying to extract honey from these 'honeyless' looking logs. The other bigger bears chose to stay in their cage enclosures. Dang, I want my money back!


When we were at the reptile exhibit section, we couldn't resist capturing some frog pictures for fellow blogger, froggy's collection, but it was too dark and our pictures mostly turned out blur. I took this local toad picture instead but I doubt froggy wants a kodok for his avatar.


We thought this palm civet cat was dead. But apparently he just likes to play dead since he gave himself away by scratching himself. He probably fooled the ants. He he!


This is just some bored looking wild cow. And the area stinks of cow poo!


This is the Savannah section where there were no fencing just large trenches separating the visitors from the animals. It's really difficult capturing the skinny ostrich's head from afar.


This rhino has really big, sad eyes.


You will never guess what this orangutan was doing. TZ has a better picture. Take a guess?

No, she (not a he) was not doing yoga.

No, she did not fell off the top on her head.

Give up? He he, this funny primate was doing a headstand and peeing into it's own mouth. I wonder why...

"Mind your own business, Jonzz!"

This is of course, the famous tiger. This fellow is very obliging and went around the cage doing various poses like swimming, in an almost routine manner. Did you know there are no tigers in Africa? I don't know. Ask TZ, Master of Uganda.

OK, I'm getting bored so let's rush through the rest.

Sad looking elephant. I bought him a sugarcane.

Cute herd of giraffes

There were huge flocks of these 'bomber' egrets( I think they are egrets). See the green tags on their legs.

Conclusion, the National Zoo is small. Some claim the Melaka Zoo is bigger.

Well, time for a Melaka Zoo photo session. Anyone interested?