Dakota Zoo

For our final day in Bismarck, we decided to forgo the history lesson that Mom had planned and hit the zoo instead.  I know - you are shocked, another zoo.....

Once again - it's hard to get tired of going to the zoo when every zoo you go to also happens to be totally different than the last one you went to.  I cannot tell you how many animals I've seen in zoos in MN and ND that I have never seen (or heard of) before.....  Today was no exception!

Of course we had to start our zoo trip with some friendly guys that we got to feed!

We had a lot of "favorite" areas - but one of them was the prairie dog town.  You actually got to climb through little tunnels and stick your head up in the middle of the town.  Sadly, our prairie dogs were a bit quiet - we only had one little friend come hang out with us.

But - we did get to feed him some little leafy pellets!

 

Loved the eagles - Bald and Golden Eagles

I think it was my first time seeing a badger in the zoo...

And I can honestly say I've never gotten to watch Porcupines eat before.  They are so stinking cute!

This was a swift fox - he was quite entertaining.

We also loved the "cat" area....
We made it in time to watch a training session with the Puma (aka mountain lion).

 

The Lynx

And some of our favorites - the Bengal Tiger and the White Bengal Tiger...

I thought the Bears were fun to watch.

 The beautiful Serval....

Oh, and we could've spent a long time giggling at the otters!

 They knew we were there and kept trying to find us...

 In all honesty - these Simang monkeys were the BEST!  There was a mom, dad, and baby.  The baby was playing games and they were all over the place.  It was the best game of tag and "you know you can't beat your momma" wrapped into one!

We had to say goodbye to our playful friends when it started raining - so we headed into the education center to learn about bees, butterflies, and some domesticated animals... and I mean who wouldn't want to try to milk a cow?

 

Once the rain let up we went back on the "big animal" loop and saw longhorn deer...

 reindeer....

 pronghorn sheep....

 camels (and we got to watch the keeper feed them)...

 and even a baby buffalo....

 

There were so many more animals than that - and a whole row we didn't even get to... and they are the ones I don't even know what they were (like the mouflon and aoudad).  But at that point we were starving and it was raining!

 

Tomorrow we head out - gone of the days of multiple nights in one place - too much to do, too much to see!  Time to start racking up those Jr. Ranger Badges!