CALL OF THE WILD: Trip to Zoo...........

5th June 2011

Seasons were changing... thoughts of people were changing, but my plans were not the ones to be changed. It was a feeling where I had wasted a lot of days without proper travels. This weekend was completely wasted as Saturday turned out to be a dull day with problems roaming around the state. I decided to take a small trip to Bannerghatta National Park. It is the only national park which is in the limits of the city. It is just 22kms away from the city center. Distance wasn't my concern as I have made trips to places which are far greater in magnitude when considering the factor of distance.

On the way, we faced a lot of problems. Half way through, I had realized that I had forgotten to take the camera. We lost a lot of our time by heading back home to retrieve our precious asset. We reached the national park by 3 pm. By that time, safari was closed. The tickets for last safari were sold out. We had to make changes in our plan to visit the zoo.

We started off by paying a visit to our national bird - Peacock. Its beauty was unmatched.

Peacock Caged......(Our National Bird caged)....:(

Next, I had to move on to the Hippopotamus. I wasnt able to take a lot of photos, area near the hippos were really disgusting. (Note: Area near Hippos are always like that.)

PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

Hippos can open their jaw for an angle of 180 degrees. I dont think any human being can open their jaws that much. Hippos fight with each other using their big jaws. They have stubby legs and hairless body.
We were not able to stand at that point for a long time because of the foul smell coming from the pond.

We, then moved onto the birds section which had variety of species. I wasn't able to cover pics of all birds. The first bird to be spotted in the zoo after Peacock was the Painted Stork which is a large wading bird. It is a bird which is usually found in the wetlands of tropical Asia mainly to the South of Himalayas in South Asia and in some parts of South East Asia. Their distinctive pink tertial feathers give them their name.

Painted Stork

The next which we spotted was a group of Black-headed Ibis. It is another kind of wading bird which is mainly found in the Indian Subcontinent. It is similar to a Stork, but the only difference is that it feeds in groups. It has a black head&neck & body has white feathers. This bird reminded me of black & white pics.

Black-headed Ibis

Then, I was able to see Black-crowned Night Heron. It is another type of wading bird. The only difference with respect to other birds in the category is that they don't have long necks like others.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Then we were able to see some Spot-billed Pelicans. This bird reminded me of the character 'Nigel' in the movie 'Finding Nemo'. For those who haven't watched the movie 'Finding Nemo', 'Nigel' is actually an animated character which is basically an Australian Pelican.

Spot - billed Pelican

We took a lot pictures in the section of pelicans and storks. We then moved onto the section which had crocodiles and alligators. We patiently waited for some time for seeing some action from the reptiles.

Croc waits....

Alligator

We were almost ready to lose our patience thats when the action kicked in. A cat got caught inside the croc's area. The cat had zero idea of how to get out from there.

Cat stuck in croc's area....

After seeing the struggle of the cat inside the enemy’s territory, we moved on the rare birds section. We were lucky that we were able to see an ‘African Toucan’. This bird reminded me ‘Toucky’ character in the comedy movie ‘George Of the Jungle’. Its beak is very much artistic in nature. From such birds we can understand that the creator has a good taste of beauty.

African Toucan....

Up next was the scariest section of all SNAKES...

There was a big pit like structure inside which the zookeepers had a chance to add world’s most deadly snakes. Even standing outside the pit would allow you to shiver yourself (It was THAT SCARY.....:o). We had a chance to see python and baby python in action. There were a lot vipers, cobras, rat snakes.

Python....

rat snakes

Baby python

Viper...

Rat snake..

rat snak from a hole

rat snake in action.

baby python in action..

Next up was the turtle section, we had a chance to see one of the slowest land animals after snails. It reminded me of the story of 'Hare & tortoise'. The story reminds us the virtue of patience.

Next up section of the world’s deadliest predators – leopards and jaguar. They moved as if they were ready to hunt any animal in their site, unfortunately they were caged. This actually made me sad. They are supposed to be left alone in a big area like inside forest rather than inside a cage and feeding them like house hold cat. Even though they were inside the cage, their movements were highly predatory.