Taipei ZOO

Since this was William's school break, I decided he'd have a lot of input on where he wanted to go. He said, "The Zoo!"  It was really cheap to get in, and we could use our train pass cards to do it!

I did encourage him to start with the Formosan animals.  Taiwan is the island of Formosa, after-all, and you'd expect them to have the best selection.  :)

As you walk in, the scenery was very unique.  Tons of local plants and trees, as well.  Ferns the size of small palm trees.  Wow.  Felt I had shrunk!

I thought it was nice that they had a muted sunlight place.  It gets really hot here in the summer.

Formosan clouded leopard.

The next animal on display?

Yep, the bear!

Kids were doing their 'get your book stamped' work here.

Okay, I like the hat, although the purpose of this picture is to see what is in the background...

Monkeys!

The zoo interpreters.  

They had their local birds.  Liked this owl.

Okay...  you see the man to the right?  This was on most of the bathrooms.  The Group Your Feces just cracked me up.

Butterfly house.

William wanted them to come to him...

...and it did!

This line was formidable.

But the person taking your order was working the line.  So by the time you made it to the counter, you would pay and pick up your order... the waiting was already done!

I was tired.  But William wanted to see the pandas and the penguins.  These are located in a different part of the park.  You can't tell it, but this uphill rise goes on for over a kilometer.

Yep, they seem to be always sleeping, although we got to see video of the nursery where some were being cared for.

William insisted on getting a birthday present for Elizabeth, a beautiful girl in his class.  He got her this panda!

I want everyone to know that the penguins were at the top of the freakin' hill, and the gondola wasn't working, so we hiked the whole way up.

I don't know what breed of penguin he likes.  He just likes them.

Gotta love an animal that swims!

William took video all day long.  But he loves this one the most.  These were fighting.  AWESOME for a little boy!