After comic-con ended, on the Monday, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo.

I personally haven’t been to a Zoo in ages. In Vancouver, we have an aquarium, but the nearest zoo is the Greater Vancouver Zoo, which I’d rather not support.

When we realized that the Woodland Park Zoo was so near where we were staying, we made a trip out!

Admission was about $20 per adult, and after getting our tickets we grabbed some food. The prices weren’t cheap, but they weren’t horrendous I suppose. You could get a meal for about $12— I opted for a turkey burger (for about $10 USD), and shared a combo with my boyfriend. He got the Seattle Dog, which is basically cream cheese and caramelized onions on top of a hot dog.

It seems like Woodland Zoo has a lot of animals on its premise. From penguins, to giraffes, to tiny bugs, to more common farm animals, they had it all. Here are some of my favourite exhibits!

If you paid $1 in the aviary room, they give you these little popsicle sticks with seeds on them. Little birds will fly down from the tree and snack from your stick! They were so cute! Their little claws gripping onto your fingers as they munched away. I really want a little bird now 😦

And then we saw these white wolves. It felt almost magical looking at them. How are they so regal looking?!

I’m not a fan of bugs, but we saw these little guys in the water. They all held little air bubbles, and every once in a while, you’ll see them accidentally release it or use it all up and then they’d hurry to swim to the surface to grab another bubble. So cute!

One thing I regret is that I didn’t wear enough on the day we went to the Zoo. I thought I’d be fine with a t-shirt and hoodie, but it was a cloudy day so the sun didn’t really warm me up as it did the three days prior. I am now typing this up with a fever stemming from a cold. Excellent life decisions.

When we were there, the elephant exhibit was gone and they were asking for suggestions on what they should fill that space with. Now as I’m doing research on the Woodland Park Zoo’s past cases of animal cruelty, it seems that the elephants there were abused and very unhappy. Through public pressure, they’ve moved the two elephants to other zoos…hopefully they’re doing better now.  (Googling more into this, one of them died in the zoo they were transferred. What the heck.)

That’s the thing about zoos… it’s such a great place for kids to learn about animals. This time around, I was shocked to see how many of the animals there are actually dangerously close to being extinct. You learn a lot, but there goes the question of animal cruelty and how ethical is it to lock up these animals. That’s one of the main reasons why I refuse to visit the Greater Vancouver Zoo. The conditions there have been getting worse year after year, but nothing is being done. At least this zoo in Seattle is trying to clean up their act?

I do wish there are more zoos that are purely conservationist in nature, but it seems no matter what zoo I google up, there’s cases of animal cruelty. Quite unsure of where I stand with zoos, but nonetheless, I had an enjoyable time at the Woodland Park Zoo.