Zoo Visit

Today Donovan and I went to Toronto Zoo.  Miles had some buddies overnight and I think Donovan needed some distraction.  Donovan wanted to join in with the older boys and they didn't want him.  So the two of us headed off to the zoo.  The weather seemed poor so I brought along rain ponchos.

The zoo had the new carousel running so Donovan wanted to give it a try.  Of course he had to sit on a reptile.  The snake seat was a bit boring so he chose an iguana.  It is really beautiful, quite a work of art.  I can see that is something we are going to have to try everytime we go to the zoo.  We had a visit to Stingray Bay, where not only touched the stingrays but the sharks also.  The sharks have very rough skin.  Then it was off to the Australasia Pavilion to see the reptiles.  We took the zoomobile and had the grand tour of the zoo.  Of course Donovan had convinced me to buy him some reptile toys so we were playing with them while we waited for the zoomobile to set off.  The rain had still

not given up at this point and was drizziling.  We toured around the pavilion looking at the reptiles and other animals.  From there we headed towards the Caribou Cafe and grabbed some lunch.

We walked towards the Americas Pavilion.  On the way there was an opening of a new garden celebrating Aboriginal beliefs.  Donovan didn't want to stick around so we continued to walk.  We had a great time looking at all the snakes, other reptiles and amphibians.  We saw a sign for the snake keeper to be onsite at 2:30 so Donovan and I decided to hang around.  We had about 30 minutes to wait.  By now the sun was beating down and it was very hot.  The snake keeper did not turn up at 2:30 so after waiting we decided to head out.  I was a little ahead of Donovan and all of sudden he came running after me that someone was coming with a box with bags in it that were moving so back we went.

Well it really was worth the wait.  The snake keeper brought out a Guyanese Red-tailed Boa Constrictor.  It had a beautiful red tail.  The keeper let a member of the audience hold him and all the children swarmed around him to touch it.  Then she brought out a Eastern Fox Snake.  This snake is native to Ontario, it is a constrictor snake.  She let Donovan hold this snake first.  He was very pleased, it is quite a big snake.  Then other people had a turn to hold on to the snake.  After a bit she asked if Donovan would like to hold on to the other snake, the Guyanese red-tailed boa constrictor.  The snake had been in his bag for a while and she was concerned about him getting too hot.  So Donovan was the only other person allowed to hold on to this snake.


The keeper didn't want may people holding or touching this snake as he was new to being on display.  Donovan was very pleased.  I held him for a bit also.  The keeper didn't want to be carrying two snakes so she let Donovan take the Eastern Fox Snake to hold.  He helped the keeper put the Eastern Fox Snake in his bag.

As we were talking to the keeper, Michelle, I mentioned that we were probably going to buy a corn snake for Donovan.  She said that she owned two corn snakes.  Michelle invited us back to the Americas kitchen and gave Donovan a snake shedding from the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, Patrick.  It is big, much bigger than any of the other sheddings he has.  We also were given a bunch of porcupine needles.


It was a great afternoon, one that I don't think Donovan will forget too quickly.