The Santa Barbara Zoo is known as one of the better small zoos in North America. We visited here on our train trip around the US. We stopped in briefly the day we arrived here and then spent a few more hours when our paragliding lessons were cancelled due to weather. (It was much quieter the second time - a week day plus rainy weather.)
It was nice to see the snow leopards out prowling around. Love those huge fluffy tails!
I think these monkeys were enjoying the sun after the rain:
I like the flamingos:
And of course, the elephants and the giraffes:
This acorn woodpecker was wild, not a part of the zoo. I heard the sounds of a woodpecker pecking and looked up and there it was. If you look closely you can see acorns in the holes - winter food stash. Apparently these are fitted so tightly in the holes that squirrels can't get them. A single "granary" tree can have up to 50,000 holes made by a group ("bushel") of these birds.
There were also a pair of mallard ducks in a pond. There was a coin operated machine that dispensed feed nearby either for the koi or the ducks. The ducks definitely expected to get fed. If you held your hand out they would swim over right away. But you had to be careful - if you let them get too close they would nibble on your fingers, as both Shelley and I discovered!
See all 20 photos as a slideshow or overview
It was nice to see the snow leopards out prowling around. Love those huge fluffy tails!
I think these monkeys were enjoying the sun after the rain:
I like the flamingos:
And of course, the elephants and the giraffes:
This acorn woodpecker was wild, not a part of the zoo. I heard the sounds of a woodpecker pecking and looked up and there it was. If you look closely you can see acorns in the holes - winter food stash. Apparently these are fitted so tightly in the holes that squirrels can't get them. A single "granary" tree can have up to 50,000 holes made by a group ("bushel") of these birds.
There were also a pair of mallard ducks in a pond. There was a coin operated machine that dispensed feed nearby either for the koi or the ducks. The ducks definitely expected to get fed. If you held your hand out they would swim over right away. But you had to be careful - if you let them get too close they would nibble on your fingers, as both Shelley and I discovered!
See all 20 photos as a slideshow or overview
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