Belfast Zoo

I headed up to Newtownards again on Friday, June 8 to see Christine, who I met off the internet.  We decided to do some more site seeing and wanted to head off to have a look at the Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge and other sites along the coast there.  Unfortunately the weather did not look too good in the morning so we decided to go to the Belfast Zoo instead.

The weather ended up improving throughout the day with a good drive along the coast possible in the afternoon.

The zoo was quite good with a large variety of animals in good enclosures.  I’ve seen a lot worse!  It’s situated on a hill near the city centre.  You start your way at the bottom of the hill working your way up on the left hand side and then coming down on the right hand side.  It’s quite a climb, but you do not notice it with all the stopping and animals to see.

The picture below is taken from above the chimpanzee enclosure and looks out over the western area of Belfast.

Belfast View

Belfast View

My favourite animals were the penguins, as they have a viewing area so you can see the penguins swimming in the pool. They really are quite spectacular in the water, especially when compared with how awkward they are on the surface!

Penguin

Penguin

The sea lion enclosure also had a similar concept with people glued to the window, waiting for the next sea lion to appear.  It was interesting watching the sea lion from the surface too.  He would swim around the pool upside down for most of the time.  Before reaching the viewing area he rotated upright, surfaced, breathed, dived and then went upside down again.  It was like clock work, every time he went around, in the exact same place he would come up for air and dive again.

Sea lion

Sea lion

The apes are always good for a laugh as they are so human like.  Unfortunately being black and with glass seperating them from us taking photos of them proved to be very interesting.  Thank god for digital cameras, as I would have waster some film with my SLR if I didn’t see the problem with the digital shots first.

The zoo has quite a number of monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas, all in good enclosures.  I could watch them for hours, but there was more to see.

Maybe this picture reminds you of someone in your family :-).

Gorilla

Gorilla

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