Satani Bat Bi: Satani Bat Bi: Xiangjiang Safari Park

When I was researching sites to see in this city, I learned there are two 'animal sites': the Guangzhou Zoo (which is also home to Ocean World, one of the largest aquariums in Asia) and the Xiangjiang Safari Park (part safari on foot, part safari on wheels). The Xiangjiang Safari Park is part of a larger complex of Chimelong attractions (Chimelong water park, Chimelong gardens, Chimelong hotel, and so on). The reviews of the Zoo were pretty bad - small, outdated facilities, animals didn't have room to roam - basically a depressing place I didn't want to visit. It's a bit of an ethical decision to visit zoos/animal parks - do you go and see the cute animals you love and support the park's work on conservation/research/breeding? Or do you not go and protest any animals being kept captive, ever? As viewers of The Goode Family know, sometimes it's just so hard to be good. I did my research on both parks an picked the Xiangjiang Safari Park - wide open spaces, not confinement and support for research and conservation.

On to the animals!

Flamingos up first

Meerkats on the loose - they had a pretty large area to run around, dig tunnels, and lots of shrubbery to hide under.

Toucan Sam - this guy was hanging out on a branch above the walkway. There was a keeper relatively nearby, and I saw the bird flying around a bit - my guess is his long-flight wings were clipped, but he could still manage short distances?

Howler monkeys - their area was a number of jungle islands, connected above water via branches. No metal enclosures at all, just a distance from the rest of the park by water.

Playing around with the zoom lense on my new camera.

Grooming = love! Check out the little guy staring out from the pouch.

Such an intense look!

He was just walking around in the water!

A swimmer who crawled up on the tree to dry off.

While waiting for the safari on wheels, I wandered through the Jurassic Park section - some real critters...

And some not so real...

I love the kid's expression!

Now on to the safari on wheels - we took a tram similar to these ones -

Asian elephants - there's three you can see here. In each section on the safari park there were fences across the road that could be closed (and probably are in the evening), but for the most part in each section (elephants, emus/kangaroos/ibis, tigers, giraffes/ibex/zebras) the animals roamed freely.