Tuesday we have taken a day off and we used the opportunity to spend the afternoon again in the zoo in Schoenbrunn. A bit more than a year ago Austria was completely crazy about the giant panda baby Fu-Long which has been conceived and born in a natural way in the vienna zoo. There was a real frenzy about the little fluffy animal and one had to queue for up to two hours to be able to watch him for a few minutes (if lucky). Nowadays he is not only much more active and visible but also significantly bigger than last year and we watched him for 15 minutes playing with a plastic ball, eating bamboo or exploring the environment indoors.
Afterwards we visited one of the most beautiful whilst most stinking animals: the giraffes. One can smell them from hundreds of metres, yet we love to take a look at them every time we come to the zoo. The height of these animals, paired with the graceful motions makes them one of our favourites. After a short pit-stop at the lemurs and white handed gibbons – two kinds of animals that are hyper-active and very funny to watch – we followed the feeding of the African elephants and learned that an elephant is pregnant for 22 months and a young elephant weighs up to 100kg and has a shoulder height of ca 90cm. Is that the reason for the many wrinkles elephants have?
Afterwards we visited one of the most beautiful whilst most stinking animals: the giraffes. One can smell them from hundreds of metres, yet we love to take a look at them every time we come to the zoo. The height of these animals, paired with the graceful motions makes them one of our favourites. After a short pit-stop at the lemurs and white handed gibbons – two kinds of animals that are hyper-active and very funny to watch – we followed the feeding of the African elephants and learned that an elephant is pregnant for 22 months and a young elephant weighs up to 100kg and has a shoulder height of ca 90cm. Is that the reason for the many wrinkles elephants have?
So beautiful and yet so stinky! While the young Siberian tigers were fast asleep after their feeding the seals were spectacular as always during their feeding – jumping for fish out of as well as into the water, grunting to get attraction from the caretaker as well as kisses and hugs for him are parts of their show. Check out the pictures of this action-laden late-lunch.
Even though the zoo has many attractions already it is constantly improving and expanding. There are permanent construction works going on and soon new parts will be finished. The most recent addition is an area with sweet-water fish which one can/could find in our region: pikes, zander, trouts, wels catfish, huchen or a 1m long beluga. If you wonder about the latter - even this fish famous for its caviar used to be found in the Danube prior to the construction of the backwater regulations.
We concluded the afternoon with some hot chocolate in the Kaiserpavillon (emperor’s pavillon) before making our way home again. Having refreshed our one year pass – for 29 EUR one can go to the zoo 365 days per year compared to 12 EUR for a one day admission – we will definitely be back soon again searching for new parts in the zoo.
Kerstin & Markus
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