Thank you @o1eh, this is no more a contest for me but my passion.
I still remember that hot, cloudy Saturday in December 2020. The weather was really hot, but when our friends suggested we go to the zoo, we all agreed instantly.
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Location from my house- https://goo.gl/maps/KirDUnzzMJ7vstXJ8
We made an advance group booking and reached the zoo at 9 in the morning. In fact, it takes just 10 minutes or so from my home.
I could see the kids were excited, as they had been planning to go to the zoo, but the bushfires were keeping us from going there until then, so we took the first opportunity and reached there. We parked our cars, and we were surprised to see that the parking lot was almost full.
Some of my friends had gone there earlier, but this was my first trip. I was amazed to see such a large area and so many people, which is rare in Australia.
Later, I heard that some of the rare species of animals were brought here to save them from infernal bushfires that had gulped the surrounding forests and left millions of animals dead.
I have nothing much to say today, so I will let my pictures speak.
But we saw a number of animals in the zoo, of which we had only heard the names so far.
I am sorry I am unable to give you all the images I took here because one of the kids had taken my camera with a promise to give me animal pictures, but when I received it back, I saw it was filled with useless videos.
We saw a number of creatures, some of which we had never seen before. We saw different types of birds, peacocks, and seals here. We also got to see an owl, but there is no photo of it.
We kept moving further and saw lions and leopards in cages. Some were resting. I thought they got used to the sight of spectators.
After moving a little further, we reached a garden. There were many kangaroos forming quartets. On moving ahead, we saw a number of koalas. The most fun came from seeing a bear who was constantly circling a tree.
White Lion Giraffe, Cheetah, Leopard, Tiger, White Rhinoceros, Zebra, African Lion, Common Eland, Spotted Hyena, Wapiti Elk, Koala
Actually, finding your way to different sections in this zoo is accessible. Everything is systematic, and you do not have to ask anyone to find your way.
They had provided us with a simple guide map with our ticket, so everything was easy to find.
Having said that, the best thing I liked was the couple of peacocks that were kind of walking with us. Yes, we saw a few of them in the bird section, but some of them were roaming freely.
And it was wonderful to see people, especially children, touching and feeding kangaroos. But I regret giving my camera to my coworkers' kids, who thought they would take better photos of the animals.
I envy the people who come from faraway places and stay inside the zoo and enjoy the company of animals in an all-paid lodging facility, and I was living so close but could never find enough time for such beautiful creatures like penguins.
I've been to a number of zoos in India, and this was my second, as I had seen Sydney's zoo, but this was far bigger and had a lot more animals than any other, barring maybe the New Delhi Zoo.
I will not mention Bangalore's zoo here because that is a National park, a jungle safari, and one of the biggest in the world. I can only say that I have seen very few zoos that are so well-kept and managed.
The zoo gives you an idea of Australian animals as well as animals brought from different countries. They are so beautiful, and they looked happy barring a few.
For instance, this bear was walking constantly on a tree log. I think he was not happy here or missing someone.
We walked a lot, spent almost 9 hours here, and really enjoyed our day.
The Canberra Zoo is spread over a large area so it was not possible to visit all the areas in one day. But unlike all other zoos, this one is the only one which is not run by the Australian government but is privately owned. So they charge a hefty fee. Luckey when we visited they were looking for visitors due to COVID and Bushfires so we got a nice concessional group entry.
We could have seen a few more sections but the zoo has so much for children that they spent a lot of time in kids' areas For instance the adventure playground. And trust me this is not just for the children but we enjoyed it as much as the kids did.
We stayed there until 6 in the evening and were close to the aquarium, but then we decided to visit on another day, but we have yet to visit it. Maybe I will give you the details on my next trip.
We could go close to them, and even touch them if we wanted to, especially since I had never seen this ostrich-type animal called an emu before.
But what I loved most was that this couple of peacocks never left us alone.
NOTE: As I said in the beginning, the kids had grabbed my camera so I have most of these photos taken by my phone.
Beneficiaries WOX Help Fund and Burnsteem25