Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Sleepy monkey had nothing on me by the time I made my way to the zoo at lunchtime last Friday, but we eventually got ourselves together and managed the drive to the Phoenix Park in a nifty-enough 30 minutes before being lucky enough to find parking just a hop, skip and jump from the zoo turnstiles. Planning, picnic-making and taking a day off work proved totally worth it to see the likes of…

and

It was by the hippo enclosure that @pluincee (photographer of the day, responsible for all the lovely pics in this post) heard a Dublin Dad refer to his little girl as ‘Juno’, leaving me wondering what sort of Irish surname that would even match. Juno Byrne? Juno Whelan? Juno Hennessy? but namemutton dressed as namelamb aside, we continued on our three-hour trek around all the animal sights the zoo had to offer and visited these guys

as well as himself

and crouching tiger, zero dragons

As a day of fun and entertainment goes, it can’t be recommended highly enough. There were plenty of parents with children trekking around the very extensive grounds but equally, a good number of teens and adults who were there childless, just for the pure enjoyment of the place. Including a playground and a bunch of restaurants which we didn’t stop at and well laid out to include vending machines and toilets around every corner, we didn’t feel the time going as we moved from one enclosure to the next. As can be seen from some of the pictures, sometimes its not even all that obvious that the animals are inside enclosures. To the zoo’s credit, they seem extremely well cared for with lots of space to roam around.

For the city folks who’ve never experienced it in their own back yard, there’s also a City Farm with traditional animals such as sheep, cows and pigs, if not always in very well labelled enclosures…

and while the advertised milking show didn’t do much for my inner country girl, it looked like the sort of thing that would make the average tourist wet themselves with glee.

We finished off the day with a pre-picnic trip to the zoo shop where there was a truly impressive collection of animal-related things, and where I fell in love with a giant tiger teddy with a pricetag of over €200. Happily, we discovered it to be the exact sort of place that stocks retro confectionary like Macaroon bars and Big Times.

While the price at the turnstiles is a little steep if you haven’t been lucky enough to happen upon a couple of freebies (€15 for an adult and free for children under 3 with various increments in between) the zoo has a huge amount to offer on a day out and even more that they could think about doing to utilise the space. We commented while strolling that it would be a great space for some sort of concert or re-enactment. My demented 2am head has just now decided that it would be the perfect place to have some late night outdoor tribal music receital…though maybe that might freak out the animals.

So too, the scant information on the history of the zoo which appears on their website would make you think that it’s well worth some sort of timeline walkway at the zoo, detailing the interesting points in its almost 200-year history. It’s been there since 1833, and in 1916 when the the large-scale uproar associated with the Rising meant that among other things there was a lack of meat, they killed some of the smaller animals to keep the lions and tigers alive. Aside from history, there’s probably not a kid or adult out there who wouldn’t like a Q and A with the zoo vet about all the gruesome bits of the job.

All that said, it was an excellent wander in some of last week’s nice weather and if the pictures haven’t tempted you just yet here are a few more for good measure

including this beauty in which you have to pay attention to even see the zoo resident..

I enjoyed it far more than this picture suggests and was clearly just sulking about the prospect of going home…

Finally, the zoo are aiming to aiming to break the world record for most teddy bears at a picnic on June 21st next, so if you have a child you can take possession of for an afternoon, get planning. More here.

Dublin Zoo: Totally Animal.