Spending a day at Disney's Animal Kingdom

One day last week I went with grand-daughter Megan and her friend Melissa to a Disney park - Animal Kingdom.  I love to see and photograph animals and birds, so I was in my happy place!  Here are some of the pictures. 

The first thing we did when we arrived inside the gates at Animal Kingdom was to hurry to the ride that is like an African Safari.  It is called the Harambe Wildlife Reserve, and the animals are is a large area where they can pretty much roam where they like, and you never know for sure which animals you will see.  I think we were lucky to see a lot of them as we traveled with a guide in a safari bus.
 

This strange-looking animal is called an Okapi, and it is related to the giraffe.  Anna and Rylee, here is an assignment for you - can you find any ways the Okapi is similar to a giraffe? 

If you could see the head of this animal better, you would know that it is a hippopotamus.  Did you want one for Christmas? 

 
There were some strange-looking dirt mounds such as this that were termite mounds. Apparently they are hard enough that the animals scratch themselves against them.

One of my favorite animals to see was the giraffe - and we saw quite a lot of them, including some young ones. 

Of course, I took lots of pictures of them, so I made a collage. 

 Another of my favorites was the elephant, and .......

.....of course I took a lot of pictures of them as well.  So, another collage! 

The lions were resting.  Anna and Rylee, do you know which is the male and which is the female?  How can you tell?  

There were some very large rhinoceroses.  Here's another assignment for you, girls.  What is a rhinoceros "horn" made of? 

 Outside of the safari area, we saw a lot of other animals and birds - mostly behind glass enclosures - like this big lizard......

.......and this much smaller Tree Monitor. 

Here is a collage of creepy crawly things.  Not my favorite! 

I love the colour of the Roseate Spoonbill! I think you can guess how it got its name!

We saw the beautiful zebras in the safari area as well as in another area.  Another of my favorites.  Can you guess why I might be partial to black and white? 

This little cutie is called a meercat.  He also lives in Africa.

This gorilla mama was hugging her baby.

 This beautiful bird, which almost doesn't look real, is called a pygmy goose. 

And this is called a Marbled Teal. 

 I loved seeing this beautiful tiger! 

As I watched this handsome beast, he walked up to this spot and stood - it was almost as if he was posing for me!

Why would anyone want their picture taken with a couple of mice?  Megan and Melissa collected quite a few autographs throughout their 5 days in the parks. 

 I didn't want to be a party-pooper, so I went on a few rides with the girls, including one in this area that I will never go on again!  It was called Primeval Whirl.  It was pretty wild!

We also went to a few shows.  This is a collage of some of the rides and shows.

Another of my favorite things to do was go into an aviary with some really strange and different birds!  I think this is a pair of Mandarin Ducks.

 This is called a Nicobar Pigeon.

I'm not sure what this little beautie was called.

 I think this one is a Falcated Teal

 And I believe these are Crested Wood Partridges.

This is a Gold-Crested Minah I think.

And this really strange looking bird is called a Great Argus Pheasant. 

There was a pair of this gorgeous bird, and I loved watching them perform!  They are named Victoria Crowned Pigeon - prettiest pigeon I ever saw!

You can always figure out where you are in this park, because the "Tree of Life"  is about in the middle of the park.  If you look closely, you can see a lot of different animals "carved" into the trunk.  I'm sorry to say, it isn't a REAL tree, but it sure looks real! 

So I made a collage of the Tree of Life.

I'm always trying to take a picture of this very elusive bird, and as we were hurrying out of the park that day, this one was willing to pose for me.
Until next week.........