Panda-monium

We went to the zoo this weekend and of course checked out our resident baby panda Mei-Lan. Since are members of the zoo we were able to go in early and we spent lots of time with the little baby. It actually a year old and I was the last one in the family to see it. We saw lots of other animals too. While we were there the zoo staff let the Golden Lion Tamarind monkeys out of their cages onto monkey island. This is a spot where the monkeys can be out of their cage in a more natural environment. This gives the animals a chance to be out among predators (hawks are constantly circling around the zoo looking for an easy meal) and to get used to roaming more freely. The zoo has a reintroduction program and several monkeys have been sent back to brazil in the past few years. We were literally 5 feet from some of the monkeys with no cage between us. It is amazing to see how quickly the monkeys move in those trees. We thought that was pretty cool to see.