Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So I am guessing by the name of the post you will have all figured out that we went to the Zoo a couple of weekends ago. For a change Amber and I both had a weekend day off and so we decided to spend it doing something. That something led us to Marwell Zoo.( http://www.marwell.org.uk/ for those of you who are interested). Actually It was Mel who found it online and she suggested it for our day out. Marwell Park is located about and hour and a half from here and so it was a pretty early morning we stopped at a farm shop on the way and brought lots of delicious nibbly things for lunch and so we also had a picnic at the zoo.

The zoo is a pretty large one and had some new animals that we had never seen before. Amber was her usual scary self as she tends to get very excitited around animals and then acts a bit like a three year old who also can run pretty fast! There are ground rules when Amber goes to the zoo.
1) No running off
2) No tantrums when there are lines or it is time to leave
3) No trying to steal the animals
4) No running off
5) Amber must agree to a search before she gets in the car to come home incase she 'accidently' allows something to 'fall' into her pocket that might scamper, squeek, or scurry. :p

She was very well behaved and I did not have to threaten to send her to the car.... well maybe only once or twice while we were standing in line to get in and the line wasn't moving fast enough for her liking!

Anyway have some photos of all the pretty animals.
I am going to pass the puter over to the Amber now as she is telling me what to write and i think it will just be easier this way....

Hewwo, apparently I was being 'demanding' or something. . .so, Captions for the pictures will appear under them :)
This is a Capybara, they are the Largest Rodent in the world and sort of look like GIANT Guinea Pigs, see:

We really want one but are a little worried as to what Monkey might think of it. . .

This was just absolutely adorable. . .we have no idea why, but this giraffe apparently thought that the fence was really tasty! This was only one of a number of giraffes that were at this zoo, There was a whole bunch of them all different sizes and this n photos kinda shows that even though the photo itself isn't of the best quality...




These two guys are Congo Buffaloes and were just so adorable as they gave each other kisses that we had to snap a photo of them!

Obligatory 'us' photo. In the background you can see the Giraffe who found the fence tasty and the Congo Buffaloes.
This little guy is an Addax and, if you look at how teeny tiny his little horns are, he's a young'un! And those are just the most adorable tiniest horns!!!


This photo was taken when we were just outside the Addax enclosure and I'm leaning over and talking to the nanimals! Mike is just being wude. . .

Kitty cats!!! Up top we have the sleepy little cheetah and then we have a Serval (Serval's are really adorable and I think one of the few 'big cats' Shelley might actually allow me to own!) Shelley interjection: Not likely Amber!

This is Shelley's "National Geographic Photo". . .This guy is a Snow Leopard and he was really hard to get a good photo of, especially through the wires, but Shelley was very patient and scored this really awesome photo of him. . .or her, there is one of each but no clue as to which is which.
This little fella is an Egyptian Sand Cat, although personally Shelley and I think they've just taken a Domestic Tabby and given him steriods to make his head a bit bigger and then put him in the zoo "claiming" that he's something exotic. . . It was acting just like a domestic cat the whole time we were watching him. Amber kept putting her hand up to the glass and the cat kept trying to rub up against it. Amber and I kinda both really wanted to bring one of these home as they were just gorgeous.


Last but not least we have a photo of all four of us just as we were about to leave. It was taken by some very lovely tourists who we did the same thing for in return. They thought it was hillarious that we got Mike to lie on top of us!!