Dallas Zoo - Giants of the Savanna

We visited the Dallas Zoo today to see the new Giants of the Savanna exhibit that just opened Memorial Day weekend. Plus, school has not been let out yet, so we hoped there would be no crowds and we were right. Besides the heat, it was a perfect day at the zoo.

Mommy and Nathan entering the tunnel to the new Giants of the Savanna area.

Nathan loves zebras and was thrilled to see this giant poster of one. You can only see the zebras at the Dallas Zoo if you ride the monorail. We choose not to ride it this visit. It was a very hot day and didn't want to be stuck on the monorail for 40 very hot minutes. When Nathan asked where the Zoo Train was . . . we told him there wasn't a train at the zoo today. Shhhhh! We'll just ride it next time.

We made sure to visit Nathan's other favorite animals. First up . . . the Penguins. They are so cute. We would really love to have one for our backyard. It could swim in our pool.

Nathan is at the entrance of the Giants of the Savanna. Where there is a heard of bronze elephants and Nathan liked the little baby one.

This is the elephant section. The elephant keeper was outside by the exhibit and told us that this is Jenny. She is the elephant that everyone was concerned about. She seems very happy in her new home and with her new elephant friends. The trees in the background have hidden pockets in them where the keeper hides fruit. Jenny was using her trunk to search for the fruit and was finding every one with no problem.

My favorite part of the new exhibit is the giraffe area. I think the zoo use to have two giraffes. Now, they have seven and they are beautiful.

What makes the giraffe area so special is that you can get very close to them. There are three overlooks into the giraffe area. You can get almost eye to eye with them.

The zoo sells a handful of lettuce leaves for $5 if you wish to feed the giraffes. I recommend coming early and heading straight for the giraffes if you want to feed them. I'm sure they don't get to eat all day long. There are buckets of feed hanging from the overlooks, so the giraffes come right up to you. Nathan was in awe for getting a chance to be so close to them.

The cheetahs were exciting to watch. They would slowly walk by the glass and then take off chasing each other. Half of this Range Rover is in the exhibit and the other half is outside. I tried to get this cheetah to jump in the back so I could give him a ride but he wasn't interested.

We stopped a second time to visit the penguins as we left the Wilds of Africa section and headed to Zoo North. We stopped and ate our picnic lunch before we toured the older section of the zoo. The zoo is getting so large that we were not able to see everything this trip. We skipped around the exhibits in the older section because it was very hot and Nathan was getting really tired.

Randy mentioned the butterfly house and Nathan perked up. We happened to be the only people in the house at that time. The monarch butterfly caterpillars were all over the place. They were on the plants and the ground. We were told to be very careful where we stepped. Nathan liked pointing out all the caterpillars he saw.

Nathan in the middle of the butterfly house standing on the butterfly bench. See . . . nobody was in there but us. Pretty cool to have it all to ourselves.

There's a caterpillar on the ground. Watch your step! Or did Nathan did squash it?

After the butterfly house, we headed over to see the tigers. I can't remember ever seeing the tigers in this exhibit. Every time we have come before the tigers weren't out or were hiding in the tall grasses. But, today, we saw one tiger . . . finally!

We saved the Children's Petting Zoo for our last stop of the day. Nathan had waited patiently all day to get to the children's section.

Hello, giant fish!

We all enjoyed watching the giant fish swim around the tank. It's nice to take a rest and watch the fish through the windows on the sides.

This was the first time we had ever been allowed to enter the goat barn to pet the goats. Nathan wasn't afraid and walked around petting them as if they were dogs. You have to watch out when you are around goats. One goat nibbled on Randy's shorts and another one untied his shoes. Randy was too busy taking photos of Nathan and couldn't keep an eye on the goats.

Nathan is walking on the bridge that goes over the duck pond.

Last but not least . . . the lazy creek. We saved this for our very last activity at the zoo. We always forget to bring Nathan's swimsuit when we visit the zoo.

But it was so hot outside, we just decided to let him go in with his clothes on.

This section, of course, was the most crowded of the children's zoo. I'm surprised that Randy got these photos of only Nathan because there were kids everywhere.

Nathan loved cooling off in the cold water. After getting splashed from a few of the other kids, he had had enough. Thankfully only his shorts were wet. We just took them off and headed home.

We loved the new Giants of the Savanna. The whole area is very beautiful and is all about getting us closer to the animals. They even have a restaurant with a wall of windows where you can dine right next to the lions. The only bad thing is that the zoo is getting too large to see everything in one visit with a toddler. We are looking forward to our next visit. And I promise, we'll ride the zoo train next time.