Mysore Zoo

Mysore Zoo is one of my favourites of all time. The official website of the zoo is http://mysorezoo.info/
The article covers the following information

• Location
• Fees and Online booking
• Time 
• Blast in past
• Favourites
• Pictures

Location

Located in Mysore, Karnataka, India bank opposite the famous Mysore Palace. It has been added to our itenary whenever we cross Mysore just like the Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary.

Fees

Fees of the Zoo are available at the Mysore Zoo Webiste
The tickets are now also available online nowadays.

Time

The zoo opens at 9:00 am and its best time to see the animals.
The parking lot in front of the zoo is relatively empty and its easier to get slot.
If you reach the zoo later half of the day, its difficult to get parking. Then its advisable to park the car in your hotel and come by local transport - auto rickshaw preferably.
You cannot beat the nature, as the animals take a nap in afternoon. So chances of spotting animals active and in action is less.

Blast in past

I had chance to visit the Mysore Zoo while I was child along with my cousins way back in 1989. I always cherished fond memories of my Zoo visit. I was keen to take my son to the zoo when moved to Bangalore, India.

Back in 1989 - this zoo was one of the few zoos in India which had the concept of keeping the animals in open captivity and not in cage. It was and is treat to all kids. Its well kept and maintained zoo. Has lot of variety of animals.

For those who are not aware of the open captivity zoo concept.

The carnivorous and other huge animals are not kept in the cage bars. The animals are kept in open ground. This ground is surrounded by deep trench at least 10 feet wide. This protects the animals from escaping the open captivity.

Some of my favourites are

• Giraffes at the entrance
• Tigers followed by the giraffes - one can skip the birds section
• Monkeys sections - Gorilla forms major attraction for all
• Rhino and Zebras are placed opposite each other
• Elephants - post the Rhinos one can quickly skip the deer section and head towards the Elephants
• Lions / Cheetahs - these are however kept in the caged environment due to various safety reasons.
• Alligators / Crocodiles/ Storks - enclosed in the captivity in which you can walk through.

Sometimes pictures are more worth then words.

Tigers

Sumatran tigers are kept in open captivity. We missed the tiger feeding show. By the time we reached the tigers area, the tiger had just finished up his lunch and was laying down and resting. Hence we were not able to enjoy tigers view.

Kangaroos

There a special area is dedicated for the herd of Kangaroos. We were lucky to see baby Kangaroo and film video of mother kangaroo teaching baby to run. View Kangaroos video here.

Birds Area

There is a dedicated huge area for birds in the Lake district Zoo. This area has fence and mesh at top of it. Once you enter the gates, you are lost in the tropical climate with lots of birds. You can walk along with emu and even feed him with some food stuff. Mind you this has to be bought from the shop in the park. You are prohibited from feeding animals anything other then that specially sold in the park. There is special cage where different kinds of parrots are kept. The special thing is that you can enter the cage and see the birds with the cage. The cage has spring doors.

Other animals

There were lots of other animals in the South Lakes wild animal park including monkeys, wild boar, cheetahs, etc. Click here for more details on park.


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Click for Lake district Zoo Main Page

Lemurs

Once you enter the park and walk ahead, you will see a lot of lemurs walking besides you. The lemurs are harmless creatures and will not do anything to you unless they are provoked to do so. We took some close up snaps with lemurs. You are allowed to feed the lemur food sold in the parks shop. View footage of Lemurs

Click for Lake district Zoo Main Page

Lion Feeding session

Unlike the Rhinos, the Lion in the Lake District Zoo had less to worry about peer competition as he doesn’t have any competitor. There are couple of lioness in the park to accompany the Lion. The before the feeding session the lions are kept in the cage. This gives the zoo keeper time to arrange the chickens on top of the different tree trunks. The lions are then let loose. While the Zoo keeper briefs us about the lions, each lion climbs the tree trunk and grabs the chicken. He then descends down, to eat his pray. You can watch the video footage of the Lions feeding session.

Click for Lake district Zoo Main Page

Giraffe and Rhino feeding session

A huge open ground is dedicated for the African animals. This is an effort to replicate the landscape of the African savannah back drop. The zoo keeper starts the feeding session with introduction to the animals, their origin. She further provided personal details of the Giraffes in the Park like their name, age, personal interests etc. After feeding the Giraffes then we move on the Rhino feeding. The zoo keeper whistled and called the Rhinos near the feeding area. There were three huge Rhinos in the park. Two of them were male and other was female. As usual the zoo keeper started briefing about the Rhinos and their personal habitat. Some how only two Rhinos approached her. She tried to attract the third Rhino by whistling and offering him bundle of grass. The feeding session took different turn and the two Rhinos started fighting with each other. There was rivalry between the two male Rhinos due to presence of single female Rhino. This lead to possessiveness and we could see live Rhino fight.
Rhino Fight:


Giraffe feeding session:

Click for Lake district Zoo Main Page

Plan visit to South Lakes Zoo

Plan your visit to South Lakes District. I will recommend planning your visit according to the feeding times of the animals. You need to spare half day for visit to the park in order to enjoy all the animal feeding sessions.
The gaps in between the feeding sessions can be used to visit the remaining parts of the zoo. We managed to attend the Giraffe, Rhino feeding session and the Lion feeding session.

Lake district Zoo Location

South Lakes Wild Animal Park is situated at the southern tip of the Lake District in the North West of England on the A590 trunk road. Take Junction 36 from the M6 and follow signs for Barrow in Furness, until the brown Elephant Tourist Signs take over. Click here for more information on Park Location. The entrance fees are 10.50 GBP for adult and 7 GBP for children.
Pets are not allowed inside the Zoo as there are few zones where lemurs, emus etc are not caged.

The Zoo has various animals from different continents of the world. You get change to see these animals in their natural habitat rather then they being caged. Click here for more information on the animals in the park .

Click for Lake District Zoo Main Page

South Lakes Wild Park - Lake District Zoo

Lake District Zoo/ South Lakes Wild Animal Park:
Lake District is famous tourist destination in United Kingdom. It is well known for Windermere Lake and the National Parks. However one often never hears of the South Lakes Wild Animal Park. If you find it difficult to find a parking place near Windermere Lake or if you are bored of walking in the crowd near the Lake Windermere, then South Lakes Wild Animal Park perfect tourist destination for you.

Location of Lake district

Plan your visit. It helps !!!

Giraffe and Rhino feeding session:

Lion Feeding session:

Birds area

Lemurs

Kangaroos

Tigers

Other animals