San Diego Zoo: 2nd Visit

With two little ones in tow, there was no way to fully see the entire 100-acre wildlife park. Home to over 14,000 rare and endangered animals, representing more than 700 species and subspecies, there is just so much to see and do. Promptly after our first visit, we planned to return on another date. Smart!

Exploring different paths introduced us to new friends.

We all fell in love with this Park ambassador. With their sleek, streamlined body, short, reddish gold coat, and dramatic markings on the face, caracals are among the most beautiful of cats. Also called the desert lynx, medium-sized caracals have no spots or stripes and have longer legs and a slimmer body than a true lynx. Caracals are the heaviest and also the fastest of the small cats and are the largest of the small cats in Africa.

And how cute are the pygmy hippos?

A great deal of our time was spent in the Reptile House.

One of the four Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects done for the Zoo, its architect is one of our favorites- Irving Gill.

We then thoroughly explored the Reptile Walk, the Zoo's fancy digs for its slithering residents. It consists of three separate structures housing turtles, amphibians and snakes native to California.

The exhibits are built to mimic the look and feel of each animal's native habitats, including marshes, swamps, vernal pools and bogs. More than 50 reptile and amphibian species are on display, including poison frogs, the critically endangered mountain yellow-legged frog, mossy tree frogs, giant horned lizards, king snakes, Malayan giant turtles, leaf tailed geckos, and so much more. Needless-to-say, there was a lot of oohing and aahing. So fun.

We learned a few things, too. Did you know that when frogs swallow, they close their eyes and their eyeballs push food down their throat? Me, neither!