Welcome to the Taipei city zoo! Joey felt instantly right at home. We woke up early and spent the entire morning at the zoo today. Although we walked around for 4 hours we didn't even manage to see it all!
We had to walk about 3 hours before I saw my favorite animal. I had been waiting the whole time to see them so when we finally reached them I was ecstatic.
I've decided to make a quiz on animal facts! =D
so question #1: How many lbs of food does a giraffe eat a day?
A)60 lbs
b)100 lbs
c)120 lbs
If you look really close you can see this giraffes tongue sticking out. I wish you could hug giraffes =D.
Question 2: How much sleep does a Giraffe need a day?
a) 20min- 2hours a day
b) 45min- 3hours a day
c) 90min- 5hours a day
The Moon bear (or white chested bear as joey keeps pestering me to mention) was one of the most entertaining animals at the zoo. He wouldn't stand still for any pictures and kept jumping into his pool of water and playing.
Question 3: How many moon bears are estimated to left in the wild, worldwide?
a)10,000
b)15,000
c)25,000
No matter how often you seem them flamingos are always one of my favorite animals to watch. The “knee” of the flamingo is actually an ankle joint and the lower leg bends forward.
Question 4: What colour are flamingos when they are born?
a)soft pink
b)pale yellow
c)grey
This was my first time seeing a koala bear and omg! they are so cute. I wish I could have taken a better picture but the air is so murky in Taiwan. The fingerprints of Koalas are amazingly like those of human beings - enough to be confused with our own!
Question 5: At birth, how big are koalas?
a)1/2 to 3/4 of an inch
b)2 inches
c)3 inches
The Siamangs were so loud! We couldn't hear each other when we were walking by because the territorial siamangs were performing their daily singing rituals to warn off other families.
Question 6: On average, how long do adult siamangs groom each day?
a)15min
b)1 hour
b)1 and a half hours
I had no idea how big pandas were! Averaging at 275 lbs, these cute creatures are massive!
Question 7: What is a group of pandas called?
a)A gang
b)A sloth
c)A crib
Yes I know its alot of pictures but I spent 1/5 of the day there!
This .. um, lovely creature is called a Malayan Tapir. Honestly I have no idea about this! other then they are probably from Malaysia.
* Apparantly it is an endangered giant ant eatter!
Question 8: How long is the Tapir's gestation period?
a)4-5 months
b)24-28 weeks
c)390-400 days
Here's a leopard! I wasn't able to get a very good shot because he was rubbing his head against the log for the entire time!
Question 9: What is the average lifespan of a leopard?
a)20 years
b)45 years
3)50 years
Here of course is the rare amphibian called a "joeseph." We were lucky enough to catch him giving birth!
Question 10: How long did it take this Joseph to pop the egg out?
a)Enough time for the egg to start hatching
b)Long enough to block off the toilet for an irritating amount of time.. as usual.
c)Who cares! He just gave birth to a pink turtle!
Sadly we didn't get to see any live dragonflies but there were all these dead/preserved ones. If it wernt dead it would be able to beat its wings about 30 times per second. This particular one was about 4 inches from head to tip!
Question 11: Dragonfly eyes contain up to ____ individual lenses.
a)25,000
b)30,000
c)50,000
I never realised how much taller joey is than me. =(
Oh no! I cant remember the names of these cute little monkeys!
Question 12: What is the name of these sleepy little monkeys?
This moth was HUGE!
Here of course is the Orangutan! Orangutans are actually omnivores since they may sometimes eat birds and small mammals but they are mostly herbivores.
Question 13: What does Orangutan mean?
a)Deaf old Man
b)Harry man
c)Man of the Forrest
Joey showed me that if you lick the tip of your finger and put it infront of a butterfly it will crawl onto your finger. It tickled! =)
Although you cant see him very well this is a red panda. I wish he hadnt been sleeping but I guess you can only expect so much. They have an extended bone which is like a “thumb.”
Question 14: How much does a red panda weigh?
a)a medium sized bowling ball
b)the average 2 year old boy
c)4 gallons of water
Tiger! Rawr! The roar of a tiger can be heard from over a mile away!
Question 15: An adult male tiger in the wild requires around ___ of meat a month
a)150kg
b)200kg
c)250kg
We also saw some hippos, but none of my pictures of them were as good as this one. Hippos have glands that secrete a pink liquid on their skin that acts like sun screen in the African heat and as well as an anti-septic against cuts and scrapes.
Penguins! I cant believe they are actually allowed to keep these in Taiwan. The building they were kept in was freezing! I loved these cute little things, too bad we had to go and I didnt have a long time to look at them.
Two antelope started fighting! It was so cool! their horns made this huge cracking noice. It didnt last very long though because the smaller one was too scared =(
Ive never seen an elephant before! We watched a pair of them for awhile and they were swaying back and forth at the same time. It was like they were dancing. Tusks grow for most of an elephant's lifetime and are an indicator of age.
This butterfly was amazing! The outside of his wings makes him look like he would blend into anything, but when he opened his wings it was the most beautiful indigo colour.
Although I was exousted by the end, the Taipei zoo was deffiantly one of my favorite places we have visted so far. Bye Bye Moon bear!
answers:
1.c
2.a
3.c
4.c
5.b
6.a
7.b
8.c
9.a
10.a/b/c
11.b
12.??? You tell me!
13.c
14.a
15.a
The other day we woke up at 5 in the morning to catch the train down to Hualien. Before this I had only toured around Taipei (within the purple circle) When we reached Hualian we met up with Joeys uncle. 
We drove around Hualien and saw all of the markets. In taipei they have switched to supermarkets, but in Hualien the Taiwanese buy all of their food fresh from the market. Joey's uncle kept jumping out of the car to buy random fruit for us to try. We even had fresh guava juice! yummy.
Joey's uncle had some business to deal with so he let us off at Farglory Ocean Park for a couple hours. Lucky for us it wasn't packed with tourists so we had the whole park to ourselves! 
Joey loved the sea cows =) this one was a little baby!
We also went to see the dolphins! I've never seen a dolphin show before and it was amazing! The dolphins could jump like 15-20ft in the air and hit a ball! 
After the show we got to meet the dolphins. This one kissed me! =D We were also allowed to feed them fish and pet them; they felt like wet rubber. 
By the time we finished we were ex ousted! Thank goodness for over sized stuffed clam shells.
Next we travelled down to Shihtiping to where Joey's uncle lives. This was one of the beautiful lakes we passed by. It felt so nice to get out of the city and away from all the pollution.
We spent the night at this gorgeous hostel. 
Can you believe this beautiful room was only 60$ for one night!
There was even a hot spring inside the bathroom! I was off the walls with excitement.
We finished off the evening eating lychee on the deck. If you ever get to try this fruit its worth the high price tag. =)
