The Wonders of Nature

On Wednesday, Helena and I went to a local wildlife park (zoo). It's always a good day out. They have a play area, a canteen, and lots of animals. On the way Helena asked me what my favouite animal was. I couldn't think of an answer. "I don't really like any of them", was the best I could come up with.

We didn't get round all of the animals - we missed seeing the farm animals, nor did we go into the tropical enclosure this time, we also managed to avoid going into the shop that sells all sorts of tacky rubbish. This has to be a first, as Helena is usually very keen to go in there, but we left once she'd had enough traipsing around for one day. We'll probably go again in the summer.

There are all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. I realised when we were halfway there that I had forgotten to bring my camera. Never mind, there are far better photos on Wiki, and in any case there's no way I'd have spent enough time anywhere near an arachnoid to get this kind of picture:

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Visiting the "creepy crawly" house is something that is very important to me, though. Mainly to make sure that the tarantulas are still in their cages.

We also saw some bats. Again, I couldn't have photographed them - the bat house is kept very dark. They're pretty creepy too:

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Finally, here is a snake:

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None of the snakes we saw are this colourful. I don't mind snakes, when I'm looking at them through glass. There aren't really any poisonous snakes in the UK, and it's rare to see any type outside of a zoo. The worrying thing was how well camoflauged some of them were.

I suppose I should be amazed by the wonders of nature. By how diverse and strange the animal kingdom is, but as always I came back unmoved. Animals smell. Some of them can kill you. You wouldn't let most of them in your house. Only one thing really impressed me.
That was the ants. They're amazing because of the way that they manage to work together. And yet each of them has the brain power of Britney Spears. It's very impressive. The other nice thing about ants is that they aren't at all scary or creepy. Which I suppose must make them my favourite animal...