Edmonton Valley Zoo

Last Sunday was Edmonton's annual free admission day; a few friends and I took the opportunity to visit the Valley Zoo. It was my first time to the zoo in Edmonton and, while not quite matching Calgary's in scale, it turned out to be a nice facility with plenty of interesting things to see.

Despite the parking lot overflowing with minivans and strollers, the zoo fortunately didn't feel too crowded. Our timing was fortuitous as we wandered straight into the elephant show, which I'd say was the highlight of the day. Lucy, a 40-year-old Asian elephant who was purchased by the zoo in 1977, went through a routine that I'm sure she's done thousands of times, guided by one of the zoo's trainers. She flapped her ears, showed us her teeth, played a recorder and a harmonica with her trunk, picked up her trainer, and balanced on two feet, amongst other um...unscripted things (as the trainer commented, watch your step at the zoo). The show was a lot of fun and Lucy found a lot of fans (who can support her and the zoo by buying one of the trunk paintings she's created!).

if you look carefully, Lucy's doing a physio stretch here

Near the elephant enclosure were the large carnivores. Though we didn't spot the tigers (not for lack of trying), we did see Arctic wolves, an energetic Arctic fox, a snow leopard snacking on a rabbit, and a serval cat playing with its prey.

and cue my pitiful attempts at cellphone animal photography -- this is an Arctic wolf

The capybaras were an unexpected favourite of mine. Native to South America, they're the largest rodents in the world. I don't think I'd ever seen one before! 

all three were napping when we first walked by

but they were up by the time we walked by again

It was a chilly day to begin with and when it started to rain we decided it was time to check out the indoor creatures. The primates, meerkats (so cute), wallabies (one had a baby in her pouch!), and rock hyrax (as still as statues), were all interesting.

super active meerkats (Timon!)

lousy photo of a wallaby -- the rest had hopped to the outdoor part of their enclosure

In the dimly lit nocturnal hall we spotted (with some difficulty) a porcupine, two sloths, and numerous bats. (I spent the whole time thinking about this Friends scene -- fun fact: the zookeeper is played by Dan Castellaneta, the voice behind Homer Simpson.)

Next-door in the amphibian hall, a highlight was the brightly coloured poison dart frogs.

that's a bubble you can poke your head into to get a closer look -- you can bet I did

The rain cleared up and we walked around checking out the rest of the animals. We saw the red panda, mid-siesta; but couldn't spot her new baby. We walked past the birds -- a bald eagle, barn owl (who was fittingly in a barn), great horned owl (Alberta's provincial bird), barred owl (my favourite), snowy owl (just saw its head poking out), burrowing owl, Eurasian eagle owl, red-tailed hawk, black swans, kookaburras, and emus.

ornery

my favourite

emus on the move

Around the zoo's perimeter were vast enclosures of large mammals, including zebras, bighorn sheep, camels, and takin.

zebras, from afar

A large tank housed harbour seals, who were energetically jumping and flipping all over the place.

For kids there was a carousel, train, and petting zoo with sheep and goats.

petting zoo (I blurred the people's faces and now they look creepy hmm)

The zoo is open year-round and I think is worth taking a few hours to visit, especially if you have kids. I'd recommend trying to make it to the shows/talks as based on the one that we saw, I think they'd add to the experience (wish we'd caught the birds of prey one!).

fall is a nice time to visit

Of course, if you're like me and don't like to pay for things when you don't have to, hopefully the zoo will continue to be included in free admission day, so you can check it out at no expense next September!