School work progressed at a slightly more cooperative pace with Luke this morning with the incentive of going to the zoo as soon as he was finished.
We went by Metro to J.L.N. Stadium which housed the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The Metro station itself was clean and could have been anywhere in the world and from there walked about 3 kms hunting for the National Zoological Park in New Delhi. The walk itself was interesting as walks tend to be, passing a makeshift tent community, an electric crematorium and a library sign covered with razor wire which probably wouldn't inspire the faint-hearted to read!
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| Tent community and rubbish behind the bushes...bet this was hidden for the Commonwealth Games. |
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| Electric Crematorium?! |
The zoo itself is situated in the shadow of some beautiful ruins of Purana Qila, built in 1640 and fortress like in size. We were immediately surprised by the size and design of the zoo. The animals are housed mostly in wonderful enclosures similar to their natural habitats and with plenty of space.
We had expected crowded depressing animal cages and sad looking animals but were really pleased with what we saw. Karl has a horrible cold now, hot on the back of the tummy trouble so he was feeling washed out but determined to see the animals. It was probably as large as Melbourne Zoo with which we are really familiar but only cost 200 Rupee for entry plus 50 Rupee for camera charge.
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| Purana Qila |
No food or drink or bags are permitted in the zoo but there is food available to buy at non inflated prices. We finally got Luke to try a Lassi which he drank and enjoyed!! Yay! He is so reluctant to try new food. We fueled ourselves with drinks (quite a few Lassis actually) and progressed around the zoo.
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| Ice cream time - deep in thoughts!!! |
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| I was really excited to see storks! |
The large collection of Indian deer species was interesting especially the Black Bucks with their twisted horns. We noted a sad looking Black Buck who had lost half a horn and was being clearly bullied by the others. Whilst he only has half a horn, he might as well be wearing a big "L" for Loser because they weren't giving him a chance at the food and kept pushing him away.
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| Black buck |
We were thrilled by the huge number of hawks nesting in the trees (and noticed the very scant number of chipmunks!). In the hazy afternoon, the perching and circling hawks looked like a scene from Hitchcock's "Birds"! They were even game enough to tease the Indian Rhinoceros.
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| "Birds" |
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| Brown Hawk |
The huge 2700 kg Indian Rhinoceros was chasing hawks when we first spotted him. His tough old skin looked like a coat of armour and he could move!! Apparently they can reach speeds of 48 kms/hour. He finally retreated into his pond, did a large poo and then semi-submerged himself. He was magnificent!
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| Magnificent Indian Rhino |
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| Indian Rhino keeping away from the hawks |
The endangered Asiatic Lion was talking to its mate in the next enclosure and the Jaguar was also vocal. But what we HAD to see at this zoo was the Bengali Tiger and the White Tiger, and there they were! Goal achieved. Karl and I had seen white tigers in Las Vegas some years back and we wanted the kids to see them, too. Well, actually, zoos bring out the "kid" in most of us and we were keen to see one again! The other cat we had never seen was a jungle cat which Tim described as a tabby on steroids. He was sleeping as cats tend to do in the afternoon sun. The cevits were napping as well.
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| Bengali tiger |
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| Jaguar |
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| White tiger | | | | |
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| Cevit |
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| Jungle Cat |
The reptiles were all hibernating, fair enough, as it is winter and the jackal was pacing. He was much smaller than I imagined a jackal would be. The gharials were sunning themselves. We finally discovered that the monkeys that we see around the place are Common Macaques.
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| Gharial |
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| Wary Jackal |
It would have been easy to miss the Great Indian Hornbill who was set on destroying the wood parts of his enclosure. He was very entertaining and hopped about on his feather fluffy "pyjama" legs. He was huge and probably doesn't fly much other than up into trees. He reminded me of a large toucan. There are 4 species of hornbills.
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| Loved the Great Indian Hornbill and his antics |
The other birds on display were lovely and we finally learned the name of the green parrot we see from time to time: Rose Ringed Parrot. There were pheasants and jungle fowl, macaws and owls and vultures, too. And a few game chipmunks and mice running through their enclosures hoping for a snack.
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| Rose-ringed Parrots |
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| Lovely gardens |
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| Elephant ride platform. |
It looks like the zoo offered elephant rides in the past as there is a stand for mounting the elephants. Today, the Asiatic Elephant just nodded her head in a very Indian way and smiled at us, and we remembered our wonderful morning in Bangkok patting and feeding her cousins.
Just outside the zoo is a great food court and we finally worked out the food ticket system and collected our feast. Indian Chow Mein, fried rice, dosa, lassi, chach (spicy lassi), vegetable burgers and kulfi to finish with. A feast!! We finally have our appetites back!
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| Spicy fried rice. |
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| Luke was a bit wary of the dosa! |
We took a tuk tuk back to Lajpat Nagar for 100 Rupee as we realised we were only about 6 kms away. Home before dark and happy with our day!
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| Tuk tukking along the ride, with the minutist of margins |
