Corbin's "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer" # 5

San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park located in the San Pasqual Valley in San Diego, California makes Corbin's "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer" at #5. This 1,800 acre park is home to thousands of endangered and threatened species. Here I am feeding an endangered Indian Rhinoceros!

Look at this breathtaking view of the park's African Savannah! If you look closely you can see a Photo Caravan Safari. These behind-the-scenes tours get you up-close and personal with the park's African and Asian animals. My pick would be the Asian Caravan (You get to feed the rhinos)!

What I love about the Wild Animal Park is that they are HUGE on using Animal Ambassadors. Throughout the day you will have a chance to meet cheetahs, kangaroos, an alligator, python...you name it!!! How neat!

Woohoo! Check out this beautiful Ornate Nile Monitor from Central Africa! You can tell the difference between the Ornate and the Common Niles by their strips and the color of their tongues: Ornates have pink tongues, Commons have blue tongues.

You have to love Indian Rhino lips! This was taken on an Asian Caravan Tour. What a sweet girl. Unfortunately these Indian Rhinos are disappearing in the wild due to poaching and habitat loss. The Wild Animal Park has the most successful rhino breeding program in the world.

Corbin's "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer" # 6

Sea World San Antonio located in San Antonio, Texas makes my list at #6 for Corbin's "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer." It’s the world's largest marine life park at 250 acres! This park is home to thousands of species of marine life including this gorgeous Beluga Whale who currently is kissing me! Belugas or White Whales can weigh up to 3,000 pounds!

Of course you all know this face as Shamu! A little behind-the-scenes secret: Out of all the Seaworld Parks there is not one Killer Whale they have named Shamu. It's just  a stage name! The original Shamu died in the early 60's. These magnificent, intelligent, and inquisitive marine mammals live in all of our oceans. They are the ocean's top predators having no natural threats except humans. When I was there, Seaworld San Antonio had six of these whales. Their names were Una, Haylyn, Tuar, Kayla, Ky, and Kete.

Sea World San Antonio not only has animal attractions...they also host an array of roller coasters and water rides. Here I am riding the Steel Eel. It turned out to by my favorite ride in the park (especially during the sunset). Can you see where I am? Back row LEFT! I have never been able to take good roller coaster photos!!!!

This is Ky and me. Ky is a Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin located behind-the-scenes in Animal Care. He is a famous dolphin, making appearances in Jaws 3! Here I am feeding him a smelt (fish). When I did my career internship here, we had to be at the fish house EARLY in the morning to make buckets for all the parks' animals.

Corbin's "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer" #7

The Bronx Zoo located in The Bronx borough of New York City places number 7 on my "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer." It is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States at 265 acres. 2 million people a year pass through its gates to view some 4,000 animals!

This Amur Tiger calls "Tiger River" home. This large, naturalistic habitat is one of the world's finest tiger exhibits. It's so naturalistic, that you often forget you are in the Bronx! This young male was leaning right up against the glass. Not pictured is the tigers' large pool (complete with underwater viewing)!

This picture was taken inside the 6.5 acre exhibit called "Congo Gorilla Forest." This exhibit is truly the most naturalistic, visually stunning exhibit I have EVER seen. It's home to troops of Western Lowland Gorillas, monkeys, reptiles, and tropical birds.

Can you believe that this is in the Bronx? I was so shocked to see how beautiful the Bronx River was during our ride on the Asian Monorail. The zoo itself is so LARGE that I didn't even get to see half of it! I'm looking forward to visiting this zoo soon in the near future!!!

Happy Easter~

 southeasternoutdoors.com

Happy Easter everyone! We love celebrating Easter at the reserve with all of our animals...but in particular when I think of this holiday, I think of our three gorgeous emus! Their names are Cosmo, Ernie, and Napoleon. I have had these birds since I was 15 years old! Ernie laid eggs last winter (which confirmed to me it was a she). What's so unique is the male emu is the one who sits and protects the eggs. The female’s job is just to lay them. Cosmo our male was in charge of sitting on the eggs to incubate them. 

Their eggs are emerald green and chicks (pictured above) have strips!

Corbin's "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer" # 8

The Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon places #8 on my list of the "Top Ten Places You Should Visit This Summer." This amazing little aquarium is constantly ranked top in the nation. I'm a HUGE fan of the Oregon Coast and love the aquarium because ALL the marine animals there (except the otters) are from the Oregon Coast.

These are the stars of the aquarium: three female Sea Otters!!!! The Oregon Coast Aquarium has an amazing exhibit for these large otters complete with rocks, deep water, and (for the public) underwater viewing. Unfortunately these otters are in serious trouble out in the wild. Pollution and hunting are the main factors hurting this species.

The aquarium is HUGE on hands-on interactions. This is a picture of their large tide pool where guests can spend as much time as they want touching and interacting with marine life. My favorite: the sea anemones! They are the green squishy looking things (In this pic they are all closed up).

This is the Octomom...I mean Octopus (opps). These have to be one of my favorite marine creatures.