Back to the Zoo Part III

Meerkats are some of my favorite animals at the St. Louis Zoo.

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They live in the "Children's Zoo,

along with my other favorites; Fennec Foxes, a Sand Cat and a Tree Kangaroo with his friend, the Echidna.

However, sometimes Meerkats are apparently quite camera shy.....

Finally, I almost got the Meerkat in the picture......









And after many tries that didn't work out, I photographed two of them playing by the side of their enclosure.....

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Of course, with the Meerkats being one of my favorites, you know that I have been watching Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet.

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Fennec Foxes are another favorite.

They look like little foxes but they have HUGE ears.

It is the smallest fox in the world, but it has the largest ears for its size. Since they live in the North African desert, the large ears help the foxes shed body heat. Just like elephants the blood circulates close to the bare surface of the ears and the foxes are cooled that way.

They also sleep underground all day

and hunt at night when it is cooler.

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Next is the Sand Cat:

They live in the Saharan Desert and, like the Fennec Foxes, their ears are large to dispel the heat of the desert.

This picture of the Sand Cat's face is from the St. Louis Zoo website.

I wanted to put it here

so everyone could see the cat's face -- it is so cute!!!

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Also in the Children's Zoo is a Tree Kangaroo:

Tree kangaroos live in thick, mountainous forests, where they have become well adapted to life in the trees. They can climb tree trunks like a cat because they have long, sharp claws on their front and hind feet.

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They also can jump like the kangaroos that we are all familiar with but Tree Kangaroos jump in the treetops. They can even jump down to the ground from up to 30 feet high in a tree all without getting hurt!

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The Echidnas are in the same area as the Tree Kangaroo.

The zookeeper that day told us that

the Tree Kangaroo really likes to sit in the tree and watch

the Echidnas walk around on the ground.

Other than watching, they are both solitary animals.

Echidnas are the only egg-bearing mammals in captivity.

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"Penguin and Puffin Coast"

is pretty cool inside.

In fact I believe that they said it was 45 degrees

but it was also very smelly!!!

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This is the outside of their Zoo habitat.

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Well, now it's time to head out of the zoo.....

Back to civilization!!!!!