After our exciting Eagle experience, we resumed our travels to our original destination of the Hattiesburg Zoo. This little (and yes, it's little) zoo has been in existence for only 50 years. Situated on only 12 acres, it's really quite small but has beautiful exhibits! The animals look healthy and were all very active on this cool December afternoon.
When we first arrived, the children begged to ride the train. Well, what's a visit to the zoo without a train ride, huh? So, we caved and paid the $2 per person per ride fee. The zoo admission was cheaper!!! Only $2 for adults, $1 for children ages 4 - 12, and free for children under 3.
It only took us one hour to walk around and look at all the available exhibits. The winter decorations were still hanging around. Be sure to check out the beautiful playground at Kamper Park just next door to the zoo.
The very beautiful and active Siberian Tiger.
An unusual prairie dog.
Oh, look! Real prairie dogs!
A Gibbon of some sort. This animal actually "talked" to observers. Okay, so it was a gutteral growl but still....he communicated!
The kiddos!
This is the newest zoo resident, Jaguar. My sister and I kept trying to get a really good picture of him while he paced back and forth along the chain link fence. When he approached the end where my sister was standing, he began to make the turn for a return pass but stopped. My sister was so intent on looking through her camera view finder that she never expected what happened next.
Jaguar aimed his hind end right at her and sprayed her!! It was absolutely hilarious! Since the Jaguar is a very territorial animal, we decided that perhaps she had invaded his personal space, and he just didn't like it....
...either that, or he didn't care for that Fightin' Tigers shirt she's wearing!!
My camera was in still shot mode and I have no pictures or video of this spraying event!!! All I can do is hope that she'll forget the incident and I can return to the zoo with her for a repeat experience for which I will be prepared to catch on video!!! LOL
