Buenos Aires Zoo

Lions and Tigers and Bears…

The Buenos Aires Zoo, or Jardin Zoológico is located in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires.  For us it is only a hop, skip, and a jump from our apartment in Palermo Viejo or about 10 blocks.  In fact, we walk by the zoo most days looking to catch a city bus or a subway ride.

The city location is pretty unique for zoo’s, but considering it was built almost 135 years ago it is better described as the city of Buenos Aires having built up around it.  It sits on 44 acres but feels much smaller and is easily walked in only a few hours.  We visited with Gigi on a weekday in Winter and their were a fair amount of people visiting, I would guess that it gets very crowded during warmer Spring and Summer months.

Patagonian Mara

I am not a big rodent fan, but these little guys were pretty cute.  The Patagonian Mara lives in Central and Southern Argentina and apparently in zoo’s, and usually inhabit the dry grasslands and scrub desert.   They live underground in burrows, and were docile and not afraid of humans…probably because all of the kiddies were giving them food.

If you click on the picture you can see more of the photos we took of the animals at the zoo.

One of the really cool things about this zoo is that you can feed the animals, everyone but the cats (lions and tigers) and the giraffe.  There are kiosks all through the park where you can purchase “approved food” for the animals and then lots of opportunities to feed all kinds of animals.  Besides being a lot of fun, giving the animals food means that you can get much closer to zoo animals than is the case in most zoo’s.

Feeding Elephant

The elephants were only a few feet away from us, picking up the food that kids were throwing over the fence.

Gigi Feeding Sheep

In some cases the animals would eat out of your hands.

Nutria Eating

Even this little guy, a Nutria that lived in the lake, would be your friend long enough to get a little food from you.  See his webbed foot?

Our favorite animal, and one that we had never seen before, was the Panda Rojo or Red Panda.  These little guys were awful cute.

Red Panda - Panda Rojo

Gigi wanted to take one home with her, and every other animal as well, but we did not think that the Panda would like living in her suitcase.

Gigi and Hello Kitty

We had a great time at the zoo and because it is so close to where we live in Buenos Aires we will probably go again.  Grant stayed home…he was too cool for the zoo, but after hearing what a great time Gigi had he wants to go and take a look at all of the animals for himself.

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