Tigrons and ligers and bears... Oh my!

On Saturday, we ventured out to the Shenzhen zoo with one of Brandon's Chinese collegues and his family. The weather was perfect and Lydia has had her heart set on personally viewing the famous Giant Panda. The zoo was quite large, which meant loads and loads of walking. But there was plenty to look at so the kids didn't complain too much.

Overall, I think our family would give the zoo a 6.1 / 10. For one, although the zoo is home to all the standard zoo fare (elephants, bears, camels, monkeys, etc)... the bird exhibits outnumbered the mammals 10 to 1. Maybe birds are cheap? Maybe Chinese just love birds. Monkeys were also quite plentiful and after awhile, they all kind of look the same.

Secondly, we went to the dolphin show. If you are ever in Shenzhen and are thinking about going to the dolphin show..... don't. At one point we did see 3 dolphins. They swam up to the edge of the pool. The rest of the show was filled with goofy Russian guys doing half-flip/dives off a high board while performing Stooge-like antics; Followed by a dance troupe of 10 Chinese girls dancing behind a sprinkler system; Concluded with the cursory acrobat in a hoop above the water. We have concluded that the "Dolphin Show" was actually a show FOR the dolphins.

Lastly, our zoo map touts the Shenzhen zoo as "the only wild zoo in the world which lives tiglons and ligers". We pushed our kids an extra 30 minutes for the opportunity to see these rare specimens. Just what could they be? Imagine our horror when we reached the exhibit and quickly got the message with this exhibit graphic:

Get it? Yikes! (Hint: lower left image). Now we know why this is the only zoo with such rare inhabitants. Granted, it was an extensive exhibit, but we have no proof that any tigron (or liger for that matter) is actually ...ahem... alive.

Thankfully this all went right over the kiddies' heads and all Lydia remembers is the baby elephant and silly monkey on "Long-armed Monkey Island Rock". Whew! Happy memories only.

Oh, and the giant panda? Not so giant. But Lydia still talks about him, so at least she got her panda fix.


I never knew baby elephants were so cute!


The infamous long-armed monkey, showing his stuff on Long-armed Monkey Island Rock.

"Doh. Does anyone know where to find a decent alpaca orthodontist? These teeth are really giving me trouble with the ladies..."