A Visit to Dublin Zoo.

Yesterday morning a very excited group of children along with Mums and Dads met at Sligo train station for our annual visit to the zoo!  The children had been looking forward and counting sleeps for days!  Both morning and afternoon classes were together. It was a glorious day and as the train pulled out of the station ,the children could hardly contain their excitement!

For many it was their first ever train journey and the magic of a moving train whilst looking out at the passing countryside on a beautiful May morning opened up a fabulous new world!  By the time we got to our first stop Collooney, picnics were been shared ! Parents chatted and children visited each other in different seats, playing little games and asking now and then “Are we nearly there yet”?   Surprisingly, the journey went very fast and the children enjoyed every minute of it!  All held tightly to parents hands as we arrived in Dublin and the next adventure was the taxis to the zoo!

On arrival all filed in the gate and immediately the sounds of different animals greeted us!  We could hear the distant call of the  chimps and monkeys and so the “best day ever “was really here.  Dublin is definitely one of the best zoos in the world and each year, as I  visit with the school group, I am amazed at the continual ongoing work including projects that better the lives of the animals there.   Over the years Dublin Zoo has created natural habitats for the animals whilst taking part in a world wide programme for breeding endangered animals and returning them to the wild.   I had already explained to the children that the zoo is not the real home of the animals but was a safe place where they can live for awhile!  The children are already familiar with many of the animals from different continents due to our project work;  but now we can really see them.

Wow!!  The childrens excitement was contagious!  Everything was new and wonderful and we were so lucky to see the elephants calf born only last Monday to the proud mother elephant Yasmin – so cute and maybe we ll think up a name for him!!  The gorillas were a great hit, lovely gentle giants whose home is been destroyed by us humans as we all contribute to the cutting of rain forest.  We picnicked, ambled along ,stopped and relaxed in lovely natural play areas and just had one great day!