A Zoo in Bahrain

We are spoiled in the United States with our zoos and the animals that are available to us in general. We went to the zoo here in Bahrain and they had many animals that I've never seen in a zoo; this is because, in this part of the world, these animals are not common and the only way people see them is in the zoo. So we saw animals like chickens, turkeys, horses, cows, goats, parrots, monkeys, different kinds of deer, and even some breeds of dogs that are not common to the area. Remember this is a desert, think of the Sahara and it's lack of milk cows ;) Bahrain isn't a ton different climate wise.

If I went to a zoo such as this in the US I confess I would probably think it's pretty lame. But given the circumstances, and that people around here don't keep many pets and many have never seen a chicken other than in pictures, it's a pretty decent little zoo for Bahrain. There were a couple things that made this trip to the zoo extra fun. First, the owner of the zoo came out and got the parrot out of his cage and let us each, even the kids, hold him. Or rather, he let the parrot perch himself on each of us ;) Ameilya loved this and was so excited to get to hold the parrot. And at the end of our visit, another zoo worker came out and let us hold the parrot for a second time! The second thing that was really fun was the pony ride. For a small fee, the girls were each allowed to ride the small pony around the enclosure with the help of the trainer. This made both of these little girls' day! It was definitely the highlight of our time at the zoo. Lastly, something that I thought was really neat was the teeny tiny baby monkey that was hanging on its momma. It was so funny to see this little monkey's behavior, he acted just like my kids!!! He would run up to his mom and climb up on her, she would pull him off and say something cross sounding, he would throw a little fit, crying and screaming in his own little way and run after him mom as she tried to get away from him and he would and climb back up on her back and then the whole process would start over. It was the funniest thing to see that the struggles of parenting are so universal, that even monkey moms need time without their littles hanging on them and that even baby monkeys throw tantrums. Hilarious if you ask me!!