Riverbanks Zoo

Last weekend, Jen and I were in Columbia again for a variety of reasons.  For starters, two of Jen's friends were getting married so I got to tag along as her +1 for that.  It also happened to be the South Carolina/Clemson baseball weekend series, but that's an entirely different post.  The wedding was on Saturday at 5, so we had some time to kill during the day and decided to head over to the Riverbanks Zoo and check things out.  We're both Association of Zoos and Aquariums members, so we got in free (after confusing the girl in the entrance booth, who had no idea what the AZA was). 

Statue at the entrance of Riverbanks Zoo.

I'd visited Riverbanks Zoo once before on a previous trip to SC, but we basically just buzzed through it, so I was excited to go back.  And I mean, it's a zoo...and I don't get my animal fix everyday anymore, so I was like a kid in a candy shop.  And Jen was more excited than I was to go to the zoo, which is saying a lot.  Did I mention that she's perfect for me? :)

Jen volunteered at Riverbanks when she was in college and worked with the fish and animals in the aquarium, so she was excited to see all of her old exhibits and show me her old stomping grounds.

A keeper cleaning the tree kangaroo exhibit while being supervised.

Probably the coolest/cutest thing we saw was a keeper cleaning the tree kangaroo exhibit and the tree kangaroo watching her intently.  The tree kangaroo watched the keeper's every move like a hawk and seemed genuinely interested in how things were going. 

Jen on the carousel (riding a panda of course)

We decided that we weren't too "big" to ride the carousel and hopped on.  It looked like it was made by the same company as the Binda Conservation Carousel at Binder Park Zoo, though I'm sure that the one at BPZ is newer. 

Lion at Riverbanks Zoo.

I just recently got a new Droid X phone and I'm still learning how to use it.  It has an 8 megapixel camera which I used to take all of these pictures.  When we got to the Lion exhibit, it was a mote style exhibit so they lions were too far away to get a good shot with my phone...until Jen pointed out that I could use the zoom.  I told her that it didn't have one, which I really didn't think it did.  After a minute of playing with it, I found the zoom and had to admit, not for the first time and definitely not the last, that she was right and I was...incorrect.

They had a lorikeet feeding area, which was a lot of fun.  You get a cup of nectar and the birds will come land on your hand and stick their face into the cup and drink the nectar.  I'm usually not a big bird fan but I love any kind of interactive experience with animals.  

It was cool to see the different personalities that each bird had.  The more aggressive ones would fly up and land directly on your hand once you walked in the door while some of the slower ones would come up and land on your shoulder or your arm and wait their turn.  Lorikeets are very pretty birds and make for some great photo ops.  Kudos to Riverbanks Zoo for putting together a solid exhibit and guest experience!

This guy wanted every last drop.