I love a lot of things about the Kansas City zoo, but my favorite thing by far is the polar bear exhibit. I could stand for hours and watch Nikita, the zoo's 6-year-old male, swim laps or play with a big plastic barrel. I also freely admit to spending more time than I should watching the streaming video on the zoo's Polar Bear Cam! (Nikita is pacing along the edge of his pool as I write this blog entry...)
Recently, there has been more reason than ever to watch the Polar Bear Cam. In December, a 23-year-old female named Berlin* was moved from Minnesota to Kansas City to live with (and hopefully eventually LOVE with!) Nikita. After a quarantine and introduction period, she officially moved in to the polar bear exhibit on February 7. I was super excited to see both bears out and about, so we took advantage of the decent temperatures on Sunday and went to the zoo!
*Berlin is famous amongst polar bears for her great escape from the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, Minnesota. In June, 2012, the city received record amounts of rainfall, and the zoo flooded. Two harbor seals and Berlin swam out of their enclosures, but they were all returned safely to the zoo without any harm done.
One bear...
...two bears!
I loved watching the bears and could have stayed there all day. Sarah, on the other hand, was more interested in the polar bear statues and the automatic doors at the polar bear exhibit than she was in watching the bears. Look what she missed...
Eventually, we convinced Sarah that it wasn't her job to close the doors when people entered the polar bear exhibit. Relieved of her duties, she happily ran on down the road to Tiger Trail and the orangutan exhibit. One of the best reasons to visit the zoo in the winter is that the animals are more active. The tigers just kind of laid there...
...but the orangutans were busy playing! The orangutans outside were snacking and playing peek-a-boo with towels. The orangutans inside were swinging on their play equipment. The baby even high-fived Sarah through the glass!
After the orangutans, we rode the train and then hit the discovery barn. We checked out the progress on the new penguin exhibit, said hello to the deer, rode the carousel (twice!), pretended to be a polar bear, and "drove" the zoo jeep before heading home. What a nice little day at the zoo!
And just in case anyone was wondering, this little water fountain may well be my second favorite thing about the Kansas City Zoo...
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