Santa Barbara Zoo

The Santa Barbara Zoo is one our most favourite zoos and we stop here at least once every time we're in the area. It's small but very well laid out and has a few animals that you don't often see elsewhere. We always buy a membership which allows us to enter an hour before the general public. It's so nice to view the animals without dodging around too many other people. However, we did spend three hours there so got a bit of both!

As you can see from most of these photos, I really like getting "facial" views of the animals rather than the whole animal. I think it's much more interesting sometimes. 

It was hard to get any decent photos of these very quick moving otters! Although by the time we left the zoo, they'd tired themselves out and were sleeping all huddled together in a corner. 

The penguins were also difficult to photo due to rapid movements! 

I love how the zoo tags all the penguins with their name. There used to be a penguin named "Lucky" who had a damaged foot. The shoe company Teva made a sandal for him so he could walk better. Sadly, it seems like Lucky is no longer around.

This poison dart frog was plastered to the glass of his habitat which I thought looked humorous. 

The wallabies are a new addition to the zoo and you could walk through the area they were in so it was much nicer and easier to take photos. They are in the area that the elephants used to be in as both elephants have died of old age.

Also new to the zoo since we'd last been there are two very cute foxes from the Channel Islands. They were rescued as babies after their mother had been killed.

It doesn't seem like very many zoos have condors but the Santa Barbara Zoo is well known for them. 

Meerkats . . . so funny looking! They make me laugh every time!

Guess who! 

So tired! :-)

Pretty colors!