Baton Rouge Zoo

Locate a few miles north of Baton Rouge, not far off I-110, is the Baton Rouge Zoo.

Walking though the entrance to the zoo, the first thing you see is a wooden bridge, and gates that reminded a bit of Jurassic Park. To the right of the entrance is the zoo's train, the Cypress Bayou Railroad, which takes you around the perimeter of the zoo. To the left of the entrance is where the zoo's gift shop is located.

The train ride is not to be missed. During the ride, the engineer (or driver) of the train gives a history of the zoo.  Depending on the engineer, this can be both very entertaining and informative.

After the train ride, we headed into the zoo, past a beautiful pond on the left.  My daughter liked seeing the brown pelicans and the turtles in this pond.  There was also a large number of migratory birds in this pond, which was pretty neat to see.

Just past the pond, we headed into the zoo's newest exhibit, the Realm of the Tiger.  The Baton Rouge Zoo has Malaysian and Sumatran tigers.  This exhibit was very impressive, and my daughter really enjoyed getting up close and personal (safely) with the tigers.  One of them even got in its pond, which my daughter absolutely loved.  Also in this exhibit is a koi pond, a family of Siamang Gibbons, and an aviary. 

My daughter's favorite animal had to come next...the elephant.  The Baton Rouge Zoo currently has two female Asian elephants.  As we learned on the train ride, elephants are especially important to this zoo, as it was started with two female Asian elephants.

We watched the elephant demonstration, where the keepers gave the girls their daily dose of exercise.  It, too, was very informative as well as entertaining.  We especially liked watching one of the elephants exercise her "ab muscles".  :-)

The Baton Rouge Zoo is not a large zoo, but the animals are not hard to find.  We saw white tail deer, bison, and elk before heading to the aquarium.  The aquarium houses only animals that are native to Louisiana, including fish, of course, but also venomous and non-venomous snakes and even a couple baby alligators and not far away, some river otters. 

Because of the zoo's size, we were able to see a large number of animals in a short time.  Even taking our time and stopping for snacks at the Flamingo Cafe, it didn't take long until we were in the children's area.  They have domestic farm animals, a few tortoises near a neat boardwalk, some Australian animals, including some adorable fruit bats, and my daughter's favorite, the prairie dog area, complete with a tunnel.  There is also a small petting zoo with goats and sheep.  The zoo provides brushes to use on the goats and sheep, and my daughter really enjoyed making use of the brushes. 

Near the entrance of the children's area, there is a small playground, that has equipment for toddlers and older children. 

All in all, the Baton Rouge Zoo was an enjoyable experience.  The zoo was pretty well shaded and not too hot when we went.  The zoo
offers a lot more than we experienced, but we had a lot of fun, and my little bit wasn't too tired when we left. www.brzoo.org