Grandma's Visit: Smithsonian National Zoo

We had been saving the National Zoo to do with Grandma, because we knew that would be a fun thing to do with her. The zoo did not disappoint!

 We saw an elephant training show that was really neat! Those elephants were so smart!
 Elias got a kick out of this interactive display about learning about an elephant's health by investigating its poop...

 The zoo had an orangutan baby born this year, and he was SOOOOO cute!!
They have a research project with the orangutans where they are studying their ability to learn. They have a touchscreen and are using rewards to try to teach the orangutan to touch the numbers in order. She's doing a great job! And the baby enjoyed getting his grape rewards without even having to do any work! :)



 Elias LOVED this water play area that was next to the sea lion exhibit!
 It was not a particularly hot day when we were there, but Elias still enjoyed the misters.
 He was all wet and sparkly from the mister!
One of the most famous things about this zoo is their panda breeding program. They have a breeding pair there right now, and one of their babies, who is almost grown now. The pandas require 24-hour monitoring, and so they have this cool control room with all the video monitors!
They suspect that their female panda may be expecting now, and so they have her part of the exhibit closed in order to prevent stress that may affect her pregnancy. However, we did get to see daddy panda enjoying his bamboo!


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