Kenny and Karen: Tulsa Zoo and The Sequoyah Wildlife Refuge

For our last day in Tulsa we decided we couldn't leave without seeing the zoo. We kind of have a thing for zoos and animals *laughs*

It was a little chilly outside (note the bundled up layers) and we got to the zoo right as it was opening. We were amazed that we basically had the entire zoo to ourselves, minus the zoo keepers of course. It was nice to enjoy peace and quiet and get to see all sorts of cute animals.

The first place we stopped was to see the elephants. The Oklahoma City zoo elephants are on loan here in Tulsa while their habitat is being renovated. I also heard that a brand new baby elephant is on the way who will join his mother in Oklahoma City, yay!

The elephants were pretty busy keeping warm, but I had fun operating this remote control elephant trunk!

Next we ventured over to the chimpanzee area. They're always a hoot and a half. These were especially frisky considering there were two little fellas! I think this was a big brother rough housing with one of the babies. They would just frolic all over and wrestle and tickle it was hilarious fun!

Look at this little guy, so busy working with a piece of grass.

At one point a noisy airplane flew overhead and startled the little darling..

He jumped up from playing and ran straight to his mother, placing his hand on her shoulder as if to ask "what in the world was that!?!"

She just cradled him and stroked his hair and told him that everything would be okay.

Next we happened across a red metal frame work that demonstrated a chimp's proportions, so you know I had to try it out...

Hmmmm, I think I have a little too much be-hind back there *laughs*

There were several pretty white cranes walking around beside a lake, preening their feathers and gossiping. I think they were talking about my be-hind!

There was a really fun rain forest area with all sorts of fish and birds and even some little monkeys jumping from tree to tree. Just outside the entrance was an enormous carving of a head. He looked a little blue so I gave him a smooch to cheer him up *grins*

Since we were the only one's around we had a fun time playing with the cut out signs...

It might have been a little harder to convince Kenny to be the adorable little gazelle that he is if there were hoards of people spying us out *laughs* Look at his cute ears!

We saw these two cutsie deers. I can't remember what they were called, but they kind of look like a cross between an anteater and a deer and a chihuahua (very tiny)

This Rhino was busy eating until he realised we were taking his picture. He decided he would have none of that. Then, stomping the ground and giving a little growl he charged over right towards us!

I was pretty thankful for that fence, I can't imagine having one of these giants coming at you in the wild! Pretty scary!

After one more stop to watch those little chimpanzees we decided to leave the zoo and head South, about an hour, to the Sequoyah Wildlife Refuge. Kenny has been reading up about local wildlife refuges and it sounded like this one mostly had birds, but we decided to go ahead and check it out while we were so close.

On the way there I was keeping my eyes glued to the tree line watching for any birds and especially for bald eagles. The books that Kenny has been reading said that there were bald eagles in this area. Do you know what!?! I spied two, side by side, just off the highway, way up in the trees! We were so excited! We were driving so fast (highway speed) that we couldn't whip the camera out in time, but you better believe there were some high fives going on! *grins*

We arrived and drove around the loop which surrounds the refuge. It isn't a very big place, but there are a few small lakes and some great places for birds to roost and catch fish. Being so cold there weren't a ton of birds, but we mostly just wanted to scout it out for future spring or fall trips.

We did see a couple of these pretty hawks lazing around, making loops in the sky. We ended our visit by doing the short mile hike and quickly heard a scuffling scratching sound coming from the ground. I was eerily cautious thinking it could be a mountain lion, but crept on and discovered this...

A cute little armadillo, and boy was he ever busy digging and rustling in the leaves and dirt. There must have been some glorious grub worms that he was slurping up! We walked right up withing two feet of him and he never even looked up or noticed that we were there. How funny!

We finished off the hike by crossing over this pretty little suspension bridge. It shook every time you took a step, but that's what made it fun *winks* The floor of it was a grate like pattern so you could see right through to the lake below!