I first visited the North Carolina Zoo when my youngest child (now 24) was in a stroller, probably about three years old. This past summer we had the joy and privilege to go with our grandson on his first, but hopefully not last, trip to see the animals at the North Carolina Zoo.
Everything you need to know about the NC zoo you can find on its website, nczoo.org. It contains a lot of useful and interesting information!
The North Carolina Zoo is the world’s largest natural habitat zoo! Wow! It is huge, with over five miles of walking trails, so wear comfortable clothes. Even though we went in the summer, there were so many shaded areas, and we were quite comfortable in spite of the heat.
The zoo is divided into two areas: North America and Africa. It also contains a desert habitat and a free flight aviary. At this time you can only enter through the North America side.
Our favorite North American exhibit was the Red Wolves. Perhaps this is because we are huge Arkansas State University Red Wolf fans. Red Wolves used to be the apex predator in the southeastern part of the United States. However, they are now a critically endangered species. The NC Zoo has been instrumental in helping bring this species back to life. The wolf pups were so cute!!!
As I mentioned before, the zoo is huge! There is a nice food court between the two “continents” with a large variety of food choices with both indoor and outdoor seating.
Honestly, by the time we got to the Africa side, we were pretty worn out! But seeing the elephants, zebras, and ostriches was super cool. We just missed some of the other exhibits.
At the time we went, the Africa entrance was closed and it was a long way back to the North America parking lot. Fortunately there was a tram that took us back to that side of the zoo.
We had to check out the gift shop on out way out! This sweet boy seemed pretty happy with his choice.
Many thanks to Big Pop (Al) who did all of the video and pics at the zoo so we could enjoy everything else. He did a great job on our YouTube video. He loved it. Here’s the link:
