Monkeys at the zoo

As the American humourist Evan Esar once wrote "Zoo: An Excellent place to study the habits of human beings". With this in mind we took Luca on his first visit to a zoo, in sunny Edinburgh. What would the experience reveal about him? Read on.

30 miles into our journey South came the protracted and windy climb over the Fettercairn mountains. Of course we felt it necessary to subject Luca to the gruesome blustery winds upon reaching the top. I took three photo's here, and the above is the only one without our toddlers understandably grizzly glare.

Here's the first picture taken after entry to the zoo. He looks like he's auditioning for a Colgate advert.

Keen to impress upon his parents his ever burgeoning sense of adventure, here he daringly climbs a rope bridge which hung precariously almost 18 inches from the (soft, woodchipped) ground.

Yes, of course he froze! Here's his Mummy being forced to rescue him.

That's the laugh of an embarrassed parent....

"I was brave Daddy!". Errrm, no you weren't

Which is more prevalent to call attention to? The curious monkey behind the glass with the wonky tail or the curious monkey in front of it with his almost mullet-esque haircut?

Chimpanzee! Luca loved this, as every time he touched the glass the chimp kissed it! He bounced 3 foot backward in a single bound when it first occurred.

"Daddy, what's that brown stuff covering the inside of the glass?" Errrmmm......Yes, the cliche is true, they really do spend their days hurling their own poo at you.

We drive a 300 mile round trip to take him for his first visit to a zoo and his favourite bit is the ruddy climbing frames......

The penguin parade marched within inches of our toes as Luca held his breath.

I have no zoom on my camera phone, I really was within touching distance of this pygmy hippo. When it lay down it looked like the new pouffe we have in our living room.

He looks bold here doesn't he?

It didn't last. Although barely visible, he has a plastic cup filled with nectar in his hand. The bird hopped onto his wrist to feed, causing an almost cataclysmic panic attack. He screamed, tossing the cup as far as he could while simultaneously doing that weird steppy dance only spooked toddlers seem able to do.

We decided to go home shortly after, although still only arriving back at 9pm. Here he is flat out in bed shortly after. All together now - aawwwwww.......

**Useless fact of the day - Around 400 billion birds live on this planet with us**