A day with all creatures great and small

As it was my birthday Him Indoors had organised a little surprise for me, and I was very happy to discover that we were going to Marwell Wildlife. Although we live very close to the zoo we stayed overnight at the hotel to be pampered with some nice food and drink, and so we could have a nice and early start the next day. However our timing was a bit off. As you may know we had a terrible storm in the south of the UK the night between Sunday and Monday, the worst one we've had for almost 30 years in fact, and as the rain and wind was raging outside I've never been so glad to sit nice, snug and safe in front of a warm fire, but we weren't sure that we would be able to go ahead with the visit next day. The storm lasted all night, but we woke up in the morning to beautiful blue skies, perfect to go out and do something fun, so we headed over to zoo, camera all ready for some happy photo snapping!

Despite the horrible weather the night before we were lucky that they had managed to clear away a lot of the debris both in the animal enclosures and on the paths of the zoo, so we did manage to get access eventually to most of the animals. The animals didn't seem effected at all by the previous night's weather and they were all out and about so we could get some fun photos - although some of them were clearly more willing models than others...

 
The highlight of the day was without a doubt to see the snow leopards, which was the main reason for the visit, and it was also kind of a theme since I had got two tops and some mittens with a snow leopard pattern for my birthday. Earlier this year there were three snow leopard cubs born at Marwell, which is a very rare thing. Unfortunately one of the cubs died unexpectedly, but the fact that two have survived is a really positive thing to try and secure the survival of the species (there are only between 4000 - 7000 left on the planet). I'm absolutely fascinated by the snow leopards - I love to go and see them, and I could spend hours just sitting next to them, observing - they're such incredible graceful, proud and elegant creatures. 

We had a wonderful day out, and I'm so glad we got to see the snow leopards in the end. If you're in the Hampshire area and you're looking for a nice place to visit, I recommend that you stop by Marwell for a great day outdoors and a chance to see some great and small animals.