Night in the zoo

My parents recently very generously bought me a surprise treat, beforehand all I was told was a date to be at their house. That night my boyfriend and I were handed a bag each, inside were a torch and an animal 'onesie' and told to guess what the treat was ........ a night in a zoo! 

 We arrived at Whipsnade Zoo early evening just as the zoo was closing to beautiful views over the Chilterns.

We were then shown to the super cute pods that were to serve as bedrooms for the night and to meet our neighbours the reindeers and the rhino

 We then were taken on a trip around the zoo and were lucky enough to feed the bongos (shown below and no I had no idea what one was before we got there! and the elephants, as well as visiting the meerkats, lazy lions and super cute baby cheetahs (I can hear you ahhhing from here!)

 After our evening meal we were led back to our pods by torchlight to see just how different the zoo is at night, the first stop and one of my favourites was the flamingos but we also went back to see the lions as well as wolves. The second picture, although hard to see is Spike the leader of the lion pride but I think in this pose he just looks like a lazy dog.

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 We woke early to go and help give breakfast to some of the animals before the zoo opened, we fed wild boars, bears, wolverines and naughty chimps.
 

 You are then allowed to spend the rest of the day in the zoo and thought I would show you a super cute baby pygmy hippo.

 images courtesy of M Armstrong 2012

I can honestly say it was one of the most magical experiences of my life and can't recommend it enough.