The Artis Zoo and Micropia

The Zoo
Another metro bus trip and we were there. I think B covered this zoo a couple of times while my buddy and I were taking things a little more slowly. One of the highlights of the zoo was the huge numbers of volunteer grey herons and other birds.

They are all over the place. The zoo has many small water areas and is indeed a zoological garden. In addition to the 700 animal species, the grounds have 200 species of trees, many of which are on the verge of extinction.

Isn't this guy adorable? It's called a common gundi and is native to the semi-deserts of North Africa.

Lemur Land was amazing, perhaps not for the red ruffed lemurs themselves, but the fact that the lemurs are free range. They are free range but seem to stay put in this one area. I did notice one staff member in the area but my mind raced towards teenagers or "bad" adults trying to grab a lemur. Perhaps the teeth would be a deterrent? There were great photo ops especially in the morning when the lemurs were all sunning themselves.

Watusi cow ( African native) was very impressive.

An Egyptian goose and her family! So adorable!

The African Savannah.

And the reptiles were a treat as usual.

Micropia
Next door to the Artis Zoo was the Micropia. This is the first museum about microbes in the world. Really, really interesting. They have artificial (models) of things, but much of the exhibits are live critters and cultures. For me perhaps the best part was the display of glass sculptures of a few microbes. They are gorgeous. Here's Micropia's website: http://www.micropia.nl/en/ . Do visit the site for tons of interesting stuff! Be sure to click on the "menu" on the right to explore.

The common cold

Human Immunodeficiency virus

T4-Bacteriophage