For our last day, we went to Zoobic Safari. I’ve heard about it and wanted to visit it for the longest time. I was a bit disappointed that Zoobic was not initially in the list of the places we’d go to. I had to haggle with Riel to insert it in our agenda, but he was non-commital. There were scheduled shows like the high jump, sea lion, and dolphin shows but our schedule/priorities just couldn’t accommodate them.
So on the day that we’re going home, I was happy that Riel granted my request (hidden meaning: I had to fight for it). They say that Zoobic Safari is the only tiger safari in the Philippines. Well, my first encounter with their tigers was actually thrilling.
See the blurred photo above? We were at the main entrance lobby and I saw this tiger at the far end. I knelt down to take its photo on eye level, zooming my lens. The extending lens might have intimidated the tiger that it growled at me. I jolted (thus the camera shake) and shrieked in sudden fright. I noticed the people in the lobby were staring at me, wondering what I did that agitated the tiger. Embarrassed, I looked for a scapegoat and found Marco. I turned to him and asked him in accusing tone, “Marco! What did you do?” Poor Marco, he was clueless (or so I thought). “I didn’t do anything. I saw you taking his picture and it got afraid, diba?” Well, as Riel says, I didn’t get the “Blaming Bern” title for nothing.
Anyway, what I like about Zoobic is that there is a tour guide, and every stop or activity is planned. The first part is a walk thru at the zoobic park and rodent world.
Oh, the alpha male. Our guide said that male lions like to sleep all day and wait to be served and fed while the lioness do the hunting. The main job of the male lion is to protect his pride, ward off any intruding male lion that tries to take his harem away from him. Then I heard Riel saying, “Oh, I like to be a lion.”
I failed to get the name of this bird but an interesting story is that after the female bird lays the eggs, it is the male bird that sits and warms the eggs. The female bird roams freely and ready to mate again. Then I heard Riel exclaimed, “Oh, I’m glad I’m not a bird! I don’t like to be a bird.”
Further down the path are the camels. Our guide told us to gather dried leaves so we can feed the camels.
Nearing the end of the walk thru park was a petting section for baby goats.
What the??? I recognize those milk cartons. The zookeeper is filling the goat milk bottles with fresh cow’s milk! These humans…. they like confusing the animal kingdom, don’t they?
Our next stop was at the Serpentarium.
Then, the much awaited Tiger Safari ride.
The guide told us that tigers don’t have collarbones, allowing their heads to fit through small openings. Our jeep has a small window grill opening where you stick out the dressed chicken to feed them. I can just imagine how terrifying that could be (at least for me).
Then we headed to the Tiger Close Encounter.
Next to Tiger Close Encounter were the following stops:
Then our last stop was the Croco Loco.
So I offered help to Raf. I wanted to show him how it is done. I swung the meat in front of these reptiles but they were ignoring me. Then I found this open-mouthed croc. That would be easy. I dangled the meat in front of him. Still, I was ignored. Impatient, I dangled the meat closer and actually poked it on his snout. Then the croc snapped! Then I began squeaking. My boys were laughing at me but deep inside, I know they’re ready to disown me and I wasn’t ready to go home on foot. I’ve caused them enough embarrassment for the day. Watch the video below:
That ends our trip.
