Zoo @ Trivandrum - An evening stroll on a rainy day

The Zoo at capital city of Kerala, being the only one of its kind in the state, is regularly flocked by huge number of tourists, mostly school children as part of their school tour. The fact that exams are nearing and some intermittent showers were occuring means that the place will be less crowded. Decided to check out this place yet again, not only to enjoy the occupants but also to enjoy the stroll through the forest like ambience in the midst of the town.

As soon as we entered the place, clouds had invaded the sky and the ambience was set for a real wet stroll. The onus of welcoming visitors lies with this jet black Lion tailed Monkey, who does his job with elegance.

His immediate neighbour is a Rhesus monkey, whose name is associated with the Rh factor. This lady was very busy with some activity

She did not like our presence near her


Just opposite to the Rhesus home, stood a traditional building which housed the king Cobra.



This zoo is peculiar just because of the number of huge trees which has been housed inside, which itself is a sight to watch.

The downpour started soon, but it in no way dampened our spirits, but made us quite thrilled about the first time experience of enjoying the zoo in rain.

After two or three empty homes could spot this monkey with a long tail, enjoying the downpour from top of tree.

His next door neighbour was the bear's den and we were surprised to see that no one were outside. Normally 2 or 3 of these fellows will come near the fence and really entertains the crowd by their antiques. We could find one just inside their cave at a distance. Seems like they did not want to get wet.

The walk way inside is quite beautiful with the newly laid interlocking tiles on the sides adding to the attraction.

This route takes us to a small lake inside the zoo, which has been revamped recently and bird watchers keep this as a base for bird watching. Once upon a time this was the only place in Trivandrum where there used to be pedal boats. Hope to see them again soon here.

This rock captured my attention since it resembled a camel.

Some ten years back, this zoo was full of closed cages, but now all the cages has given way to large open spaces with a big trench between the walk way and the open space.The open space is linked with a cage by means of an underground tunnel. It is more good to see the animals walk around in the forest like ambience rather than them housed in a very small cages.

We skipped the section of cranes and some birds since we were walking at a very slow pace and at this pace we were sure not to cover everything

This emu was seen running for cover because of the rains

The newly built house for the one of the major attractions of the zoo, seemed deserted because the Giraffe which was doing duty here is no more.

Soon our nose were complaining about the smell being aired. Can you see some rocks in this pond.

These are not rocks, but the hippos trying to cool off.

Hippo's neighbour also seems to enjoy the pond, for it also never came out for about 5 minutes stay we had there

Rhino seemed to be sleeping inside the pond.

Rhino shares the home with elephants, but the elephants also were inside the cage which is at a good 200m away from the walk way

The ambience changed from big royal animals to small graceful ones.

This seems to be the hugely populated section with lot of deers doing their business here

Some of them with very majestic horns stood out among the crowd



Next was the house of the beautiful deers, but all of them were already under the cover of tree .except this one



The intensity of the rains kept on increasing, but this bison's majestic posture does not seem to have any effect on the rains.



Black and white strips were on display as we approached the enclosure of Zebra. This fellow was standing still.

The intensity of rains just kept increasing and light also went down drastically and my photo capture had a premature stoppage because of bad light. We visited the cages of Lion king and tiger both of whom were relaxing in their cages rather than the open area outside.

I had to take the camera out again for one snap.



Is there any record for the maximum number of people under least space.

We walked past a few birds and some more types of deer etc, when we saw a newly constructed Reptile House. Ventured inside and the first thing we noticed was a beautiful white Chick enjoying its time with the kids outside the cage.

But what is a chick doing inside the reptile house. A closer look at the top of the tree near the cock revealed the presence of a monstrous creature.


One more was present beneath the tree

For a moment a sympathy wave swept through, about the beautiful little white hen, whose fate is almost decided. It is waiting for the sentence he earned for not violating any rules, but because of the rules of the eco system. He has been in the cage for the last two days, but the two big pythons have not yet attacked the little creature. May be, they also are sad about the fate of this one or are they not interested in catching a cornered animal? The chick was walking around the tree with little knowledge about the danger lurking above.

Some kind of sadness swept through me, but we kept on walking through this reptile house.


The word "neat" pretty much sums up how the area is maintained. The glass cages resembles watching the reptiles on TV.



The next cage was shared by some tortoises and a water snake



This fellow seems to have entered into a deadlock. Wonder how it will unlock itself.


Our stay in the reptile house was quickly halted by the intervention of security personnel, who came and informed about the time of closure of the zoo and we were supposed to be out of the zoo soon.

We made a quick exit from the zoo and after our session of customary ice creams from the milma counter inside museum we left the place almost wet eventhough we had enough protective gear against the rains.