August 6th - Ueno Zoo - Ecosystems

Ueno Zoo is such an amzing zoo and is thte oldest zoo in Japan dating all the way back to 1882 when it was built. Ueno zoo is pretty big with a size of 35 acres and a monorail inside of the zoo to get from the east side to the west side of the zoo or vice versa. The Ueno zoo holds a total of about 2600 animals in which 464 of them are all different species which is an insane amount of animals to hold in a zoo in which we got lucky enough to go inside and actually see these animals. The main animal we saw and the main animal of the zoo was the Giant Panda. The Giant Panda has an exhibit which has a theme of Chinese Bamboo to give it that natural feel as if the panda was actually in its natural habitat. All the exhibits we saw had some type of theme to it to make it more realistic for the visitors and for the animals themselves. When we went to go see the Gorilla exhibit we realized that the theme for this exhibit was a Jungle theme with large trees for the Gorilla to climb and alot of space for the gorilla to move around in. Watching the gorilla was amazing seeing how it moved about and how closely related it is to humans having fingers and toes and how we were like the gorilla way back in time when we shared a common ancestor. Watching the Giant Panda was also amazing even though the panda isnt much of an active animal it is still a marvelous sight to behold because it just looks so nice and just seems like a really chill creature just sitting around and eating all day and when the panda actually did become active it is one of the best things you will ever see because seeing such a giant creature move is very interesting to see how its able to get its big body around and the activities it can do with such a massive body. After we watched all the animals we decided to ride the monorail back to the exit because it is a much quicker way of transportation in the zoo and we were able to see more animals on our way to the exit. As we were leaving we met a Japanese man telling us to come visit again sometime for they are always improving the zoo and next time we go he can help us around easier and give us an even more enjoyable time in the zoo. If we ever decide to come back to Japan visiting the Ueno zoo will be defiantly be on my go to list and im sure my group members would agree with me also (especially Kush who enjoyed the Giant Panda and how fluffy it was).