Lion Park with Jon

Jon came in on Thursday the 14th and we've been having a ball with him here! Over the weekend we went to the Lion Rhino Park, just an hour away from us. It's where Ben and I played with the baby lions and tigers before. Jon was super excited to wrestle with them.

Here is a link to the Picasa Album that has all the photos from the day, lots more there, but go to it after the post:

Lion Park

We got there an hour before they actually opened at 9am (a little eager)...and got to see all the animals up and lively. This was a huge 700 lb Tiger we had fun watching:

Love it when they yawn:


This was an UGLY pigme Hippo that was doing some good yawns for us too:


Then they finally let us in, we played with the 4 month old lions first. There were 8 of them, both white and brown lions:


They were so rowdy!


Their bites really hurt. (P.S. I gave myself bangs...it was raining that day, but what do you think?)




OUCH!


Ok so this story is hilarious. These birds are HIDEOUS. Look at the hair on the back of their head. Talk about ugly. So they're really scary looking right? When they'd come up to you, that beak looks like it'd pierce right through you!

So Ben was next to one that was looking at him and walking towards him slowly, so he asked the guy, "Hey are these birds dangerous?" And RIGHT THEN, this ugly bird raised both wings and CHARGED right at Ben! I wish I had a video of it. I can't even describe how funny it was. I'm laughing my head off right now. Ben immediately backed up really fast and ran into the electric fence! It gave him quite the shock, but his adrenaline was pumping so much, he was just hurting all over and didn't know what happened. This is after it happened, this is his 'embarrassed and shocked' face. Hilarious.


Then the 2 month old Tigers (this one looks a little...strange at the moment):


Love this picture of the little Tiger:


Then we got to pet the full-grown Cheetah named Eddie:


After the park, we went on a short game drive and found these amazing White Lions again. The white is supposed to be from a recessive gene or something. The 2 males wrestling:




Jon's goal was to see the Black Rhinos. But we drove all over and couldn't find any. On our way out, RIGHT by the exit, there they were. With a little baby! Adorable:


We had a great time. Jon wants to go back this week. Ben got a major scratch on his side, his ear, and a couple on his hands and arms. Jon got two on each bicep in the same spot and a couple on his bum:) We have some fun things planned this week and this weekend we're going to Pilanesberg. Should be fun! Stay tuned!