What's new at the zoo?

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. R.J. Biermann
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  The excitement of taking a trip to the zoo transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. Despite living overseas, my family and I recently embarked on a trip to see the lions, tigers and ... lemurs at Pastrengo's Parco Natura Viva, which sits just a few kilometers northwest of Verona.

If you schedule your trip with the 31st Force Support Squadron's Information, Tickets and Travel office you can continue your Saturday morning sleep-in during the two and a half hour drive.

When you arrive at the park, you can drive into and around the safari loop; or park and walk through the zoo. We drove around the rustic safari side first. This half of the park is home to zebras, ostriches, antelopes, giraffes, cheetahs, lions, hyenas, lemurs, hippopotamuses and red river hogs.

A giraffe even greeted us at the bus driver's window like a fast-food worker taking someone's order. That left a good majority of the children in attendance screaming in terror.

After the short 30-minute ride, the bus driver parked and we entered the zoo. Inside, we saw more lions, tigers, cheetahs, lemurs, and the like. We also saw several chimpanzees, meerkats, tortoises, macaws, monkeys, flamingos, bison, owls, deer, storks, pelicans and others.

Even Santa's reindeer live at this park. I have pictures to prove it.

When we visited the lion exhibit, a beautiful, white lioness was waiting at the glass window to greet us. Honestly, my faith in the glass waned; but my children got a kick out of her. I suppose she just wanted her picture taken.

As with any zoo trip there are always going to be the shy ones; but a good majority of the animals were feeling photogenic. Some tamarins in the greenhouse exhibit were holding an all-out wrestling match - lemurs throwing lemurs from tree branches and scurrying everywhere like squirrels. Five minutes of watching them was better than most pay-per-view fights I've seen.

Another great section of the park was the dinosaur exhibit. The section included dozens of life-size replicas of the Ichthyostega, Diplocaulus, Dicynodon, Iguanodon, Pteranodon, Troodon, Triceratops, Daspletosaurus, Megaloceros, Smilodon, and more. It was the first time I'd ever seen true-to-actual-size models of dinosaurs.

The only recommendation I'd make would be to wait until the rainy season passes before making your trip. Fortunately, most of the day was rain-free. After it started raining, we visited one of several snack shops for tasty, hot cappuccino and hot chocolate to warm us up.

To plan your own adventure or for more information, visit http://www.31fss.com/itt.shtml or www.parconaturaviva.it.