Taipei Zoo

This week was the week of Tomb-Sweeping Day, the holiday when Chinese people return to their hometowns to clean the tombs of their ancestors and make offerings to them. We got the Thursday and Friday off, which came as a much-needed break, for we returned to school this week, and being physically present turns out to be much more mentally taxing than studying from home.

It was supposed to be rainy all week – and indeed, for the most part it was – so I decided I would stay in Taipei. Even though the number of coronavirus cases is not rising here in Taiwan nearly as quickly as it is in the rest of the world, I also thought it better not to travel much during this time. I did, however make an excursion to Taipei Zoo on Thursday morning, when the rain had subsided and the sun had come out. There were very few people at the zoo owing to the capricious weather, and many of the animals were hiding away, but as the day became brighter, more came out. It was time well-spent.


 A beautiful wistaria, like the ones that will begin to bloom back home soon
 Greater flamingo
 Two formosan wild boars hiding from the rain
 Collared scops owl
 Formosan rock macaque, familiar from my trip to Gaoxiong
 A Formosan Reeves' Muntjac making a silly face in the grass
 A koala and her baby
 The same koala eating
 Resting giant panda
 Capybara
 Malayan tapir
 Two toucans
 Blue-tailed bee-eater
 Orangutan baby
 Asian elephant
 Great hornbill
 Orchid
 Bactrian camel
 Chapman's zebras
 Common eland
 Lioness
 Bongo
 Arabian tahr kid
 Arabian tahr male
 Hyena
 Red-crowned crane
 Poison dart frog
 Green iguana sunning on a tree
Irises
 Irises
 Amaryllis
 Giant panda
 More orchids
 Formosan Reeve's muntjac
Formosan sambar

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