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Edinburgh - Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo is a short bus ride from Princes Street. We arrived nice and early in order to maximise our animal-seeing time. Admittance is £16.50 for adults. There are plenty of animals to see, although sadly we didn’t get to see all of them! The orangutan enclosure was closed for medical reasons and the Sumatran tiger was hiding from us!
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Zebras
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Koala Bear
Edinburgh Zoo is the only zoo in the UK which plays host to koala bears and giant pandas. There are currently four koalas.
Hello Tian Tian
Hello Tian Tian
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Tian TIan with her bamboo
It was recently revealed in the news that Tian Tian is pregnant, so the zoo had warned that visitors might not be able to see her. However, Yang Guang will be encouraged to come out for regular feedings. For the pandas, you have to book a viewing slot. During our viewing slot (about 11am), Tian Tian was sat with her back to the visitors eating bamboo. She reached to the side table for more bamboo, nearly losing her balance in the process. Eventually, she walked over to the side table and laid down, greeting the visitors with a happy face…and eating more bamboo, of course.
Yang Guang, on the other hand, was sleeping in the mini shed. He was very well hidden and didn’t come out.
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Asiatic Lions
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Penguins enjoying the sun!
Other highlights include the Asiatic Lions and Penguin Rock.
I would advise buying your tickets online as the queues were quite long when we arrived. Another tip is to go later on in the day – when we walked around in the early morning, many of the animals were not visible yet (because they are sleeping?). You can see more animals from the early afternoon, and there are a lot to see here!

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