Do you know what this animal is?
That is a Capybara. And would you believe it if I said that this creature is a rodent? Well, that is exactly what it is. The Capybara is also the largest rodent on the face of the earth. A board at Happy Hollow Zoo said the Capybara is found in the northeastern parts of South America.
This is what I loved about the Happy Hollow Zoo; they may not have a whole lot of animals like other zoos, but what they have here are some exotic animals. And so a trip to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo is definitely different from going to just about any regular zoo.
Another animal that I saw for the first time was this:
This is a Fossa. Fossas, I learnt, are found in the forests of Madasgascar. This animal from the far south of the African continent lives on lemurs, insects and birds. It apparently eats snakes too. That must make it a relative of the mangoose, only that the Fossa looks partly like a fox and partly like a member of the cat family.
Talking of the cat family, we also saw this beautiful sight – a simply-beautiful spotted jaguar. What a beauty!
The other animals that get a lot of attention here are the meerkats and the monkeys.
The first time saw a Meerkat was when I visited the Oakland Zoo. (Read Oakland’s Little Africa )
These small animals that can stand on their hind legs for a long time look like curious and attentive animals. If you want to watch a group of Meerkats, Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose is the place.
 |
| Spot the Meerkat |
 |
| Red Ruffed Monkey |
 |
| Black and White Ruffed Monkey |
 |
| Squirrel Monkey |
This is not all, dear reader. There’s more. Just visit Happy Hollow Park and Zoo and you will see why this is a different kind of zoo. Then there’s the park area with a whole lot of rides and there is the barn and petting area which little kids will absolutely love.
I recommend Happy Hollow Park and Zoo once again. 🙂
You might want to visit: San Jose’s Happy Land
Happy Halloween at Happy Hollow
Wonderful zoo indeed
They don't have very many animals here but the ones they do are the kind we aren't too familiar with.
..nice clicks of strange animals!
Thank you, Amit. This is an old post that was almost forgotten. I'd been to the zoo again and thought I should pull it out and share these pictures with Indibloggers. 🙂
wowww…… amazing..!!!!
Hey Sahi, welcome here. It was the first time I was seeing most of these animals. It WAS amazing. 🙂
Interesting pictures!
Interesting animals, they were. 🙂
Thank you Abhinav.
Very rare animals.
Yeah Rajesh, these are ones that we are not used to seeing, right? Most of these animals are found in South America and Africa.
Nice snaps…never heard of these animals. Thanks for sharing
It is such a pleasure, Ramesh. Glad you like the post. 🙂
Why, I'd never set eyes on some of them! Great shots those, DN.
It was my first time too when I visited this zoo for the first time. I was also fascinated by a miniature fox I saw there. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of it.
Thanks USP. 🙂
Like Umashankar, I hadn't seen them before either. What fun!
Interesting, right? I wish I could show you guys a picture of that fox too.
We are blessed with so much of exotic beauty around and someone like you passionately bringing this right before us! Thank you Divya:)
Thank you so much, Mr. Bhatia. It's so heartwarming to hear that you like this blog. It keeps me going. Thank YOU. 🙂
Amazing, I haven't heard about so many of them! The distinct characteristic of the Meerkat must have made them so much fun to watch, isn't it? Loved my tour of the zoo, keep sharing 🙂
Oh, the meerkat is so adorable, Arti. They keep turning their heads and looking left and right; they look like they're always on the watch-out. They're almost always camouflaged with their surroundings, I don't think they have to been so concerned. 🙂 Gosh, they're so cute to watch.
I really get excited seeing the carnivores… Even in a zoo! Nice shots of a lovely place. I remember how excited my on got when we visited the petting zone.
The zoo is one place where we don't have to be so scared of them (only until you see those videos of things gone wrong on Animal Planet, tho') I love the idea of petting zoos and petting farms where these city kids get to familiarise themselves with farm animals.
[…] little one had a great time doing the rides, watching kids play and seeing the exotic animals in the Happy Hollow zoo. And I just felt happy being there. (Mommyhood really is like Revisiting […]
[…] check out: San Jose’s Happy Land Exotic animals of Happy Hollow Zoo HHPZ’s official site – here […]