Northern California zoos can make easy day trips

Last week I featured two of the best nearby zoos: our own Merced Zoo for local wildlife and the San Francisco Zoo for more exotic species, especially large mammals.

There are several other easy-to-visit locations to see wildlife up close.

The Oakland, Sacramento and Fresno zoos also have great varieties of wildlife and make easy day trips. Of these three, Fresno Chaffee Zoo is my top recommendation. It has a lot of impressive species, the entry fee is reasonable ($7 adults, $3.50 children and seniors), and it has a pleasant, family-friendly atmosphere.

Three of our favorite sights there – creatures you can’t see even in the San Francisco Zoo – are the wolves, orangutans and Asian elephants. Chaffee Zoo also has three really impressive aviaries, specializing in tropical and Australian birds. Feeding the giraffes is a memorable activity for kids of all ages. The new African Adventure area with lions, rhinos, cheetahs and meerkats will be opening in October.

Sea Lion Cove, the most recent major addition, is really fun. A large, below-ground viewing window makes it possible to see the sea lions face-to-face as they glide through their underwater home. They seem to like visitors.

Watching kids interact with them is even more fun than watching the sea lions by themselves. The excitement and joy experienced by children as they meet these playful creatures is shared by everyone who witnesses it. You’ll have a great time no matter what your age, and you’ll probably agree with me that “sea dogs” would have been a better name – they don’t roar, they bark and they can seem remarkably doglike.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is by far the best place to see aquatic life. It’s a world-class aquarium with sea otters, sharks, penguins and myriad fish from all types of ocean environments. “Touch pools” allow visitors to handle tide pool life and examine it at close range. Although admission is more expensive than the zoos (adults $39.95, children $24.95, students and seniors $34.95), it’s well worth the cost.

If you’re interested in big cats, Cat Haven specializes in providing a home for them and educating people about endangered cat species. They have Bengal tigers, lions, snow leopards, clouded leopards, amur leopards, jaguars, jaguarundi, lynxes, cheetahs, servals, and bobcats – all of which can be seen up close by visitors. Cat Haven is located on Highway 180 about 45 minutes east of Fresno near the town of Dunlap, and the price is reasonable: $10 adults, $7 children, $8.50 seniors.

The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park boasts the largest re-creation of an Amazonian rainforest in the world. Four stories tall, it has every level that a true rainforest would – from the ground up to the top of the canopy of trees and vines. A walkway spirals upward through the habitat zones, and it looks and feels just like a true rainforest – lush, green, filled with the cries of birds, hot and extremely humid. Part of the ground level is flooded (as is much of the Amazon) and you can walk beneath it through a glass tunnel to see all of the aquatic creatures that live in the waters of the rainforest. Birds fly free beneath the rainforest’s dome, and there are 1,600 animals in the exhibit.

In addition to the rainforest, the academy also has an aquarium, a planetarium and a natural history museum. Admission is $34.95 for adults, $24.95 for children, and $29.95 for youths, students and seniors.

Each of these locations offers special educational events or tours every day they are open. For additional visitor information, including special events, check out the websites below or make a phone call:

Fresno Chaffee Zoo: www.fresnochaffeezoo.org – (559) 498-5920.

Monterey Bay Aquarium: www.montereybayaquarium.org – (831) 648-4800.

Cat Haven: cathaven.com – (559) 338-3216.

California Academy of Sciences: www.calacademy.org – (415) 379-8000.

Oakland Zoo: www.oaklandzoo.org – (510) 632-9525.

Sacramento Zoo: www.saczoo.org – (916) 808-5888.

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Northern California zoos can make easy day trips."