Up close with nature: three interactive zoo adventures

With air-conditioned shopping centers on practically every corner, it’s easy to forget there are other ways to spend your weekend. But do you ever feel like you’ve seen too many malls? The next time you’re looking for a family-friendly day out, try these educational, interactive zoos, which are exciting enough to make your kids find the outdoors fun again.   Zoocobia Fun Zoo Clark, Subic   Think of Zoocobia as a zoo meets outdoor theme park. There’s a Bird Trail, which lets visitors feed a series of exotic birds, as well as an area devoted to horseback riding. Kids can also use baby bottles to feed goats and interact with trained lovebirds—if your family’s looking for a pet, you can even purchase the lovebirds that your family liked best!   Zoocobia has gravity cars, slides, and a garden maze where the first kid to find his or her way out of the labyrinth receives a prize. Our kiddie reviewers liked how attentive the staff was, saying they learned a lot from the lectures and felt safe because zoo staff were always there to assist.   After your zoo adventure, unwind with Zoocobia’s in-house restaurant, which serves burgers, spaghetti and baby back ribs!   Paradizoo Farm Mendez, Tagaytay   Paradizoo Farm isn’t your ordinary zoo. It’s a real farm teeming with vegetables, flowers, and farm animals, and most of the activities are based on everyday farm life.  At Paradizoo, visitors can feed the animals or even help milk the goats!   This was a big hit with our kiddie reviewers—they learned that milking a goat does not hurt the animal at all but actually relieves the pressure felt by the goat when there’s too much milk in its body. Interactions such as these might help city kids feel more comfortable around animals. Each interaction comes at an additional P20 fee.   There’s also a bee farm and butterfly farm in Paradizoo, where visitors can learn trivia about insects. And even adults will enjoy is Paradizoo’s fish spa, where doctor fish nip at the dead skin of your feet. It’s a tingling, ticklish experience that had the kids screaming in surprise, but for adults, it’s quite relaxing.   Ark Avilon Zoo Frontera Verde Ortigas Avenue Corner C-5, Pasig Inspired by the Biblical story about Noah, Ark Avilon Zoo is an indoor zoo housed in a building shaped like a massive ark. According to its website, it is the only indoor interactive zoo in the Philippines. If the name “Avilon” sounds familiar, it’s because they’re affiliated with the sprawling Avilon Zoo in Montalban, one of the Philippines’ leading zoos. Ark Avilon can thus be seen as a capsule zoo—a place where you can experience the wild   At Ark Avilon Zoo, you can interact with the zoo’s ‘wildlife ambassadors’:Jenny the Bornean Orangutan, Ayla the Palawan Bearcat, Bibo the Philippine Eagle Owl, Aring & Kring the Philippine Red-Vented Cockatoos, Tyson the Burmese Python, Arthur the Old English Sheepdog, and Goya & Ash the Shetland Ponies.   Kids will also enjoy the Ark Avilon’s Farmland Fun Feeding Station, where they can feed rabbits, guinea pigs and sheep. Parents will love it too, because the interactive activities are covered by the entrance fee—no additional charge!