Remembering Ivan: Our Trip to the Atlanta Zoo

On October 30, 2012, we took a field trip to the Atlanta Zoo to see where the real Ivan, who inspired The One and Only Ivan, spent twenty years of his life.. We rode on a charter bus to the zoo. On the charter bus we could watch TV, eat snacks, and play our hand held consoles. We watched a zoo movie. Through all of these things, we were excited about arriving in Atlanta and seeing the gorilla habitat.

When we got to the entrance, we saw different pictures of animals which was like a preview of the amazing things to come. The zoo was amazing! We saw so many amazing animals. We saw flamingos, elephants, tigers, lions, meercats, pandas, bears, and gorillas.

Then we went to the Gorilla Habitat which is the largest in North America. It was feeding time in the different habitats. They have eighteen gorillas. In Habitat 1, one of the momma gorillas had a baby on its back. Many of them would run and pound on their chests to get attention. We learned that if a little boy gorilla is born, it will turn into a Silverback when they grow up.

Ivan was a real gorilla. He was born in Central Africa. He was taken in from the wild and to a mall. The docent could tell us all about Ivan's life. He lived there for twenty years after living for almost thirty years in a cage at a mall in Tacoma, Washington. He really did paint, but the zoo had to agree not to sell any of his paintings. They are now teaching all of the gorillas how to paint and sign their name with a thumbprint, just like Ivan. There is a habitat dedicated to Ivan's life with a memorial. It was nice to learn all about his life at the zoo.

Kinyani was really Ivan's girlfriend. She lived at the Atlanta Zoo, but has been moved to the Columbus, Ohio Zoo. She used to hide beside the observation house and then when it was full of people, she would run in front and hit on all of them windows as she ran by. Everyone would jump and screams and then she would look over her shoulder and cover her mouth like she was saying, "Did I do something?"

We took many photos at the zoo and we turned them into a Trip Wow. We really hope you enjoy "travelling" with us to visit the real home of "The One and Only Ivan."

   

The Atlanta Zoo Slideshow: Mrs.’s trip to Atlanta was created with TripAdvisor TripWow!