No. The answer is unequivocally no.
I love, love, love the zoo. My knowledge of zoos stem from trips to Chester Zoo as a child, watching Madagascar so many times I can quote pretty much the whole thing and an extensive knowledge of zoo planning, building and maintenance on Zoo Tycoon. I've long been overdue a trip to the zoo, and nothing felt more appropriate an occasion than my 22nd birthday.
During June and July, London Zoo stays open after-hours every Friday for Zoo Lates: the incredibly popular adults-only evening where you can experience all the normal thrills of the zoo - the animals, the keeper talks, the feeding times - but with the added bonus of an international street food festival, silent disco, acoustic music and improv comedy sets. I've been dying to go for ages but haven't had the chance, so set about persuading all my favourite people to come to London last weekend to celebrate my birthday at the zoo.
It turns out close friends and cute animals are a winning combination, and Zoo Lates was one of the best evenings out I've had in forever! Despite forecasts of intense rain we arrived at the zoo and joined the queue in beautiful sunshine. Coming from Camden Town tube station, we stopped at the first entrance we came to - it's smaller than the main entrance and from what we heard the queue was a lot smaller. As such, when we got in really quickly and this side of the zoo was really quiet.
Zipping through the bag searches we grabbed maps and set about coming up with a plan to see as much as possible. There's something quite special about seeing the signs for different animals that immediately turns you into a child again.
The obvious thing to do was to go and explore. The pictures that follow are a little blurry as trying to juggle a drink and not drop my phone in the enclosures while buzzing with excitement proved a bit of a challenge!
First stop: the otters.
A cheeky meerkat or two…
And the lemurs, who made everyone in the vicinity start singing "I like to move it, move it" in their heads, or out loud in a couple of cases!
We then went inside the 'Night Life' area to visit the bats, eyes eventually adjusting to the dark to see the vampire-esque creatures hanging from the ceiling of their enclosure.
The next stop was back indoors, in the incredibly humid Rainforest Life.
Here we saw London's only living rainforest, home to creatures including monkeys, sloths, armadillos and a tamandua that came for a walk around our feet.
Continuing along the south part of the zoo, and after a quick stop at the Safari Bar, we headed Into Africa.
London Zoo seems particularly proud of their Pygmy Hippos - Thug and Nicky - and have splashed out on a new enclosure with a fancy hippo hot tub. That was a little boring, but spotting one of them outside more than made up for it! I have no idea which one it was, but this pygmy hippo looked pretty much identical to the statue of one outside the enclosure due to its shiny, tough looking skin, which was a little bizarre. I'm no animal expert, but I'm now a bit of a fan of these!
Moving on, we came across the giraffes - Melman is my favourite character in Madagascar, so this was particularly fun!
Around the corner were a couple of zebras, and we were lucky enough to see the back end of an okapis. Lovely.
Having now seen all the animals in this tiny section of the zoo, we took the plunge and travelled north through an underground tunnel and straight into the Reptile House. I always find these types of places super creepy and hate the moment of absolute panic when you can't spot a poisonous snake in its enclosure. Logically you know it's there, but I'm always convinced it's just escaped and is hiding in my bag for me to discover at home later. Luckily that wasn't the case, but we made sure not to tap the glass just to be extra careful.
After a trip through Gorilla Kingdom we moved to the main attraction: Tiger Territory.
Everyone was scrambling to see the completely adorable baby tigers. Sumatran tiger Melati gave birth to triplets in February, which have proved a vital addition to the international breeding programme that aims to help this critically endangered species. We spotted one outside, and it was just as cute as all the cooing from the crowd suggested.
It was here that one woman walking past declared: "If Matthew McConaughey were to take you on a date, this is where he'd take you."
By this stage we were getting peckish, so darted around the Komodo dragons - spotting Raja, who had a starring role in Skyfall - and a couple of Galapagos tortoises.
Then we discovered the street food festival and silent dance-off area. In the centre of the zoo there was a giant circle of mouthwatering smelling stalls selling everything from burritos to Thai food to hot dogs. Deciding was difficult but after a couple of shots of wine from the roaming Bordeaux women we managed to pick food and settle by the penguins for a picnic.
By the stage it was past many animals' bedtime, but the penguins were being rebellious and staying up late to party too.
We wrapped up the evening with a final drink and watching Georgi and Yolanda embrace their inner children in a wheelbarrow race, before finishing up in the gift shop (where else?).
Moral of the story - don't go into a zoo gift shop when a little tipsy and giddy after an evening spent in amazing company. You will revert to being a five year old, have an impromptu puppet show in the middle of the shop and end up buying cuddly toys you don't need but can't bear to leave behind.
What a night! I'd highly recommend Zoo Lates, and if you're quick there are still tickets available for the last few Fridays in July and a couple in August. It's ridiculously cheap too and such good value for money - an ideal and unique way to spend a summer evening in London.
This was the perfect birthday celebration for me, combining so many of my favourite things with the most wonderful of people: I'm already mentally planning a trip next summer! We didn't have time to meet the monkeys, see the aardvarks or admire the lions, so there are clearly no excuses not to go back again…
*****
Zoo Lates have tickets remaining from Friday 4th July onwards but they're selling fast. You can find more information and buy tickets here, and learn more about London Zoo here.
ZSL London Zoo
Regent's Park
London
NW1 4RY
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