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Geotagged photos by MJ Klein

Recently we joined reader Stefan and his lovely wife and daughter for a visit to Taiwan’s Green World.

It was a perfect day for walking around: occasionally overcast with the sun not too strong.

First order of business: buy tickets.  Hui-chen gets in line behind Stefan and his wife.

Ticket prices are reasonable.  Of course, Baby Phoenix was admitted for free.

Once you have your ticket you may pass through the entrance.

The first thing that we saw were Macaw parrots.  Now, who doesn’t love parrots?

At the time of our arrival, the parrot show was about to begin.  We walked past some of the food vendors,

and through the gift shop, complete with a dinosaur skeleton.

The parrot show is just ahead.

We entered the show area on the side.  But it was just way too loud here, so we moved to the rear center.

This being Taiwan, of course the sound was cranked up to ear-splitting levels.  I was concerned about Phoenix and her sensitive baby ears.  But she seemed OK with being in the rear of the auditorium.

The parrot show is basically standard stuff, but the birds are cute and quite smart.

This Blue & Gold Macaw is responding to verbal commands in Chinese.

Soon, the trainer had the parrot doing all sorts of cute things.

An all time favorite: bicycle riding on a wire.

No parrot show would be complete without parrot skating!

I found this demonstration very interesting.  The old shell game, with a golf ball hidden under one of the metal cups.

The parrot found the ball right off, every time.

Of course, I have no way of knowing if the bird was really keeping track of the ball, or if the trainer places the ball in the same position every time.  But I must admit that the speed at which the trainer was moving the cups around, it would be hard to keep track of the ball.

Recently, Phoenix learned how to clap her hands, and she often showed her appreciation of the show.

After the parrot show, we walked over to the Alpaca House.

The alpaca is a type of small camel that has been domesticated in a number of South American countries.

The keepers have been creative in  grooming these animals.  This one looks more like a poodle than an alpaca.

We checked out the alpacas for a few minutes and then decided to eat, since it was right around noon time.  This was the BBQ restaurant, but we thought the prices were too high so we ate elsewhere.

I didn’t bother with food photos on this trip, but of course I did take some photos of Phoenix.  She really enjoyed going around to the various places in Green World, and I can recommend this place for families with children.

Back to the exhibits.  We went into a kind of exhibition house, but I forgot the name of the place already called the “Biodiversity Adventure Area” (hat tip to Stefan).  Inside there were quite a number of different interesting animals.

Not everyone likes snakes, especially big ones.  These are behind glass.

I always like tortoises of any kind.  There were quite a number of several varieties on hand.

If I am not mistaken, this is a horn bill.  It was nice and quiet, just posing peacefully on the perch.

More snakes.

More tortoises.

Even more.

I told you they had quite a number of them!

Bearded dragon.

This is a worst-nightmare of a snapping turtle.  This guy is huge!

I was rather amazed at how calm the animals were.  This bird just stood there while I took the photo.

As we headed out the door, I took one last photo in the entrance area.

When we stepped outside, the alpacas were out in the pasture grazing.

Everyone came over to take photos of them.

Phoenix thought they were interesting and they held her attention.

Green World is kind of a big loop that you walk around (or take one of the shuttles).  Along the route we came to the Sky Way, which is an elevated platform for walking through the rain forest.

The above photos show the platform, which is quite high off the ground.  A nice easy loop to walk, the air was cool in the forest.

Continuing on our walk around the loop….

We came to this type of garden.  Notice the signs on the different plant species.  Believe it or not, at the entrance to this area, was a control panel with buttons for English, Chinese and Japanese languages.  You guessed it: there is an audio program that gets blasted throughout speakers placed along the walkway, talking about each species by numbered sign.  At first it was interesting, but after about 10 minutes we just wished it would end.

Audio program notwithstanding, this is a very pleasant walk.

At the end there is a small pond with a trickle of a waterfall.

Going back to the beginning (this is also a loop).

These are restrooms, which follow the decor of the park.

We couldn’t go up here because we had the stroller for Phoenix.  So we have something to check out next time.  The ancient Hakka building sounds interesting.

Here we come to the Bird and Butterfly Ecological Parks.  We went into the Butterfly park first.

Before we even went inside there were butterflies fluttering around.

If you look hard enough, you can see the fine mesh net that covers this exhibit and keeps the butterflies inside.

If you’ve ever wondered how one feeds butterflies, now you know.  There are pieces of fruit placed on these shelves.

The butterfly park is a beautiful, peaceful walk.

This is one of my favorite exhibits: insects that mimic parts of plants.

There are a number of glass cases containing many species of these types of animals.

This one really does look like a leaf.

Next we went into the Bird park where we were greeted by this myna bird who welcomed us in Chinese.

Many species of birds fly around at liberty, however they are kept inside a cage much like the butterflies.

I identified this beautiful bird as a female eclectus, one of the few sexually dimorphic species of parrots.

Stefan identified this critter as a golden pheasant, and he told me they are an introduced species in Europe.  He also said they taste really good!

Getting rather tired by this time, we opted to take the shuttle back to the front of the park.

This shot of Phoenix is the first (and only) time she’s been in a vehicle and not in a car safety seat.  She looks so grown-up in this photo.  Phoenix had a blast at Green World.

Near the entrance, people were posing with these large pelicans.

We took a walk around the corner to see a few things we missed at the beginning, and we again passed these parrots.

These are a type of goat that is common in the Caribbean, but thought to originate in Africa.

And these of course, are Emus.

Finally, it was time to call it a day and head home.  We really enjoyed our trip to Green World, and we look forward to going back again soon because there is much more to see.

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