Seeing the elephants made me a little sad, since the enclosure was fairly small even though it was heated and indoors. They were just so big, and the father elephant kept beating on one of the doors, almost like he wanted to be let out. The raccoons and the birds I saw, on the other hand, did not seem to care at all that they were enclosed. They had food and a home, so they were veryy happy. Besides the elephants, I didn't really see too many animals that I had never seen before, though it was interesting to me that the Russians had different names for some of the animals. For example, the American flamingo in Russian is literally translated to the "red flamingo".
The elephants were Indian Elephants, so they are native to India, and hence the need for a warmer environment. If only the wooly mammoth could come back, so Russia could have its own elephants! I found out that raccoons only live in America! I was actually surprised to hear this, since animals such as squirrels aren't found only in America, but this is the case with raccoons. Emus live in Australia, the land where everything is out to get you, hence why they're so big and mean.
Elephants have adapted a giant nose extension called a trunk to feed and water themselves since they don't have any hands and it's hard for them to bend over due to their weight. Raccoons are scavengers, which is why they love to go digging in our garbage cans. They kind of act like cats, though I wouldn't go near one! Finally, emus are very large birds that lay only a small number of eggs, so they protect them with their lives.
