Then we drove to the Sonora-Arizona Desert Museum, a 98-acre museum and zoo founded in 1952. It features 2 miles of walking paths on 21 acres of this desert landscape. It is home to 230 animal species and 1,200 varieties of plants. We spent the afternoon exploring the trail and seeing all the different types of animals and plants that inhabit the desert climate. We went to the venomous reptile show and saw for the first time the Gila Monster reptile. Another interesting animal was the Javeline, a distant relative of the pig and possibly the hippopotamus family.
The highlight of the zoo was the Raptor Free Flight show. For about 20 minutes we enjoyed watching up close a Grey Hawk, a Barn Owl, Peregrine Falcons and Harris Hawks flying over head from tree to tree. We learned that the Peregrine Falcon can fly up to 240 mph, it’s the fastest animal.
