The showstoppers of my first ever visit to High Park Zoo were the handsome and shaggy West Highland Cattle. It was a very pleasant shock to see these gorgeous beasts that I’d fallen hard for in Scotland here in Toronto.

This video from Friends of High Park Zoo gives a great overview of this popular community attraction and resource (including some footage of the Highland Cattle).

The zoo also features massive Bison, which gladdened my Colorado-heart, along with Reindeer, Mouflon Sheep, Barbary Sheep, Peacocks, Yaks, Emus, Llamas, and those famous Capybaras (“Bonnie and Clyde”), which made a run for it a few years ago, but returned with three pups!

Chris Bateman’s Blog TO article, What High Park Used to Look Like in Toronto, shares some outstanding City of Toronto Archives photos of the zoo, which was established in 1893, when a deer paddock was added.

I love that you can enter the zoo, which pretty much runs up and down both sides of a single pedestrian-only road, anytime, for free (though donations are welcome) from 7 a.m. to dusk. There are plenty of park benches, so you could sit and hang out with the Highland Cattle or other animals for an extended period of time. The many children I saw there were having a ball too, learning about the animals, right here in the city. A special place.

High Park Zoo is museum no. 34 in my #100museums challenge (see 100 Museums Challenge).