I asked a friend of mine for some advice regarding “stuff to see in Vegas” and among her recommendations was to check out the MGM Tigers, along with a mention of tigers at the Mirage. Animals in Vegas? Cool! So I went searching for what other kinds of animals could be found in Vegas and learned that there were also dolphins and a couple aquariums!
On Monday our first stop was Mirage where there is Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. First on the tour was the dolphins!
One of the great things about these exhibits is that despite it being in Las Vegas, there wasn’t any kind of cheap dolphin show – instead it really is a dolphin habitat which is used for research, the animals don’t do tricks or shows. We did manage to catch one of the handlers while he was feeding and doing some health checks on them, so we were able to ask questions and hear them do their cute dolphin noises.
Then it was on to see the big cats! Of course there were a few white tigers…
And a tiger who quite enjoyed a short bathe in the 100+ Vegas summer weather.
Both of these exhibits were completely outdoors and probably took an hour to thoroughly walk through, take pictures, read signs… It was hot, but the shade at the exhibit where the big cats are was a lifesaver. In all, very enjoyable! There is also a separate Aquarium at Mirage but we decided against visiting that aquarium on this visit.
We took the Las Vegas Monorail to get to Mirage, and the Mandalay-Excalibur Tram to get around that day, and as part of that journey we walked through the MGM Grand, where there was a Lion Habitat!
Tuesday morning it was off to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay!
The only fish that held still so I could take a picture:
A very cool octopus that I also got a very cool video of as it decided to wander across the tank (usually when I see them they’re sleeping!):
And the aquarium also had a Komoto Dragon!
But the real big exhibit of this aquarium was the huge shark tank that included fish, sea turtles and lots of sharks. Photos didn’t really come out, but I did take a nice video which got quite the sampling of the critters in the exhibit in less than a minute!
We took the audio tour when we went through the aquarium, so it took about an hour or so, including the stopping for pictures and petting the rays. The aquarium does start outdoors, but then you go down and inside the main aquarium part where it’s not too hot.
In addition to the short octopus and the shark tank videos above, I also took a couple others:
Rays at Mandalay Bay
Jellyfish at Mandalay Bay
So, now that I’ve seen all the animals in Vegas, what will I do next time? It’s tempting to stay at the Mirage and see the kitties and dolphins again…