LEGO Zoo #0010: Jungle Treehouse Playground

This week's playset was completed some time ago, but due to the influx of deadlines right after Spring Break I had to delay posting it by a week.  I present for your consideration a playset within a playset:  a jungle treehouse-themed playground set.

The playground is popular stop for families with small children.  After several hours of running around the zoo, the parents can take take a moment to sit down while their children burn off some energy climbing all over the playground's many features.

Michelle has brought her two children and somehow still has enough energy to push her son Dante on the swingset:

Meanwhile her daughter Erica is carefully making her way across the rope bridge suspended between the main two towers:

Below the bridge is a set of monkey bars, which Dante is attempting to conquer.  He has surprising upper body strength for a child of his age.

One of the favorite features is the helical slide on one side of the playground:

Edith watches from a bench as her grandson Timmy climbs as fast as he can to get to the top of the slide:

It looks like Anna has already beaten him there:

Her father Jim waves to her as she slides down the chute:

Jim is sitting on one of the newly-installed jungle-themed benches.  The bench and accompanying trash can are intended to match the rest of the playground in terms of texture and color scheme:

Hopefully the kids will enjoy their time on the new set:

Minifigures:
Erica, Dante, Michelle, Anna, Jim, Timmy, Edith 

Created with LEGO Digital Designer

LEGO Zoo #0009: Honeybee Hive

This week's playset has been a little delayed because I've had limited access to internet while on Spring Break.  To celebrate the coming of Spring, I've built a set to educate zoo visitors about one of the most important heralds of springtime:  the honeybee:

The European honeybee (Apis mellifera) originated in Europe and Asia and is now widespread throughout Africa and the Americas as well.  Honeybees are important pollinators for many flowering plant species.  They nest in natural crevices in dead trees, so they are easy to domesticate (relative to other bee species) because they can be transferred to an artificial hive box that simulates a natural hive.  This practice is called apiculture, or beekeeping.

Inside the hive, the bees create a strong hexagonal matrix of cells out of beeswax.  The whole structure is called a comb.  It is inside these cells that the bees ferment honey and raise their larvae:

A door on one side of the hive allows staff to access the inside:

On the other side, a plastic tube allows bees to move from the inside of the hive to the outdoors:

Outside the hive, the LEGO Zoo's horticulture department has planted a special flower garden just for the bees.  The bees move between the flowers, collecting pollen and nectar which will be converted to honey in the hive:

In front of the garden is a huge sculpture showing how a bee alights on a flower:

The bee sticks its tongue into the center of the flower and licks up the nectar inside.  The nectar will be transformed into honey through repeated regurgitation.

On the other side of the exhibit is a display showing what happens inside hive:

One side shows developing bee larvae, which are tended by worker bees:

The other side gives information about the process by which honey is formed:

A tunnel through the middle allows zoo guests to pretend that they are inside the hive, helping the bees in their work:

George, the zoo's apiculturist, has to wear a special to protective suit to ward off stings while he is tending the bees:

This set is designed so that the two side displays can be rotated independently around the central hive:

You can have both sculptures flanking the front...

or you can move them both out of the way in the back:

In this latter layout, the two parts fit together so that guests can move seamlessly through the garden into the hive, just as the bees do:

Animals and Minifigures:
bees (4), Kyle, George

Created with LEGO Digital Designer

LEGO Zoo #0008: Keeper Carts

Today's set is small but vitally important for running an efficient zoo.  A zoo can be a big place, and lots of things need to be moved around every day within just a few short hours.  This would be an impossible task on foot, so whenever the keepers need to get something somewhere in a hurry, they hop into one of these golf carts:

Meredith has loaded up her one-man (or one-woman) cart with carrots and lettuce from the nutrition center and is headed to the rabbit hutches in the petting zoo to serve up some breakfast:

Meanwhile, Jack, one of the cat keepers, and Raj, the curator of carnivores, have commandeered a two-person cart:

It looks like they've got a pet carrier in the back.  Keepers need larger carts to transport animals, as the pet carriers may not fit in small carts.

They've picked up a baby Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul) that was in the vet hospital, and they're transporting it back to its enclosure:

Raj is beginning to think maybe he shouldn't let Jack drive next time:

Animals and Minifigures:
Pallas's cat, Meredith, Jack, Raj

Created with LEGO Digital Designer