Feb. 9: Columbia has a lovely little zoo on the shore of the Saluda River, very close to the RV park. This is probably worth a full day visit during the season that the botanical garden is blooming or for those with kids who want to try some of the attractions such as the climbing wall. 
This zoo is really a mix of zoo, aviary, aquarium and botanical garden.
We got to the zoo just in time for feeding the gorillas. This is done right by the viewing port, so the gorillas are very close to the audience – they do not seem to mind. The zoo has two large males, kept in different parts of the enclosure. One of them had all the toys and the other had all the females.
A unique thing in this zoo is that the public are allowed to feed the giraffes and the lorakeets. The giraffes have a specific feeding time, and for $2, you can get a bucket of greens and hand-feed. Some very small children were doing this when we were there and the giraffes seemed very gentle.
The lorakeets are in a large netted cage. If you go in with a small container of nectar, they land on your arms, shoulders, head …
The zoo has a few animals we have not seen before. The fishing cat is a bit bigger than a domestic cat and is native to Asia. 
When we were there it was wading in its pool and chasing minnows (very successfully). There was also beautiful tiny wild cat from Africa, the black-footed cat.
The koalas were busy being role-models for how we should be spending our time – i.e. they were peacefully curled up and sleeping.
The flamingos were starting their courting season, so there was a lot of activity – some birds (presumably the females) were doing a lot of splashing and fluffing out of wings and feathers. Others (presumable the males) were dancing around with wings fully spread to show the full glory of their pink and gray coloration.
We decided that it would be worthwhile to get a zoo membership, as it would give us multiple entries to this zoo (if we come back to enjoy the garden later in the season) and 50% of the cost of entry to many other zoos and aquariums elsewhere.