City of … animals? Ryan Gosling and his longtime love, Eva Mendes, brought their two daughters, Esmeralda, 2, and Amada, 10 months, to Jungle Island in Miami for a private tour on Saturday, March 18.
The family of four was given a behind-the-scenes look at the popular wildlife and botanical park during an Ultimate Jungle Trek tour, a source tells Us Weekly. Gosling, 36, and Mendes, 43, were spotted interacting with several animals, including Mama Cass, one of the few tame cassowaries in the world.
The movie stars, who are animal lovers, also touched the white down collar of an Andean condor bird, helped feed a group of alligators and came face-to-face with two-toed sloths, lemurs, a capuchin monkey and giant Aldabra tortoises.
Mendes even had the opportunity to chat with Ace, a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig that was born in Hialeah, Florida, and responds to commands in Spanish.
Esmeralda and Amada had a blast during the tour, too. The staff at Jungle Island graciously presented the young girls with a pink painting created by a 13-year-old orangutan and cancer survivor named Peanut.
The family’s outing came just two days after the Lost River actress made her first public appearance in six months at the grand opening of the New York & Company store at Miami’s Dadeland Mall. In a recent interview, she revealed the reason why she often skips Hollywood events and chose not to accompany Gosling to awards shows in support of his Oscar-winning musical La La Land.
“What people don’t know about me is that I love being home,” Mendes told Shape magazine in her April 2017 cover story interview. “Instead of hitting the red carpet, I’d rather be with our girls.”
